The town of Oaxaca lies 470 kilometres south of Mexico City. A jewel of colonial architecture, it is surrounded by a bleak hilly landscape, where archaeological sites such as Monte Albán reveal an extraordinary synthesis between nature and architecture.

Oaxaca is also the site of a successful educational experiment. The group Tercer Pisos Arquitectos (Dominik Brandis, Alexander Matl, Giulio Polita, Florian Schafschetzy, Rüdiger Suppin, Rupert Zallman) have built a large cantilevered platform near the city, on behalf of the Tonantzin Tlalli Institute.

Developed during a design course held in 2003 by Wolf D. Prix at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the project transmutes a very simple need into architecture, offering substantial aid to the inhabitants of the village of Paraje Bonanza. The canopy collects rainwater in a tank with a capacity of 65,000 litres. Laura Bossi