Studio Andrew Trotter
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Habitación 116 and Studio Andrew Trotter recapture the creative spirit of Parque Melchor Ocampo 38, the artists' building designed by Luis Barragán and Max Cetto in 1939.
The studio in Parque Melchor Ocampo 38 where Clara Porset worked becomes a design residence. The project, called Memoria y Reinvención, pays homage to the work the designer did there, to Luis Barragán, to Max Cetto, to Mexico, and to an everlasting way of understanding creation and design.
It is the designers themselves, Habitación 116 and Studio Andrew Trotter, who carry out the first residential intervention and present two collaborative collections that emerged from the artists' studio in Parque Melchor Ocampo 38 under the name of Criollo and Tahona.
Since meeting Habitación 116, Studio Andrew Trotter's gaze on Mexico's creative scene has only risen. At the end of 2023, the studio at Parque Melchor Ocampo, 38, where Clara Porset once worked, became available. It was the opportunity Andrew Trotter was waiting for to begin a new phase in which to delve into artisan techniques and imbibe Mexican architecture.
Visiting the apartment was, for both studios, to be moved again by the architecture of Luis Barragán and Max Cetto, as well as by the history impregnated in the walls of both the paradigmatic building and the place where Clara Porset created such renowned pieces of Mexican rationalism as the Butaque chair, an icon of Luis Barragán's work.
The new project of Habitación 116 and Studio Andrew Trotter was born from inspiration through a specific place such as the artists' building at Parque Melchor Ocampo 38, but also from a somewhat broader place, Mexico, as a creative meeting point. A collaboration that takes shape in two collections: Criollo, signed by Habitación 116, which is guided by the work of Clara Porset, and Tahona, by Studio Andrew Trotter, which focuses on the imprint of traditional techniques in the Mexican way of understanding design.
Creole
The undeniable influence of the Parque Melchor Ocampo apartment on Porset's work reached its peak in 1946, when invited by Ani and Alvar Aalto to their New York showroom, the designer presented a collection of furniture for a one-room apartment. Guided by the values Porset introduced to Mexican culture, H116's Criollo collection also consists of five basic, flexible-use pieces intended for a one-room studio apartment. Clara Porset connected tradition and craftsmanship with new ways of designing, understanding furniture and space.
Habitación 116 also emphasizes creative processes based on repetition, on the deepening of different techniques, materials, scales and forms. An endemic work model for the Mexican studio in the creation of collections or pieces for a specific project. Reverberations is the name of the exhibition with which H116 presents this collection. An exhibition that will remain open to the public from February 6 to 16.
Tahona
Studio Andrew Trotter's Tahona collection represents the ancestral simplicity of Mexican culture. For Andrew Trotter and Marcelo Martinez, responsible for the studio, Mexico stands out for the close, welcoming and cheerful way of life of its people. A culture capable of turning the essential into the exceptional. Their collection is a tribute to Mexican tradition through the use of atavistic techniques and materials. Created from volcanic stone, the five pieces that make up Tahona express a way of creation that sublimates tradition, turning a simple piece of furniture into a piece of design. The result tends to versatility in its adaptability for interiors and exteriors. The almost primitive, large-scale appearance of the collection is evidence of the craftsmanship, one of the values that Trotter and Martinez are trying to promote.
Memory and Reinvention: Design Residency.
In their admiration for the work of Luis Barragan and Max Cetto, Studio Andrew Trotter and Habitación 116 recover the use for which Parque Melchor Ocampo 38 was conceived, converting the former studio of Clara Porset into the setting for a program of design residencies. Under the name Memoria y Reinvención (Memory and Reinvention), it will host creative residencies for designers from all over the world. The Tahona collection will be presented within the framework of these residencies and Studio Andrew Trotter will be the first guest of the residency.