Hierve-Diseñería - a modern building in Mexico City

Hierve-Diseñería is a  relatively young architectural firm in Mexico City.  Created in 1999 by  Alejandro Villarreal, "with the purpose of serving  society carrying out  architectural, industrial design, art and published art projects". Hierve means  boiling and Diseñería  is a neologism that likens design to a craft as in panetteria (bakery) or carpenteria (carpentry). They translate it as boiling designery, which describes their work concept:the fermentation of ideas, concepts and creativity into realized projects!

The building that got my attention is  a small apartment building in a quiet residential road of the Polando district of Mexico City. The main structure is of reinforced concrete, but what makes it unique is the use of 7,900 blown green glass spheres on the façade and inside the building.

They devised an ingenuous system of hanging the balls on rubber and steel cables from concrete juts on the building. The balls were handcrafted in a Guadalajara workshop. Each cable holds 27 balls, fastened by a discin EPDM, a rubber used in the car industry that has excellent weather resistance. The effect is stunning. The project is called Hesiodo (maybe from the ancient Greek myth teller?) and was finished in 2005.

It is a five storey building with 13 appartments in two blocks connected by an atrium on each floor, and a garage underneath. Using the green spheres in the interior as well as the exterior, gives the building a sense of bringing the outside in. I like the colour too! Notice how the use of the spheres gets creative in other parts of the building

One thing is certain: the building's inhabitants do not have a "normal" view of their surrounding area!

All photographs courtesy of Hierve-Diseñería: Copyright © 2007 Hierve-Diseñería SA de CV. All Rights reserved