Enorme Studio. A colorful canopy inspired by Mexican popular culture

Taller del Desierto is the name of the workshop held by Enorme Studio, in collaboration with students from the ISAD Instituto Superior de Arquitectura y Diseño de Chihuahua, in the Santa Cecilia district of Chihuahua, Mexico. The Spanish practice continues its research on urban and civil infrastructures: devices that favor civil action and the renewal of marginal public spaces. The work was preceded by a careful work of listening and conceiving a common imaginary together with the different social groups that populate the neighborhood: an association of Mariachis, the faithful of a nearby church, children and teenagers playing at the park and parents who observe them.

From the first phase of analysis, the shared need to create a large shaded space for public performances and socialisation emerged. The project is inspired by the alebrije, typical Mexican folklore figures, totemic and colorful animals from which derive the geometric patterns and the bright shades of the pavilion. The project presents a metal structure that supports a canopy, with seats and beds of hollow bricks, whose arrangement and composition was created by the inhabitants of the neighborhood.