An inspiring journey from a small agricultural town in Venezuela to the grand architectural stage of Mexico… Inca Gabriel Hernandez stands out with projects that carry the traces of the past into the future. Drawing on experiences gained from working with great masters like Tadao Ando and Álvaro Siza, Hernandez blends local materials and collective memory, embracing a sustainable and humane architectural philosophy. We had an enjoyable interview with Hernandez about the origins of his workshop, his architectural philosophy, and his upcoming projects.
What is the story behind the emergence of Inca Hernandez Arquitectura? Could you tell us a bit about the mission and vision of the company?
“My story has been a journey that has led me to discover how the past inspires the future, and how our surroundings shape us and transform our way of living.”
I was born in a small agricultural town called Socopo in Venezuela, this place taught me to preserve nature, value our origins, and work hard in community. There, I also understood that our actions can affect and transform our environment, that small places are also sources of memories that accompany us throughout life, and that with sensitivity to the past, we can innovate through artisanal work, recovering the vernacular spirit of the site. My parents are forestry engineers and my father is also a poet. From them, I learned the value of sustainable construction through wooden structures, and they encouraged me to take care of our environment and ecological-cultural responsibility.
In 2015, I moved to Mexico and worked for Fundación Casa Wabi on the coast of Oaxaca, in the south of the country, where I collaborated with the local team in developing Tadao Ando’s projects (Pritzker, 1995) for the artist studios at the foundation, and then in the Clay Pavilion by Alvaro Siza (Pritzker, 1992).
These experiences and memories have formed my profession, a total inspiration that comes from a small town in Venezuela and now in the great Mexico City, with a vision of cultural universality.
“I have understood the value of appreciating the details and experiences acquired since through our memories we can imagine the future and remember the past.”
About the atelier: My team is composed of individuals from various parts of the world. Rather than having a traditional office, we are based in different locations. They include people from Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Italy, and Spain, and they all participate as equals. This approach has also taught a lot about building community through architecture.
Our mission is: to connect, explore, remember, and understand the origins of our surroundings to create community through architecture as a sustainable strategy for the future. Honoring the collective memory and the idiosyncrasy of the site to generate sensitive, introspective, and respectful spaces in mutual empathy.
Our vision is: to sustainably transform our society to regenerate and innovate from our origins, as a method of recovering social, historical, cultural, and natural identity in the world. Our goal is for Architecture, urbanism, art, and design to be transmitted as a language without a name, from the past to inspire the future and new generations.
How did your education at the National Experimental University of Táchira (UNET) shape your architectural perspective?
My alma mater UNET is one of the great technological and experimental universities in Venezuela and is located in the southwest of the country, in a small green city called San Cristóbal. This site shaped my professional attitude through new methodologies with contemporary materials and construction practices in connection with the environment, from sustainable and native materials such as adobe, natural stone, clay block, wood, and artisanal techniques; but also to understand the great global needs from the social, economic and cultural sphere, to assimilate architectural evolution and how to support the planet with small actions.
Despite the social and economic difficulties that Venezuela is going through, the University managed to instill learning and innovation with the resources available in the country, and to motivate creativity with solidarity, with architecture being a tool to collaborate in community and build dignity in our society.
That artistic and scientific knowledge also taught me that one of the main qualities in times of difficulty is Resilience, and to recognize how architecture becomes a response to develop cities and favor the lives of their inhabitants.
The university UNET, the city, its people, its surroundings, its small villages, and its forests are motivation, hope, and inspiration for me. I am deeply grateful for all the learning I acquired there and for fostering my professional foundations as an emigrant in Mexico.
You had the opportunity to work with famous architects like Tadao Ando and Álvaro Siza. What are some important lessons you learned from them?
During that period at the Casa Wabi Foundation, I gained important experiences from these great masters, fundamentally from their holistic architecture as a collective expression. Among the main lessons I learned was that art and architecture are great transformation and social evolution processes, capable of affecting their environment and inhabitants over time. Something perceptible in recent years, in both projects with an exceptionally pure, functional, and human-centered architecture deeply rooted in the local community, promoting improvement and cultural exchange among the young people of the towns on the Oaxaca Coast; as an emerging method to social needs.
Tadao Ando’s architecture becomes stereotomic through light and involves the connection with the inhabitant and the site, creating an infinite perspective between nature and the built. Alvaro Siza’s architecture with the Clay Pavilion adapts to artisanal materiality and converges subtle elements integrated into the local landscape. Both projects emerge as timeless approaches to the environment, and something essential beyond their forms is their social development.
Several years later in 2022, I had the fortune in person to meet Siza in his studio. One of the great lessons he gave me is his great humility, a touch of interaction that works as a source of inspiration for me and many, showing through his thinking and work how humility and humanity can intrinsically influence human relationships and build creative processes full of sensitivity.
How do you balance preserving the historical essence of a place with integrating modern architectural elements?
Architecture must be a response to integration, but above all respect for historical identity. Innovation can also be achieved through modest, introspective architecture that works to enhance the cultural richness of its past. These spaces emerge through sensitivity to the environment and respond to the new needs of its inhabitants. This also leads to a phrase from my practice, which is “Ruins have no ego“, It’s a phrase that makes me reflect on how over time any building begins to have an ephemeral and symbolic connotation in the identity of a site. Although time disintegrates a construction, having the opportunity to recover it allows us to safeguard the architectural heritage of our cities and generate a new cycle for the future, as a connection point between the old and the new.
When we design an architecture that can transform, age, and evolve in development with the local or collective community, we leave the ego behind, to think of an almost primitive idea that can be regenerative to our future. Within that subtlety, the contemporary and the ancient can be connected, to achieve a new life in the ruin, full of calm, serenity, silence, and peace; a second chance for an abandoned structure readapted to current life and new inhabitants.
However, although these spaces aspire to be timeless, we must never forget the human connotation, always remembering that the past can inspire us but also commemorating collective development to find new sustainable alternatives for the planet and humanity.
What distinguishes your work from others?
More than distinguishing, it is to “coincide and coexist“. Our profession develops exploration, creativity, and understanding of society. As an architect, I value the common approach to improve our cities and environments, from all areas. Like me, there are other emerging firms and colleagues that I admire and we agree with the same criteria regarding empathy, sensitivity, and preserving our memories to enhance the profession. I want to think that our perspectives can “coincide” and be recognized in the future for achieving community work and maintaining a global philosophy despite social, cultural, religious, and constructive differences in the world, and can “coexist” to build a regenerative architecture full of kindness toward others.
This allows for a unique, holistic, but collective work as a solution for a common good, as a balance between the awareness of a place and a more universal profession, this is how we can distinguish ourselves.
You have received prestigious awards such as the 2020 MUSE Design Award and the Dedalo Minosse Award. How do these recognitions affect your career and future projects?
These recognitions are a tribute and exaltation of the inhabitants of the project and the site; as they honor the urban, cultural, and architectural identity of those who inhabit it. For me and my team, they have always been a reason for total gratitude for our constant work, but it is always a dedication to our clients and the project’s surroundings.
We must also recognize that the awards allow an emerging firm to be recognized worldwide and create a future trajectory, directing our efforts to achieve better each day. These awards such as the Dedalo Minosse honor us and give us merit to exhibit in other cultures and countries, which motivates us to connect with new communities and colleagues. We also understand that more than competing, these awards significantly forge learning and affirm examples of guidance within our professional practices; managing to contribute value to each of the participating young firms.
Your work is described as a continuous dialogue and an experiment between the past and the future. Could you elaborate on this concept?
My work aims to search for timelessness, as an accumulation of memories from different eras, to achieve an innovation with the tradition of the site. It is like bringing the best of the past into the future. Part of my creative process is the perceived intuition of the community of the place and its creation, it is to capture with extreme sensitivity the needs and destiny of a project. This also implies unifying different variants and points of view, from the past of a site, the present, and the future to come. It is about trying to comprehend the collective unconscious of those who inhabit and those who will inhabit, as well as the decisions that are made and how they will affect the ephemeral footprint sustainably in the short or long term.
The past can always inspire us and innovate through it, but trying to visualize the unknown future and understanding public, environmental, cultural, and urban development in different times will help us better meet the needs of the present in the world.
Could you share the names and features of some prominent projects your firm has worked on that involve natural stone? Can you provide information about the design processes and outcomes of these projects?
“Our local roots define our society, its customs, its folklore, but the essence of cooperating, contributing and supporting each other is part of creating community in a universal way.”
Natural stone is an invaluable construction element within our culture, it is part of our Latin American origins since pre-Hispanic times and is one of the main influencers in local, and even universal, construction. Stone as a construction material shapes vernacular spaces, with a native connection rooted in the site and its population. This material has also been evolving with new technologies and improving to achieve a more ecological use within buildings. In my work, the use of stone is an essential part of my materiality, within the Mexican and universal context. I have dedicated this construction element from contemporary forms to more artisanal and local ways. Among these, I would like to highlight some descriptions of application in some of my most recent projects:
Mar Mediterráneo 34
This project consisted of a restoration, renovation and intervention of an old French eclectic style mansion, originally from 1910, located in the magical neighborhood of Tacuba. This building was in ruins, in an advanced state of deterioration, and was recovered to generate a second life, with the possibility of being re-inhabited by new generations and recycling an abandoned space to continue its heritage legacy.
Natural stone was a native element, and primarily used in different ancient and contemporary details within the project, which were worked by local artisans. These construction details belong to stones from the site, such as the “Cantera” stone, Mexican quartz and the volcanic stone called “Recinto.” Part of the constructive identity in Mexico uses these natural stones, with exceptional artisanal handling, allowing structures rooted in the natural and urban context of the country.
Within the project, we used the “Cantera” stone in historical decorative elements that were hand-carved on the historic façade, such as monolithic pieces originating from that era, as well as different construction elements made in a contemporary way, such as the skirting board made of “Recinto” stone, this volcanic stone works as the base connecting the old part and the new renovated image of the central courtyard. We also use natural stones such as grey quartz for kitchens, bathrooms and carved elements, generating sophistication and elegance to the pure and modern image of the interior.
In “Mar Mediterráneo 34”, sustainability goes beyond the selection of functions or the integration of vegetation in the building, it is recovering lost spaces that, when re-inhabited, avoid increasing the urban footprint and reducing the carbon footprint. The use of natural stone can allow for ecological and artisanal development currently.
Cabana project
This project in the south of Portugal, in the Algarve region, is another of our latest projects and is about to be completed. This project contemplates an intrinsic connection to the site, built by local craftsmen and with universal elements of the owners, an elderly couple with many memories and experiences from different parts of the world, from Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Vietnam, Portugal, and Africa.
The use of natural stone is identified from the interior and exterior of the project. The original walls from 1780 are self-supporting and built-in volcanic quartz from the area, these were renovated with a contemporary image but made with artisanal techniques, creating a connection between the past and the present. Within the project, the main elements that evoke the past but with a new image are made of natural stones, such as Calcários marble, with a sandy color typical of southern Portugal. These natural stone, elements such as the gargoyles on the façade were built, as well as the covering of the “Onsen” (small natural pond on the terrace of the master bedroom), or the treads of stairs.
We have also worked on interior details with high-tech marbles, natural stones with high resistance, and a protection system for kitchens and bathrooms; while Castle Stones were used for the floor, as natural stone slabs with thermal-technology for greater adaptability and resistance.
On the exterior we work with local labor, applying a contrast between new architecture and traditional elements such as ancestral techniques of the site, such as: “Socalcos” or “Canteiros” for the landscaping (large agricultural terraces adapted to the topography made with volcanic quartz), “Muros de Pedra Seca” (self-supporting enveloping walls built in quartz), and the “Calçada Portuguesa” (small natural stone mosaics made with quartz squares). All these elements combine tradition from the place but develop them for new habitability in the future.
Venecia 20
This project is a restoration, renovation, and vertical extension of a small house from 1905, located in the magical neighborhood of Colonia Juárez, in the heart of Mexico City. The project consists of an analogy of time. It aims to integrate the building’s architectural evolution, incorporating both the old and the modern, and is inspired by a poetic fragment of Octavio Paz, who is himself believed to have been born in the house: “An edifice made of time: what was, what will be, what is.”.
The Patio pays tribute to the universal legacy of modernity through its catenary arches, while the interior design proposes to re-inhabit a ruin through new ways of living and a poetic atmosphere of isolation.
The materiality of the project is based on hand-crafted natural stone. From the original era of the building, constructive elements have been applied in stone that have been preserved, such as the window lintels or the balustrades of the facade. In the temporal transition of the spaces, these natural textures contrast with Stereoscopic and Tectonic forms. The main courtyard bursts with openings in catenary arches forged in volcanic stone “Cantera Gris de los Remedios” (a type of greyish quartz), while the historic facade renews the brick texture in natural stone “Cantera Blanco Pachuca”. In the kitchens, bathrooms, and fixed furniture we have worked with Mexican Travertine Marble, a universal material with great warmth, combining in perspective with wood and light ceramics.
Through the recovery of this urban structure, formerly abandoned over two decades, both past and present can be perceived within its interiors. In this way, the restoration of the ruin leads to the creation of new life. These introspective spaces also provide new interpretations of ‘family’; embodied by future generations of young people who will come to variously experience the building as an art studio, office, and bedroom, through isolation and a connection between light and silence.
Residence in the Liwa Oasis:
Among our latest projects in development is a residence in the southwest of the United Arab Emirates, in the Liwa Oasis. This project opens up a universal conception of architecture and how it adapts to the artisanal details of the site, from its climate, construction customs, and ways of living. This mystical site is full of tradition and a deep sense of belonging, we have also worked with ancient construction techniques, capable of protecting from the strong solar incidence, adapted to the available materiality of the place. The collective construct encourages natural construction, from stone, palm structures, wood, and clay, a vernacular architecture capable of innovating and blending into its natural landscapes.
+90 532 585 51 95
+90 532 585 51 95