Abel Perles (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1972), Carlos Bedoya (Mexico City, 1973), Victor Jaime (Mexico City, 1978) and Wonne Ickx (Antwerp, 1974) started out as four friends who met while working at the architecture office LCM Fernando Romero in Mexico City. They founded Productora in the same city in 2006 and now run a branch in Los Angeles. Projects range from private houses to hotels and large public complexes, their favourite.

In 2017, they built their most iconic ones in Mexico, the Teopanzolco civic centre in Cuernavaca – a double triangular volume forming a giant panoramic stair from which to observe the archaeological site and the surrounding landscape from above – and the community centre of Teotitlán del Valle in Oaxaca, which melds with the context and generates new fluxes and public spaces in the small town of Teotitlán. The two cultural centres have in common clear geometry and sober materials: cement, bricks and ceramics. The routes inside them offer visitors unexpectedness. Architecture by Productora is emotion-filled, tactile and very close to the body. Its to easy-to-read elements translate into timeless, durable buildings that need little maintenance and are one with the site’s topography.

The type of impact a building will have on the place is what gives shape to the designs, which are created without long bouts of preliminary research in order to liberate intuitive and direct ideas: architectural models are preferred above drawings. Private houses, too, must establish a distinct bond with the city. “It’s not so much about what you succeed in doing with the building, but what the building succeeds in doing for the context,” says Wonne Ickx. An example is the Fleischmann house (2017) in Los Angeles, where a typically Californian bungalow has maintained its original character on the street facade, but is expanded outward at the back in accordance with the owner’s requests.

In addition to building, Productora has been culturally active for years, teaching in American and European architecture schools, and participating in exhibitions and biennials all over the globe. With Ruth Estévez, Productora founded LIGA in Mexico City in 2001, an exhibition space and a platform for the promotion of Latin American architecture in the world. Productora has received many awards including the 2018 Oscar Niemeyer Award and the 2017 American Architectural Prize.