Speaker Spotlight: Gabriela Carrillo
2024 AIA Tennessee Conference Speaker
We are so pleased to have another incredible line-up of speakers this year at the AIA Tennessee Conference on Architecture. Today, we are spotlighting architect Gabriela Carrillo, founding partner of Taller Gabriela Carrillo and co-founder of Colectivo C733 in México City. Colectivo C733 was created to focus on developing public projects in Mexico. In 2017, Gabriela was named “Architect of the Year” by Architectural Review in London and by Architectural Digest México in 2020 and 2023. Her passion and respect for the community is clear in her practice, With dynamic spaces for even the humblest of uses, her work allows all people to enjoy the beauty of architecture.
Learn more about Gabriela in our Q&A below.
First, would you give a short summary of what you’ll be speaking about at the AIA TN conference and its importance for architects?
I will speak through my work about the different elements that have become essential for me to observe: beauty, silence, crisis, collective space, childhood, academia, memory, ways of living, territory, the city and spatial dignity; and how they become a common place in my daily life to do architecture.
Referencing the conference theme of Grounding, what keeps you grounded in your personal or professional life?
The search for balance in my practice, academia, research and my everyday life. Error and crisis as a huge learning tool. My son, my plants, my books and drawing; the search for freedom through my work.
Tell us more about your roots. How much of that inspires your design process and work and makes you the person you are today?
Travel and recognize the diversity of cultures in addition to observing geology and territory; Also admiring the landscapes and the spatial force of pre-Hispanic, colonial and modern architecture in Mexico are part of my roots.
There seems to be more awareness of the environmental impact of design. What have you seen or learned that makes that impact more crucial for you as a designer and architect?
Take distance, observe from otherness and with perspective. The strength of my country’s cultural past and also from its multiple crisis.
Music: what are you currently listening to?
Arvo Part, Bach, Max Richter, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Nina Simon, Zaho de Sagazan and always The Beatles; with high contrast like Calle 13 and Gilberto Santa Rosa among many others. New music that my kid hears has been a great discovery, like Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, even though a huge part of the albums is old music. I also love silence.
Would you share some of your biggest lessons in your career?
Overcome fear to take quantum leaps.
Would you share some advice to younger architects or those new to architecture about the profession and the process of design?
Do it with passion and emotion and always be consistent with what we pursue.
Do you have any special advice for women architects or designers?
Recognize that an enormous strength of women is not to be afraid to reveal their fragility and find in it the strength to achieve any goal.
Photography Credits
Nuria Lagarde and Rafael Gamo
Find out more about Gabriela and the AIA Tennessee Conference in the links below.
2024 AIA Tennessee Conference on Architecture
Gabriela Carrillo