The firm Taller Mauricio Rocha + Gabriela Carrillo has built a studio for Graciela Iturbide in Mexico City’s Niño Jesús neighborhood, very close to her home. The 3-story building stands on a 7x14-meter plot in the spirit of a small tower, a solid block of clay that is deconstructed in its own materiality.

The project seeks peace, as well as continuity through construction with a single material in an almost obsessive way. The strategy was to take advantage of the building’s shape and proportions to come up with a form that could do without concrete in the structure as the facade rose, in such a way that the clay would be self-supporting at those points.

The surrounding context is very subtly perceivable through the inner facades, with blocks of clay that do not let light in entirely but create a connection between interior and exterior. Bathrooms, storage, and circulation elements are grouped together and integrated into the inner walls, becoming practically imperceptible and maintaining the building’s volumetric composition at all times.