Press Release
Mar Mediterraneo 34 Housing Units by Inca Hernandez Receives the Silver A' Design Award in Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design
Inca Hernandez recognized for cultural heritage and culture industry design by the international grand jury of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 23, 2021 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Mar Mediterraneo 34 Housing Units by Inca Hernandez has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design category. The award was conferred within the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Silver A' Design Award Explained
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
About Mar Mediterraneo 34 Housing Units
Mar Mediterraneo 34 is the restoration of a historic house in the Tacuba neighborhood of Mexico City. The house was built in 1910 in an eclectic French style and was in advanced deterioration. Artistic and handcrafted elements of the main facade were recovered, including the carved quarry stone of the lintels and balconies, the iron railings and the glass roof tiles. The main patio was rebuilt as a reinterpretation of the past, with openings in double height that rise from a volcanic stone baseboard. The restored building has three levels and seven apartments.
About Inca Hernandez
Inca Hernández is an emerging architect and founder of Inca Hernandez Atelier, a practice that intertwines architecture, research, and art direction across diverse cultural contexts in Mexico, Portugal, Venezuela, Italy, the UAE, and Denmark. Early collaborations with Tadao Ando (Pritzker, 1995) and Álvaro Siza (Pritzker, 1992) for the Casa Wabi Foundation enriched his understanding of architecture as both a reflection of memory and a projection of community, cultivating a philosophy rooted in heritage, collective identity, and the transformative power of time.
Award Record
With this recognition, Inca Hernandez is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design Award
The A' Cultural Heritage Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good designs that preserve, protect, and promote cultural heritage. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to cultural heritage designers, culture industry professionals, cultural heritage specialists and museum designers from all countries. Entries typically include cultural heritage projects, cultural conversation, preservation and restoration and protection projects. Awarded cultural heritage designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/cultural-heritage
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/106843
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/106843
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!106843
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/278259
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://incahernandez.com/#/project/49
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Mar Mediterraneo 34 Housing Units
- Function
- Housing Units
- Category
- Cultural Heritage and Culture Industry Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Arts and Social Impact
- Colors
- Dark Gray, Dark Slate Gray, Silver, Gray and Dim Gray
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Inca Hernandez
- Country
- Mexico
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2020 - 2021
- Design ID
- #106843
Credits
- Team
- Inca Hernandez., Top Project Multiplex / Efrain Hernandez., Ana Ximena Garcia, Inca Hernandez, Raiz Mx, Adrian Gonzalez (Mercado de Chacharitas)., Gabriela Llovera Arciniegas, Luis Enrique Vargas. and Javier Soria.
- Image Credits
- Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Mar Mediterraneo 34 emerges as a strategy to recover the historical and architectural heritage, conceived as the rebirth of a vestige in a new time, which reinterprets the past to the current historical context with the intention of generating a new life for the urban image and protecting the value from the magical neighborhood of Tacuba.
- Inspiration
- The concept was based on the idea that the essence of a ruin never dies, a building is mutable and can take different forms in order to come back to life and generate a new cycle. The building is part of the neighborhood's historical setting and is highlighted as part of the transformation of the urban context that still prevails in it.
- Research
- The process to generate the project was consolidated by an exhaustive historical investigation about its different uses and inhabitants. An analysis of photographic files, manuscripts and anecdotes from neighbors who have witnessed its transformation over time was carried. The design was planned with the intention to protect the artisan details and to avoid creating a false homogeneity in the essence of the building.
- Challenge
- The house holds historical value for the two main history institutes in Mexico. The building was in a very advanced deterioration, representing a major security risk for the restorative work. Besides, the inhabitants of the magical neighborhood of Tacuba have nostalgic feelings about the house, being a prominent icon in their memory. We have a huge responsibility as young architects, builders and restorers to protect the historical heritage of our cities for new generations, that is why Mar Mediterraneo 34 can be an example of recovery for the neighborhood and a small piece in regenerating sustainable spaces to prevail in the collective history.
- Realization and Technology
- • An analysis of the urban and historical background was carried out, as well as the degree of deterioration and potentialities. • The non-original elements were eliminated, the authentic artisan elements were respected to give them a new opportunity. • The old wall coverings were removed and the walls were reinforced, the stairs to the second floor needed to be rebuilt as they had collapsed. • The main facade and all its frontal composition were in advanced deterioration. The windows and balconies that had been closed were reopened, also the original handcrafted elements were polished and renovated such as the quarry of the lintels, cornices and mansards.
- Operation and Interaction
- The project will change over time. Materiality evolves and ages together with the people who inhabit it. It will become their home where new experiences and anecdotes will take place and this is an element of its natural beauty. The project will also inspire the cultural and architectural revival of the neighborhood.
- Project Duration and Location
- October 2017 - January 2020. Tacuba, Mexico City, Mexico.
- Specifications
- Mexico City is a historical setting with an enormous cultural and architectural heritage protected in its magical neighborhoods. Tacuba is one of them, located northwest to the downtown, this neighborhood has undergone social and urban transformations that have lasted to this day and where vestiges forged at different times can be found. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Tacuba became one of the wealthiest areas of the city with large country houses, which over time and different political changes were abandoned and many were collapsed. However, among these vestiges the house of Mar Mediterraneo 34 remained.
- Keywords
- Restoration, Renovation, Mexico City, Tacuba, Mar Mediterraneo 34, Historic house, Apartments, Housing Units.
