Mexico City-based Rocha is a leader of the contemporary generation of architects who have been instrumental in remaking Mexico City over the last few decades. Rocha’s office, Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha, is known for a wide range of buildings, installations, and architecture-based interventions, including the San Pablo Oztotepec Market, the Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and the House for Abandoned Children. Through the work of his Taller de Arquitectura and his teaching at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and throughout Latin America and North America, Rocha’s concepts of form, composition, and material have deeply influenced a generation of architects and urbanists. Rocha’s work establishes a deep commitment to sustainability—he explores local materials and traditional labor practices—and has a profound connection to context.
Among many other awards and recognitions, in 2014 Rocha was part of the Architectural League of New York’s prestigious Emerging Voices program and his work is part of the Centre Pompidou collection in Paris.
In 2023, the remodeling and expansion of the Anahuacalli Museum in Mexico City received the 2023 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP). Awarded by the IIT College of Architecture, the biennial prize recognizes a built work in the Americas that best embodies architectural excellence.
The remodeling and expansion of the Anahuacalli Museum, along with the Estudio Iturbide in Mexico City and the Fabrica de San Pedro Cultural Centre in Uruapan, are included in the exhibition A Lot With Little curated by London-based architect and curator Noemí Blager with films by Tapio Snellman. The exhibition, supported by Arper, is presented in Chicago by MAS Context.
This event was related to the exhibition A Lot With Little on display at the Reading Room at MAS Context between October 26, 2023, and January 27, 2024.
This lecture is a partner program of the 2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Anahuacalli Museum, remodeling and expansion, Mexico City, 2021. © Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha.
Anahuacalli Museum, remodeling and expansion, Mexico City, 2021. © Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha.
Anahuacalli Museum, remodeling and expansion, Mexico City, 2021. © Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha.
Anahuacalli Museum, remodeling and expansion, Mexico City, 2021. © Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha.
Anahuacalli Museum, remodeling and expansion, Mexico City, 2021. © Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha.
President Raj Echambadi, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
President Raj Echambadi, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Dean Reed Kroloff, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Dean Reed Kroloff, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Audience, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Audience, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Iker Gil, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Iker Gil, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Mauricio Rocha, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Mauricio Rocha, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Audience, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Audience, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Audience, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Audience, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Mauricio Rocha, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Mauricio Rocha, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Audience, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Audience, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Iker Gil and Mauricio Rocha, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Iker Gil and Mauricio Rocha, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Audience, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Audience, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Dean Reed Kroloff, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Dean Reed Kroloff, Iker Gil, and Mauricio Rocha, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Audience, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
Audience, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
From left to right: Dirk Denison, Iker Gil, Mauricio Rocha, Raj Echambadi, and Reed Kroloff, IIT, Chicago, 2023. © Judith Rackow. Courtesy of IIT College of Architecture.
