Suleman Anaya has interviewed Max von Werz for PIN–UP magazine’s 31st print issue. With portrait photography by Rosie Marks. Follow this link to read the full interview.
Quién magazine has featured Max von Werz in their annual list of 50 people that have brought about substantial changes in Mexican society. Follow this link to access the full issue.
Design Hotels™, the curated network of small independently owned design-driven hotels, has published an interview with Max von Werz as part of its series The Design Diaries. Follow this link to read the full interview.
The magazine Architectural Record has published an article by James Gauer on Baja Club Hotel. To read the full article follow this link.
Baja Club Hotel has been featured in the New York Times’ weekly T List.
Excerpt from the article:
The T List: Five Things We Recommend This Week
In Baja California, a Restored 1900s Villa
Set on the Sea of Cortez, in Baja California Sur’s laid-back coastal town of La Paz, is the recently opened Baja Club hotel. Its original structure — an early 20th-century Spanish colonial-style villa — was renovated by the Mexico City-based architect Max von Werz, under the direction of the hotel brand Grupo Habita. The ground floor of the white-lacquered brick building now hosts a lobby, cafe and library, but the most striking addition is a concrete spiral staircase, which was inspired by the sculptural, free-form designs of the Modernist architects Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier and connects the main house to the property’s new four-story annex. The two wings that make up von Werz’s extension house the inn’s 32 guest rooms and suites, each of which opens onto a private patio. Inside, the rooms feature traditional Mexican Talavera ceramic lamps inspired by the work of Luis Barragán; speckled olive-and-alabaster terrazzo floors; and chairs, made of wicker and wood, that were conceived by the Parisian design firm Jaune and produced by the contemporary Mexican artist Claudia Fernández. Guests can unwind at the property’s sauna, Jacuzzi or infinity pool. And in the evenings, Greek-inspired dishes are offered at the hotel restaurant, an outdoor space set below an ivy-covered pergola, while cocktails are served at the rooftop bar. Rooms start at $275, bajaclubhotel.com.
— Michaela Trimble
To read the full article follow this link.
German architecture magazine Baumeister has published online an interview and written critique of our residential extension to a heritage–listed Bavarian barn dating back to the 18th century. Follow this link to read the full article in German.
We are pleased to announce that our adaptive reuse project for Galería OMR, in partnership with Mateo Riestra and José Arnaud Bello, has been commended as part of the 2019 AR New into Old awards, an award for sustainable alternatives to building anew, organized by The Architectural Review.
The project has been published in The Architectural Review’s December/January issue alongside an insightful essay on the project, written by architect and critic Juan Carlos Cano, with photography by Rory Gardiner.
Excerpt from AR’s announcement:
The judging panel were clear that they were looking for intelligent, transformative work. Catherine Slessor posited that the time has come for adaptation to leave its specialist niche, and that as the climate crisis demands sustainable alternatives to new construction, ‘the responsible architect might never build a new building.’ Catherine Slessor explains that Max von Werz, Mateo Riestra & José Arnaud–Bello, architects of OMR Art Gallery in Mexico City, have performed a ‘forensic stripping down of a former record store, calling attention to the Modernist period in Mexican history, with a view to re–situating it in public consciousness’.
To read the full article follow this link.
Intervention in partnership with José Arnaud Bello & Mateo Riestra
Curator: Guadalajara90210
Location: Colonia Santa María la Ribera, Mexico City
Photography: Luis Young
Sponsorship: PRISA pintura
Max von Werz has participated with José Arnaud Bello and Mateo Riestra in ‘Pabellón de las Escaleras’, a group exhibition taking place in an abandoned building with interventions by participants from multiple disciplines including architecture, art and industrial design.
The intervention titled ‘Adaptation of Color Keyboard #12, Polychromie Architecturale’ engages with Le Corbusier’s color system ‘Polychromie Architecturale’ from 1931, a selection of 43 colors organized in 12 different ‘Color Keyboards’. Each of the original keyboards suggests combinations between a selection of colors according to how they are organized on the page. The keyboards have different themes, sometimes suggesting architectural elements onto which they can be applied, or in other cases evoking specific environments or sensations.
Our intervention translates Le Corbusier’s color palette to the standards of commercial paints in Mexico and then adapts the Color Keyboard #12 to the ground floor of the exhibition site. Using the columns as a kind of three-dimensional sample book, the arrangement of the tones in space allows visitors to reconstruct Le Corbusier’s different color combinations while moving through the exhibition.
Max von Werz has been featured in an article by Swiss magazine Werk, Bauen + Wohnen on the culture of collaboration in the Mexican architecture scene. Follow this link for the english text. Follow this link for the german text.
Arquine has published our adaptive reuse project for Galería OMR as part of their yearbook “Mexican Architectures, The Best of the 21st Century”. Follow this link for the book.
We are delighted to have taken part in another collaborative piece initiated and curated by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio for the exhibition ‘Tatiana Bilbao, Perspectivas’ shown at MARCO (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey) and Museo Amparo in Puebla. Our contribution recombines diverse patterns of vertical and horizontal circulation in form of an excavated solid that transcends its simple function of connecting, generating a varied architectural promenade that encourages leisurely exploration and contemplation.
Size: 91 x 19 x 19cm
Physical model: Enrique Salazar
Model photography: Rodrigo Chapa
German architecture magazine Baumeister has published a written critique by Mario Ballesteros on our adaptive reuse project for Galería OMR. Follow this link to read the full article.
Size: 145 x 40 x 20cm
Physical model: Enrique Salazar
Model photography: Rodrigo Chapa
Our contribution to this collaborative piece initiated and curated by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio for the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial recombined diverse patterns of vertical circulation in the form of a monolithic stair that transcends its simple function of connecting by generating a varied architectural promenade that encourages slow leisurely exploration and contemplation.
Tatiana Bilbao Estudio’s description of the collaborative piece: “Our proposal attempts to reconcile vertical urbanization within a tower typology capable of fostering a city’s civic character. Since cities are not the product of a singular vision, but patchworks of spatialized historical layers, the project attempts to emulate this process by subdividing the tower into 192 plots and collaborating with fourteen collaborators – each responsible for designing their own plot while maintaining a connection to neighboring sections. Each piece puts forth a vision for the design of the tower and the construction of a city, realizing a three-dimensional matrix of possibilities.”
The collaborative piece was acquired in 2021 by SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) and taken into its permanent collection.
Max von Werz has contributed with Enrique Giner de los Ríos to Animal magazine with an article on Aby Warburg’s project Mnemosyne Atlas.
Galería OMR has shown the exhibition ‘Sol Lewitt: Instructions for a Pyramid‘. The gallery´s first solo exhibition of works by Sol LeWitt included full–size wall drawings depicting pyramidal structures that rise as a conceptual, vibrantly-colored Pre–Hispanic city. They serve as both an investigation of line and geometry and a reference to Mexican culture.
It has been a great pleasure for us as architects to be able to revisit the space every few months and to find it completely transformed by the gallery’s ambitious curatorial vision.
Architectural project in partnership with Mateo Riestra & José Arnaud Bello
Photography by Enrique Macias Martinez
Max von Werz has contributed as guest editor and author to an edition of the magazine Baumeister dedicated entirely to architecture in Mexico. The issue includes writings on work by Ambrosi Etchegaray, Tadao Ando, Fernanda Canales, Frida Escobedo, Rozana Montiel, Productora, Benjamín Romano, Rzero and Tezontle. Writing in collaboration with Enrique Giner de los Ríos & Luis Orozco Madero. Purchase the full german language epaper by following this link.
Juan Benavides has completed a short film on Galería OMR as part of his project FILMATICA. Follow this link to access the short film.
Max von Werz had the opportunity to participate in 2014 in the production of an exhibition on the architecture of his grandfather Helmut von Werz.
As one of the great architects of the reconstruction of Munich, Helmut von Werz left a lasting imprint on the city during his life. The spirit of post-war architecture is visible in the impressive body of work that he created with his partners Johann Christoph Ottow, Erhard Bachmann and Michel Marx; work which was defined by moderation and preservation, while remaining receptive to the influence of the avant-garde.
Several buildings designed by the firm were the object of controversy at their time due to their modernity and use of new materials. This was the case with the new building for the State Archaeological Collection in Munich, which was one of the first buildings to be realised with an envelope made of weathering Corten steel.
Helmut von Werz
Ein Architektenleben – An Architect’s Life 1912-1990
Exhibition at Architekturgalerie, Munich
Curator: Cordula Rau
Exhibition design: Heinz Hiltbrunner & Max von Werz
Physical models: Enrique Salazar & Max von Werz
Photography: Florian Holzherr, Simon Schels & Rainer Viertlboeck
Max von Werz had the opportunity to participate in 2014 in the production of this first architect’s monograph on his grandfather Helmut von Werz.
As one of the great architects of the reconstruction of Munich, Helmut von Werz left a lasting imprint on the city during his life. The spirit of post-war architecture is visible in the impressive body of work that he created with his partners Johann Christoph Ottow, Erhard Bachmann and Michel Marx; work which was defined by moderation and preservation, while remaining receptive to the influence of the avant-garde.
Several buildings designed by the firm were the object of controversy at their time due to their modernity and use of new materials. This was the case with the new building for the State Archaeological Collection in Munich, which was one of the first buildings to be realised with an envelope made of weathering Corten steel.
Helmut von Werz
Ein Architektenleben – An Architect’s Life 1912-1990
Edited by Cordula Rau & Georg von Werz
Published in 2014 by the publishing house Birkhäuser
Contemporary colour photography by Florian Holzherr and Rainer Viertlböck
Graphic design by Heinz Hiltbrunner
