ORU - Oficina de Resiliencia Urbana and TERREMOTO

In this video, two of the winning firms present their work at the fourth evening of the 2023 Emerging Voices online lecture series. 

Adriana Chávez, Victor Rico, and Elena Tudela, the founders of Mexico City-based ORU – Oficina de Resiliencia Urbana, shared their work through four themes: designing through resilience, scaled up and systemic thinking, design as a tool that contributes to collective intelligence, and collaborative work for a new form of inhabitation. They presented several of the firm’s projects, ranging from recreational facilities for low-income neighborhoods to water management tools for districts, and strategic environmental plans for metropolitan regions, showing their multi-scalar commitment to bolstering sustainability and resilience through architecture. 

David Godshall and Story Wiggings of Los Angeles and San Francisco-based TERREMOTO, opened their presentation by speaking of how the firm affirms its ideals through its internal structure, touching on points including 40 hour work caps and ensuring fair payment to all workers. They then presented a number of TERREMOTO’s projects, showing through them the principles the studio is thinking about, among which are: honoring the site, using hyperlocal materials and plants, minimizing demolition, and honoring indigenous land practices.

The presentations will be followed by a conversation with Fernanda Canales and Zach Mortice, two members of the 2023 Emerging Voices jury. The discussion focuses on the value of labor in architecture and the collaborative nature of the discipline’s future.