Andrés Souto

In this talk, architect and artist Andrés Souto shares his research across built and digital landscapes in Mexico. Taking an ethnographic view of the galleries of SketchUp artists and contractor groups on Facebook, he considers how ubiquitous digital tools—rather than advancing the homogenization of design—might be resources for debating, preserving, and disseminating popular approaches to common space.

Andrés Souto (1986) is an architect, artist and educator. His work is led by architectural research with a focus on self-construction and popular culture and the way in which these interpret and appropriate official architectural forms. He takes inspiration from mexican masonry culture and questions how new relationships between self-builders, industry, materials, knowledge and intuition inform the collective unconscious. In 2015 Andrés was awarded the Abraaj - RCA Innovation Scholarship to take his masters course in London and in 2017 he won the SOM Foundation Fellowship Award with the research project produced during his time at the Royal College of Art titled “The Aesthetics of Hope”. His work has been shown in Mexico and in the United Kingdom in places like the Menier Gallery (UK), the Royal Institute of British Architects (UK), The Architecture Centre de Bristol (UK), The Building Centre (UK), The Workshop London (UK), Galería CC187 (MX), La Espirituosa (MX), Proyector (MX), Abierto Mexicano de diseño AMD (MX), Design Week (MX), El Pabellón de las Escaleras (MX), Salón Cosa 1 (MX) amongst others. Recently Andrés participated as a lecturer in the conference organized by the Ricardo Palma University "New Identities of Popular Cultura in Latinamerica-Chicha-Vernacular-Cholet-Autoconstrucción" alongside the Bolivian architect Freddy Mamani Silvestre. He currently directs his architecture, art and research firm: mUcHo estudio/taller and is a subject professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana.

Image Credit: Andrés Souto, Still from El Grand Tour, 2017.