PALMA Cover ARCHIVO Gallery in Mexico With Sea of Shredded Plastic.

In Mexico City, the collective culture and consciousness has learned to thrive and prosper within a hostile and chaotic environment. At the same time, there has always been a tendency towards reuse and repair rather than discarding, probably more as a result of necessity than from an environmental conscience. PALMA‘s exhibition design for #MXCD01 at ARCHIVO Gallery in Mexico seeks to portray these characteristics through the use of shredded plastic. The material is no longer seen as waste but rather as a raw material, highlighting a critical new step in a circular industrial process. “Its colour palette still speaks the story of consumption from the area it was compiled. It is at this point of its existence, a limbo prior to being homogenised, that we decide to introduce it into the ARCHIVO gallery,” explains PALMA.

The entrance flows onto a platform which takes up the whole width of the space. This metaphorical pier offers a moment for contemplation, from which one can appreciate the exhibition platforms like islands in a sea of shredded plastic. The path through the archipelago then flows onto the terrace, which is contained by benches from which to enjoy the garden and the pond.

PALMA is a young architecture office based in Mexico City, founded by Ilse Cárdenas, Regina De Hoyos, Diego Escamilla & Juan Luis Rivera. The practice is geared towards finding integrated and individual solutions to each architectural problem. “Our approach is based off a detailed analysis of the immediate context and a design process which is open to experimentation and exploration.” The result is a constant search towards an architecture of atmospheres which move people, making them feel they truly belong.