The Mexicali Experimental Project
Instituto de Investigaciones Culturales IIC-Museo UABC, Mexicali, Mexico
February 5, 2025 - September 21, 2025
This exhibition is the result of two years of commissions, conversations, and collaborations with architects, artists, authors, and institutions connected to The Mexicali Experiment: a social housing project carried out between 1975 and 1976 by architect Christopher Alexander and a team of collaborators from the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) and the University of California at Berkeley. This research began when INSITE commissioned artist Pastizal Zamudio to develop a new work as part of Commonplaces, a curatorial initiative led by Andrea Torreblanca that explores micro-histories of the border region between Mexico and the United States. During initial discussions with Torreblanca, Zamudio recounted that they had spent the early years of their life in a section of Alexander’s project known as the Builder’s Yard or El Sitio: a group of structures—part exhibition space, part meeting place, part workshop—next to the houses of the five families who participated in the project that are now under the auspices of UABC. Zamudio developed a site-specific intervention based on Alexander’s main ideas surrounding vernacular, emotional, and spiritual architecture. This approach prompted a series of new reflections regarding the history of the Mexicali Experimental Project and the importance of recovering its unique legacy.
This effort was joined by Felipe Orensanz, who, in collaboration with Rodrigo Durán, had been researching Alexander’s project in the context of social housing projects in modern Mexico. In May 2023, INSITE and the Architecture and Design Department of UABC, led by Alejandro Peimbert, organized a three-day encounter at El Sitio that included the inauguration of Zamudio’s installation, and the construction of a temporary pavilion designed by local architecture firms Veintedoce (Beatriz Villegas and Ángel Verduzco) and Localista (Giancarlo Reyes). A series of round table discussions took place with the participation of Rudy Argote, Gina Cebey, Adriana Cuéllar, Marcel Sánchez, Teddy Cruz, Alejandro D'Acosta, Howard Davis, AJ Kim, Michael Mehaffy, Felipe Orensanz, Alejandro Peimbert, Andrea Torreblanca and Lorenia Urbalejo. INSITE later expanded the project with two additional initiatives. The first was the seventh edition of the INSITE Journal, including commissioned essays by Georgina Cebey, Dorit Fromm, AJ Kim, Nancy Kwak, Felipe Orensanz, and Alejandro Peimbert. The second is the current exhibition, The Mexicali Experimental Project, which was initially presented in November 2024 at Bread & Salt Gallery in San Diego.
The exhibition includes new artistic commissions from artists Pastizal Zamudio and Cynthia Hooper, as well as materials from several archives, including the Christopher Alexander and Center for Environmental Structure Archives, as well as the personal collections of Dorit Fromm, Peter Bosselmann, and Howard Davis. It was curated by Torreblanca in collaboration with Orensanz; CRO Studio (Adriana Cuéllar and Marcel Sánchez) led the exhibition design and Alejandro Magallanes the visual identity. The presentation of The Mexicali Experimental Project in San Diego was complemented by a rich public program that included conversations with Judith Barry, Thom Mayne, Ginger Nolan, Teddy Cruz, Fonna Forman, and Renee Chow, as well as a series of pedagogical activities coordinated by the Transborder Association of Architectural Education (TAEA).