Architecture competition "SKYHIVE Skyscraper Challenge" 3rd Prize and BB Student award winners - Universidad Autonoma De San Luis Potosi

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the winner of the 3rd and Student prize of our “SKYHIVE Skyscraper Challenge” competition - Elizabeth Compeán Michel, Gabriel Alejandro Madrigal Betancourt, Juan Jesús García Castro and Rodrigo Zertuche Rodríguez from Mexico!

Elizabeth Compeán Michel, Gabriel Alejandro Madrigal Betancourt, Juan Jesús García Castro and Rodrigo Zertuche Rodríguez from Mexico

We are a group of friends who study architecture in Mexico, we call ourselves: Caseta. We share the same interests for architecture and seek to collaborate on architectural projects in which we can approach conventional and unconventional issues and problems in our day to day.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where company/ individuals have been involved?

Last July we had the opportunity to participate in a national competition related to social housing in Mexico, and we were fortunate to win one of the first three places due to our hard team work. The project sought to re-densify areas away from urban spots and integrate them into the city through a vertical housing project.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

For us, architecture is the possibility of improving the quality of life of people and cities by the creation of spaces that need to be designed for the specific place and context where they are placed.

The role of the architect lies in understanding, not only the physical context but the political and cultural ones, capture the needs and potential of the cities, and intervene them by creating spaces that contribute to people’s quality of life.

Why do you participate in architecture vision competitions?

Buildner is a platform that allow us to exercise our design skills and explore unconventional situations, that is why we have the opportunity to experiment and address the projects with ideas that might not be feasible in real life.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture vision competitions?

The only advice we could give is to go for it, risk your selves, exercise your design skills, experiment and innovate.