Mexican Architecture Studio TO Wins Awards for Collective Practice

Mexican architecture studio TO, founded by childhood friends José Amozurrutia and Carlos Facio, won the Architectural Review's Emerging Architecture title and a Dezeen Award in 2023. The studio's philosophy centers on architecture as a collective process, integrating diverse voices and skills. A key project is a music school in Yuguelito, on the southeastern outskirts of Mexico City, designed with local youth through workshops, built on donated land using recycled materials and volunteer labor, and inaugurated in March 2022. The structure, with a vault overlooking the Xaltepec volcano, has become a community hub for performances and meetings. TO also collaborates with three other studios under the name Colectivo c733, focusing on public spaces in vulnerable areas. Over five years, the collective has restored the San Blas pier, transformed a disused railway in Tapachula into a linear park, built the Nacajuca music house, the Matamoros market, and a pedestrian walkway minimizing impact on mangroves in Quintana Roo. As of early 2024, TO is working on three sustainable rural residence projects, two interventions on pre-existing buildings, and a housing complex in Mexico City. With Colectivo c733, they continue work in Tulum's Jaguar National Park, a two-year project including visitor reception structures, an archaeological zone access building, a flora and fauna observatory, a museum, services, and landscape regeneration.