Mexico City-based Communal

The female force behind Mexico City-based practice Comunal discusses how participatory design empowers communities, why architecture education should be more inclusive, and what it takes to work within their country’s economic and political contexts.

Trained at the Autonomous University of Yucatán in Mexico, Mariana Ordóñez Grajales started Comunal in 2015, but it wasn’t until 2017 that her current partner Jesica Amescua Carrera joined. They met while teaching as part of a workshop on Regenerative Architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana, led by colleague and mutual friend Juan Casillas. During their first joint project – the Rural Productive School, a prime example of the studio’s participatory design approach – they hit it off and have been allies ever since. ‘It was pure magic!’ says Ordóñez Grajales. ‘I had previously tried to find an associate, but was never able to find someone with the same visions and goals. I believe much of the success of our alliance is the horizontal relationship. That would never have been possible with a man in the patriarchal context of Latin America.’

Although the duo’s office is in Mexico City, the real work happens in the country’s rural areas, where they collaborate with local communities to improve habitability.

You are a women-run studio in a country that I feel has been a springboard for quite some strong female-led offices – from Frida Escobedo, Gabriela Carrillo and Fernanda Canales to Tatiana Bilbao. What’s the secret?

MARIANA ORDÓÑEZ GRAJALES: Resistance! In our professional life we face daily challenges for being young women, such as mansplaining, sexual harassment and not being given the same credit as our male colleagues. Beyond our personal experience, our country is facing a level of violence against women never seen before. In 2019 there were almost 3,000 victims of femicide in our country; in December alone there was one every 27 hours. Being a woman in Mexico is resistance. Being a woman who works in a highly patriarchal industry is resistance. From Comunal we shout #VivasNosQueremos! #NiUnaMás! (#LiveWeWant! #NotOneMore!).

Besides the issues you face as females, what are the other challenges that come with starting an architecture practice in Mexico City?

MOG: In our case, the challenges already started during our academic years. It became evident that there is quite a hegemonic vision of the role of the architect. We are taught that we, as architects, are the only holders of great ideas and solutions to habitability problems, which completely excludes other types and sources of knowledge. We are rigorously taught the technical and artistic side of architecture – form, function, composition, spatial relationships, construction details and so on.

But the human aspects – from cultural identity to people’s ideals and aspirations – are often overlooked. To us these are the most relevant.

JESICA AMESCUA CARRERA: It was a battle to find an academic discourse that approached architecture as a participatory social process that arises from the exchange of knowledge between different actors, not only academics. One that would recognize the vast amount of building skill that the native cultures of our country possess. But we experienced, with great disappointment, the rejection of some professors who refused to tutor projects that addressed participatory and sociocultural aspects in architecture.

So the academic landscape – especially architectural courses – can be limiting?

MOG: Yes and this is directly impacting the social and professional aspects of life. In Mexico there is a very large economic inequality. Very few have the privilege of going to university and there is only a small social circle that has the contacts to develop those great architectural projects taught in classrooms – think museums, hospitals and large residential developments.

JAC: So, why do we continue to train architecture students for the economic reality of a select few? We believe that both universities and professional practices should include and recognize the diverse economic, political and cultural realities that exist in our country. Today, 70 per cent of the homes in Mexico are built without technical advice and through self-construction processes. Our practice focuses on improving habitability in local rural communities, and we do so through collaborative design processes.