WORKS
SCENIC GARDENC294 APT
DL1310 APT
PAVILION ( )
Z53 SOCIAL HOUSING
THREE MUSEUMS AND A PARK
ODP APT
DUBAI CREEK HARBOUR
TL 2816LEÓN SOCIAL HOUSING
C356
CHAPULTEPEC 500
M193 APT
AL APT
HIYA
TORRE F44
OKU
ART WELLNESS RETREAR
ZD ATP
TORRE INSURGENTES
OKU PEDREGAL
P1 APT
CASA 11
OSTRERÍA 109
S20
G120
C47
FERRY TERMINAL
DL 5155 APT
HC APT
LUMA CAFÉ
JD LANDSCAPE
SPORTS CENTER
AVT APT
LP NO. 12
ARCHIVO PAVILION
SCHOOL IN TULUM
HANGING OBJECTS
ROBATA WINEBAR
LINEAR PARK
QUASI THING
IKZA
PAU SCHOOL OF ARCH.
SLIGHTLY FAMILIAR
JV APT
RESTAURANT IN TULUM
HOTEL IN SRI LANKA
IV APOTHECARY
IV APOTHECARY TJ
MAYORGA ROOFTOP
SANTA MARÍA APT
2875 APT
CONGRESO APT
PLI
ANAMUR SOCIAL CENTER
BOLICHE MARSELLA
TRIPAS SONORAS
SHOA MEMORIAL
BLUE RUIN
ÇANAKKALE ANTENNA
SPORTS COMPLEX
CH430 APT
E33 APT
TL2888 APT
PSA APT
EXPLORATIONS
VANISHING CONCRETEBRICK ORNAMENTS
CONCRETE HYPAR
STUCCO HATCHES
TERRAZZO
TRAVERTINE EXTRUSIONS
BOOLEAN TOTEM
WICKER GLITCH LAMPMATERIAL PAINT
FLOWERS
SYMMETRIES
DIGITAL PAINT
ABOUT
PEOPLE
CORE SERVICES
NEWS
CONTACT
SCENIC GARDEN
CHAPULTEPEC
In 2022, Michan Architecture with Parabase and Taller de Paisaje Entorno won an national design competition for three new pavilions and a landscape project in Chapultepec Park, one of the largest and old parks in Latin America. Most of the project’s mass is generated from reusing the site's own resources and respecting pre-existing trees and minimizing waste.
The site concept and planning strategy was clear: land free of trees would be dug out and utilized to transform the site into a landscape of low hills and lakes. This topographic complexity generates a series of public spaces of intimate scale, favoring multiple outdoor activities. At the same time, the topography itself allows for the necessary acoustic and visual protection in the areas that require it. The intervention minimizes its impact on existing ecosystems while creating new ecosystems and microenvironments across five distinct areas. The first area focuses on reforestation with a variety of trees like Pines, Oyameles, and Oaks as part of the forest recovery program. The second area, situated in sunny hills, features xerophyte-stony vegetation requiring less water. Pollinator gardens are proposed in the prairie area with abundant sunlight, connected by routes to other parts of the program, while understory gardens thrive in shaded areas with existing trees. Lastly, intermittent water gardens associated with bodies of water form the fifth group, contributing to the lacustrine-riparian ecosystem. The topography of the project also facilitates the management of the water resources of the site, being possible to store them in the generated ponds. The small variations in height of the terrain naturally produce diverse scenarios that favor biodiversity.
The architecture of Scenic Garden comprises the Auditorium, Rehearsal and Cafeteria Pavilions follows two main strategies to: 1) integrate and maximize the use of the soil and landscape into the function use of the program and 2) create a minimal gesture in defining each unique use. Each pavilion diminishes the boundaries between architecture and landscape, between interior and exterior, inviting people to experience and participate in what’s happening.
To maximize privacy and acoustics, auxiliary program is integrated into the low hills, creating open collaborative and flexible spaces with nature as the backdrop. inside the hills, ensuring the functionality of the Pavilions while enjoying nature as a backdrop. Atop the Auditorium Pavilion, the performative roofs rests on the landscape and creates a destination for the community to experience the new cultural and natural laboratory in the heart of the city.
Beyond their spaces, the pavilions generate life that multiples potential and impact for generating unexpected programs and contributing to the civic and cultural discourse of Mexico City.
Location: Bosque de Chapultepec, Mexico City
Type: Park and Auditorium, Rehearsal, Cafeteria Pavilions
Size: Park 70,000 sqm / 7 hectares / 17 acres
Auditorium Pavilion 1,120 sqm/ 12,055 sqft,
Rehearsal Pavilion 560 sqm/ 6,027 sqft
Cafeteria Pavilion 375 sqm/ 4,036 sqft
Status: Built, 2024; Competition First Prize, 2022; Groundbreaking, 2023
Team:
Michan Architecture/ Isaac Michan Daniel, Alexandra Bové, Narciso Martinez, Fernando Gomez, Juan Pablo Salas, Indira Fernández, Fernando Alamilla, Jose Perez, Sonia Mendez, Ximena Ibarra, Ricardo Marentes, Gerardo Guevara
Parabase/ Carla Ferrando Costansa, Pablo Garrido Arnaiz
Landscape: Taller de Paisaje/ Entorno Tonatiuh Martínez, Alejandra Aguirre, Karen Michelle, Alexa Martinez, Miranda Elizabeth Inman, Gisela Reyna Miranda, Zaid Puente, Theo Cozzi, Perla Flores, Gustavo Adolfo Huelva
Landscape Engineering: Taller de Ingenieria y Diseño/ Juan Ansberto Cruz, Javier Garcia
Theater Consultancy: Theater Projects/ Jules Lauve, Scott Crossfield
diseñOteatral/ Itzel Alba
Acoustic Consulting: Sound Arts/ Cristian Ezcurdia, Jaume Soler
Structural Engineer: Inesco/ Luis Perez
MEP: Sinergia Arquitectura Integral/ Francisco Olivares
Photos: Arturo Arrieta, Drone: Jonathan A Santiago
PAVILION ( )
In Collaboration with Colectivo Seis, Kababie Arquitectos, Taller Paralelo
A box on the outside.
When entering the space, the box has a completely different logic and becomes a subtraction of an inverted vault.
A concavity is presented within a continuous surface without roof.
An oasis within the chaotic historic city center.
The pavilion ( ) was design as a mute space on the outside but with an intriguing contradiction on its inside.
The project is part of MEXTRÓPOLI 2018, the largest architecture forum in Latin America where there are pavilions, workshops and lectures. The pavilion was located the Alameda Central, in the Historic Center of Mexico City and had a short life of four days.
When entering the space, the box has a completely different logic and becomes a subtraction of an inverted vault.
A concavity is presented within a continuous surface without roof.
An oasis within the chaotic historic city center.
The pavilion ( ) was design as a mute space on the outside but with an intriguing contradiction on its inside.
The project is part of MEXTRÓPOLI 2018, the largest architecture forum in Latin America where there are pavilions, workshops and lectures. The pavilion was located the Alameda Central, in the Historic Center of Mexico City and had a short life of four days.
Location: Mexico City
Structure: Masonry brick with steel reinforcement
Type: Temporary Pavilion
Team: Colectivo Seis, Kababie Arquitectos, Taller Paralelo
Status: Built
Size: 36 sqm
Year: 2018
Photos: Jaime Navarro, Arturo Arrieta
Structure: Masonry brick with steel reinforcement
Type: Temporary Pavilion
Team: Colectivo Seis, Kababie Arquitectos, Taller Paralelo
Status: Built
Size: 36 sqm
Year: 2018
Photos: Jaime Navarro, Arturo Arrieta
DL1310 APARTMENTS
In collaboration with Young & Ayata
This project is for a mid-market residential building in Mexico City, consisting of seven 1-2 bedroom apartments with parking in the basement. It was decided early on that the construction system would be cast-place-concrete, that the unit types would be simple and straight forward, and that the building would maximize its site footprint and allowed height. These were constraints that satisfied the client’s desires and simultaneously allowed us to focus our efforts on an interesting opportunity in the project, the apertures.
The site strategy drove the two side elevations toward the lot lines, making more standard windows undesirable. In order to allow light, view, and ventilation to all sides of the building, a scheme was developed to manipulate the windows into something familiar yet subtly strange. The rectangular windows are rotated into the building’s facade, resulting in two ruled surfaces at the top and bottom and transforming the window into an inverted trapezoidal bay. As the windows rotate in, the slabs appear to pull at the head and sill. This results in a facade that is both extremely blunt in its flatness and is also a dynamic bas-relief of smooth undulating shadows. These windows also produced different interior moments as the shifting facade met the standardized unit layout. Views out from the interior became small events of forced oblique perspective as one looked both out and down the street at the same time making each unit unique as it approached the enclosure.
The design process for the apertures was guided by both iterative digital models and research into the history of cast concrete ruled surfaces in the architecture of Latin America. A number of full-scale mock-ups allowed us to find a tectonic articulation that used board formed concrete as an integral expression of the aperture concept. The final methodology used traditional construction techniques combined with re-usable fiberglass casting modules to produce an alternative expression between digital technology and traditions of construction.
The site strategy drove the two side elevations toward the lot lines, making more standard windows undesirable. In order to allow light, view, and ventilation to all sides of the building, a scheme was developed to manipulate the windows into something familiar yet subtly strange. The rectangular windows are rotated into the building’s facade, resulting in two ruled surfaces at the top and bottom and transforming the window into an inverted trapezoidal bay. As the windows rotate in, the slabs appear to pull at the head and sill. This results in a facade that is both extremely blunt in its flatness and is also a dynamic bas-relief of smooth undulating shadows. These windows also produced different interior moments as the shifting facade met the standardized unit layout. Views out from the interior became small events of forced oblique perspective as one looked both out and down the street at the same time making each unit unique as it approached the enclosure.
The design process for the apertures was guided by both iterative digital models and research into the history of cast concrete ruled surfaces in the architecture of Latin America. A number of full-scale mock-ups allowed us to find a tectonic articulation that used board formed concrete as an integral expression of the aperture concept. The final methodology used traditional construction techniques combined with re-usable fiberglass casting modules to produce an alternative expression between digital technology and traditions of construction.
Location: Mexico City
Structure: Fair-faced reinforced concrete
Type: Apartment Building
Team: Isaac Michan Daniel, Narciso Martinez, Omar Acevedo, Jorge Sanchez
Status: Built
Size: 960 sqm
Year: 2020
Photos: Rafael Gamo, Alexandra Bové, Rafael Buzali
Structure: Fair-faced reinforced concrete
Type: Apartment Building
Team: Isaac Michan Daniel, Narciso Martinez, Omar Acevedo, Jorge Sanchez
Status: Built
Size: 960 sqm
Year: 2020
Photos: Rafael Gamo, Alexandra Bové, Rafael Buzali
C294 APT
Initiated in 2021 and
built in 2024, C294 Apartments is a residential adaptive reuse project
located in Condesa, CDMX. The project consists of 5 apartments: one per floor
and a lobby with a parking garage on the ground floor. There are 2-bedroom
apartments on floors one through four, and a 1-bedroom penthouse on the top
floor with a setback and terrace offering 360-degree views.
It is an intervention of an existing damaged building comprised of reinforced concrete columns and slab construction from 1953. As both design and executive architect, Michan Architecture together with the local structural engineer (CTC Ingenieros Civiles) repaired and unified the original structure with a new contemporary design while reconfiguring the interior and apartment layouts to accommodate current needs.
C294 Apartments’ silhouette and balconies take inspiration from the well-maintained Art Deco buildings common to Condesa, a popular and happening area known for creativity. Michan Architecture reinterpreted the beautiful motifs as a play of straight lines and tangential curves to add internal walls, balconies, parapets, and planters.
Hidden under stucco at the start of the project, the design utilizes the original cast-in-situ concrete slabs with inverted beams to connect new and preexisting. The new additions to reinvent the building use wood striped formwork to blur the boundaries between old and new, creating areas for a landscape that gives the building more biophilia, dressing it in green living plants and promoting health benefits from integrating nature.
“The project questions notions of preservation as the new building does not try to preserve the original appearance but rather reuse something that was hidden: the concrete slabs once covered in stucco with an addition that matches and creates a new dialogue for adapting and transforming structures of value in Mexico City and beyond.” — Michan Architecture
It is an intervention of an existing damaged building comprised of reinforced concrete columns and slab construction from 1953. As both design and executive architect, Michan Architecture together with the local structural engineer (CTC Ingenieros Civiles) repaired and unified the original structure with a new contemporary design while reconfiguring the interior and apartment layouts to accommodate current needs.
C294 Apartments’ silhouette and balconies take inspiration from the well-maintained Art Deco buildings common to Condesa, a popular and happening area known for creativity. Michan Architecture reinterpreted the beautiful motifs as a play of straight lines and tangential curves to add internal walls, balconies, parapets, and planters.
Hidden under stucco at the start of the project, the design utilizes the original cast-in-situ concrete slabs with inverted beams to connect new and preexisting. The new additions to reinvent the building use wood striped formwork to blur the boundaries between old and new, creating areas for a landscape that gives the building more biophilia, dressing it in green living plants and promoting health benefits from integrating nature.
“The project questions notions of preservation as the new building does not try to preserve the original appearance but rather reuse something that was hidden: the concrete slabs once covered in stucco with an addition that matches and creates a new dialogue for adapting and transforming structures of value in Mexico City and beyond.” — Michan Architecture
Location: Campeche 294, Condesa, Mexico City
Type: Adaptive Re-Use, Apartment Building, 5 units (6 stories), ground-level parking
Structure: Fair-faced reinforced concrete
Size: 1190 sqm / 12809.05 sft
Status: Built, 2024; Started 2021; Groundbreaking 2022
Team: Fernando Gomez, Fernando Alamilla, Benjamin Caballero, Pilar Colado, Alexandra Bové, Isaac Michan Daniel
Collaborator: Tarek Gutierrez
Photos: Arturo Arrieta
THREE MUSEUMS AND A PARK
Montenegro Triptych Museums
Our proposal for the three museums in Montenegro’s park embodies a harmonious blend of architectural unity and individuality, celebrating the diverse realms of contemporary art, natural history, and architecture.
Inspired triptych paintings, each museum stands as a distinct yet interconnected element, alluring to broken stones forming a unified whole. The guiding principle behind our design is to imbue each museum with the same formal language and material qualities while allowing for its unique identity to shine through. This approach ensures coherence and continuity across the ensemble while honoring the specific focus and character of each institution.
At the heart of our proposal lies a central space created by the interplay of these three museums—a space akin to a botanical garden, inviting visitors to wander, reflect, and connect with both art and nature. Here, among the architectural elements, lies an oasis of tranquility and natural beauty, enhancing the overall experience of the park.
Respecting the landscape and existing natural features, our design harmonizes with its surroundings, minimizing disruption and maximizing integration. The result is a seamless fusion of built form and natural environment, where visitors can immerse themselves in a rich tapestry of cultural and natural heritage.
The three museums in Montenegro’s park epitomizes the profound impact of architecture on cultural enrichment and community cohesion. With a meticulous focus on unity amidst diversity, our design aims to transcend mere physical structures, offering a transformative experience that resonates deeply with visitors. Through thoughtful integration with the park’s biodiversity and an architectural language that celebrates both individuality and interconnectedness, we aspire to create a timeless legacy that inspires, educates, and fosters a sense of belonging for generations to come.
Location: Podgorica, Montenegro
Type: Museums of Contemporary Art, Natural History Museum, House of Architecture and the Park of Arts & Culture
Size: Aprox. 14,500 sqm
Year: 2024
Status: Competition, Settled
Team: Fernando Gomez, Rodrigo Malo, Isaac Michan Daniel