Now we are dealing with architectural devices that have a crucial impression on the DNA of our design atelier. What is a contemplative intervention? Can the surreal structures built by Edward James in Las Pozas, in the middle of Huasteca potosina, be part of this category? Or should we take as a reference, instead, the monolith that appears in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Stanley Kubrick’s film?

Let us try an approximation, starting at the frontier between art and architecture: We assume that architecture is functional, targeted at a concrete objective and, as such, is enduring. In contrast, art seems to be free of this constraint, and thus challenges the precepts of architecture when it is intertwined with architectural projects. In this way, architecture mimics the attributes of art, while art, not surprisingly, tries these days to get closer –even with subtle gestures– to architecture.

In architecture –and in an important segment of our creative guidelines– art discovers the nature of monumentality, and by disfiguring functionality while reinterpreting ideas about dwelling and human transit, it breaks our common understanding of “being in” a place.

Furthermore, our design process, which includes drawing up blueprints, allows us to comprehend space and make it ours. Nature seems to propose architectural and artistic forms. Like art, architectural works spur the contemplative aptitude of the observer. Even though architecture is not art and the architect is not an artist, architectural works afford aesthetic experiences. This is recognizable in some of our architectural devices that can be described as “contemplative interventions” and, in general, it is a mantra for SLOT.

Text: Pablo García
Graphic Design: Romain Roy-Pinot