Casa Del Atrio / San Ángel
Mexico City, January 2025
CASA DEL ATRIO – The Container and What it Contains
In lieu of a physical exhibition, a new photography project by Alejandro Ramirez Orozco showcases contemporary design pieces by makers working in a variety of media all over Mexico.The set of 25 pictures was curated by Ramirez Orozco and shot in a house of rare artisticsignificance designed by a key but overlooked figure of modern Mexican architecture.
“Being an architect is a presence in life, a way of being. My architecture has an emotionalcomponent, like poetry.” These are the words of Antonio Attolini Lack, who was born in 1931 inCiudad Juarez, Mexico, and went on to become a member of an exceptional generation ofarchitects who in the mid-20th-century adapted the language of modernism to their territory withrare ingenuity. Attolini's creative output spanned two distinct phases. The first, from the late1950s to 1967, produced paradigmatic International Style steel-and-glass dwellings in Jardinesdel Pedregal, an area in the south of Mexico City known for its dramatic volcanic landscape.Such early works were characterized by their graphic horizontality and lightness.
A second productive period, which took its cues from local sources like colonial cloisters andMexico’s abundant high-level craftsmanship, began with Attolini's design of the Santa Cruzchurch, also in El Pedregal. If the architect's previous era was dominated by slender lines andlow-slung buildings, his mature phase is marked by thick slabs of mass, crisp angles and tallsections, as well as sensually rich, generously scaled empty space. In these works, carefullysequenced geometric volumes create enticing plays of light and shadow, all while carving outmodulated spaces for living, both interior and outdoor. During this phase, Attolini also became adeft colorist, using precise shades to accentuate his masterful handling of light and space.
Built in 1990 in the capital’s charming San Ángel neighborhood, Casa del Atrio falls into Attolini'slatter stage. Large openings –to gardens, small interior patios and the atrium that gives theresidence its name– flood a diversely-shaped assortment of ample, high-ceilinged rooms withnatural light. Throughout the house, Attolini-designed custom cabinetry in lacquered pinewoodis an integral part of the architecture, while fireplaces and bookshelves seem to be chiseled outof expansive, whitewashed walls. Notably, the architect insisted on designing every detail, downto the home’s door handles. As a holistically conceived work of art, Casa del Atrio exemplifies itsauthor's singular blend of luminous, sophisticated complexity and almost monastic simplicity.
“Interiors fascinate me – there has to be a coherence between the container and what itcontains,” Attolini said in the same interview. It’s a sentiment shared by Alejandro RamirezOrozco. Struck by its impressive dimensions, thoughtful details, scenographic partitions andframed tableaus, as well as by its bold shapes and assured palette, the 32-year-old design andinteriors photographer found in Attolini’s San Ángel masterpiece the perfect setting to realize along-envisioned personal project. Ramirez Orozco’s excitement upon discovering Casa del Atriomakes sense: The little-known house is resolutely Mexican but not clichéd, full of stunningtextures and vistas without being extravagant, sprawling yet intimate and disarmingly soulful.
The collaborative project spearheaded by the photographer presents 25 pieces by 13 designers,all of whom work across various regions of Mexico in a broad range of materials and techniques. Ramirez Orozco photographed their works in different nooks of the labyrinthianhouse –from its soaring main sitting room, mysterious staircases and enchanting large gardento its endless de Chirico-esque corridors and terraces and of course the focal atrium with itsochre, slate blue and yoke yellow walls. Some items were especially designed for the project or,in a few cases, the specific corner of the house where they would be photographed — otherswere adapted from pre-existing prototypes.
The photographed works encompass sculptural as well as two-dimensional pieces, varying degrees of functionality, and surfaces both smooth –thanks to, say, a special enamel– and textured –courtesy, in one instance, of volcanic earth. There are rugs, lamps, vessels, chairs and tables, among other typologies. Some designs echo the house’s geometric segments, blocky furniture and idiosyncratic color scheme. What all items have in common are involved processes to transform matter –whether organic or industrial; regardless if rubber, clay, wool, metal, wood, or sisal– into novel form. Ramirez Orozco’s main criterion was how the pieces existed with each other and in relation to the house — or as Attolini would put it, a coherence between his walls and what is placed inside them. In some of the images, this proportional harmony between space and objects is conveyed through a human figure dressed in simple garments whose neutral hues and primary shapes recall the home they inhabit.
The project afforded Ramirez Orozco complete creative freedom from beginning to end.Meticulous care went into positioning the chosen objects in the house; in order to blur longvanishing points and create a flattened pictorial plane, the photographer employed a telephotolens; the methodical approach extended to the editing of the images, during which contrasts,shadows and linear congruences were emphasized, giving the images a surprising, almosttactile depth. The resulting series, composed of two dozen images, establishes dialoguesbetween each piece and its surroundings, as forms and textures bounce off and reinforce eachother. In addition, unexpected rapports between architecture, color, light, and objects thatemerged on the day of the shoot by happenstance now enhance the final ensemble.
For years, Ramirez Orozco has been honing the particular visual signature of his work, an abilityto transmit the spiritual essence of a room in a picture. It seems pertinent that his new projectwas shot in spaces so resonant with the spirit of their author, a man who believed in theessential emotional quality his designs could conjure. At Casa del Atrio, the container and itscontents completely cohere – in space, time and in 25 indelible photographic compositions.
SULEMAN ANAYA, Ciudad de México, 2025
