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Theme: Unexpected boundaries

Artist Reference: Do Ho Suh's fabric sculptures: https://www.wallpaper.com/art/sheer-will-artist-do-ho-suhs-ghostly-fabric-sculptures-explore-the-meaning-of-home
(only follow visual style rather than artist's intention)

Intention: Boundaries between Vietnam Corner lady and myself, who are both Vietnamese yet come from different backgrounds

Aim: Build a prototype of the boundary.

Ponderings: Must the prototype be of the location as well, or just the boundary/wall?

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Hello Ms Jessica! I was wondering, how do I store my pastel drawing so that it will not smudge what I have drawn?

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Theme: School Life?
Artist Reference: see attached for Sound of COS, where sound is used in a humourous manner (sound not assessed)
Considerations: The music you have included gives the film a commercial vibe. Would that help you evoke a feeling for an experience or memory? The transitions are great and we can see the various scenes in a school setting, and recognise them immediately. What about school life would you like your audience to notice?

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Theme: Self-identity
Film chosen: Fight Club
Artist reference: ?
Considerations:

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Theme: Enlightenment, Belief, Spiritual Awakening, Influence?
Artist reference: James Turrell (light artist), Henri Matisse
Considerations: Sherman, you have created 3 collages thus far, and are recommended to explore more varied forms of artmaking.

1. The approach to use paper cutout to emboss the positive space of Kanye West as the main focal point is creative and successful. The circling figures illuminated through strong use of contrast of white negative space against spray painted vibrant colours is successful.

2. There is slight awkwardness of the dispositioning of James Turrell's architectural building from the vibrant background, although there is harmony in the colour scheme. Can't quite put my finger on it at the moment. Maybe you can look at it and update me if you feel the same.

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15/4 Project 2: Tactile Exploration (3D)

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15/4 Project 2: Tactile Exploration (3D)

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Material: Clay and Wire
Theme: Juxtaposition, Gluttony, Satire, Humour and Irony
Artist reference: Surrealism, Dadaism, Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp
Considerations: You have created a sculpture with 2 subject matter: drumstick and a scrawny figure seated on it. There is juxtaposition on the combination of the two together which directs us to challenge the more frequent representation of a big man with bones (gluttony/greed). What does the role reversal say about the work and what are you critiquing through your work?

1. MARCEL DUCHAMP: He is a great satrical artist who started us on looking at artworks beyond their function. As he signs off his name on a urinal or a doodle over Mona Lisa's painting, what is he telling us about art? What is he challenging us through this humourous approach (some did not find it humourous!)?

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Humor in Modern and Contemporary Art - Artsper Magazine

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Traditionnally, we have this idea that contemporary art is supposed to be a serious matter and humour would be on the lowest ladders of our mental scale.

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Theme:
Artist reference: Impressionism (gestural brushstrokes), Fauvism (colour)
Medium: Acrylic Painting
Considerations:

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15/4 Project 2: Tactile Exploration (3D)

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15/4 Project 2: Tactile Exploration (3D)

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Material: Clay
Theme: Identity, Facades of yourself, Veil
Artist reference:
Considerations: You have used petal-like forms to surround the face, but it is currently sitting between

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Theme: Self-identity, Escapism
Artist reference: Amanda Heng, Edward Hopper
Consideration: There seems to be a recurring mention of yourself presented through various types of reflective surfaces (from car rear mirror, from a glass, etc). This is an interesting repetition to drive at the idea of looking through and beyond one's reflection. The image you had captured of yourself gazing out the window onto the streaks of road lights from the rear car mirror has a strong sense of nostalgia and longing for a space, place and time elsewhere. Is this something you want to show in the various scenes of your everyday? What are you longing for?

Amanda Heng uses a small handheld mirror commonly identified in a woman's dressing table as a window through which she is able to see where she is walking to, as she bites a single heeled woman's court shoe in her mouth. What is she showing? Why a durational recording of this performance? How does a photograph of this differ from a performance spanned over hours?

Edward Hopper paints many scenes of lonely figures in a seemingly modern city which should be bustling with life. What techniques does he use to create this feeling or emotion?

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Theme: Looking within, self-reflection, cyborg-self, self-consciousness
Artist Reference:
Techniques: Cut, Paste, Contrast, Emphasis, Line, Watercolour
Considerations:  Frontal composition and perspective of self is captured, with interesting manipulation of the skull opening to reveal 3 imagery: scrunched up paper, illuminated light, goldfish. What do they represent? Are your intentions clear?

1. CONTRAST: There can be greater contrast of the background and the eyes to exaggerate the attention of the many eyes akin to a surveillance camera.

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Theme:
Artist Reference: Zhang Xiaogang (use of colours)
Techniques: Cut, Paste, Crop, Layer, Overlap, Perspective, Proportion, Contrast, Emphasis
Considerations:

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Additional comments:
1. MEDIUM: Response gathered from peers suggests some key observations - quiet and still settings, with relatable scenes from home and school. We were drawn to the different mediums used for each scene. Perhaps this move is not necessary beyond experimentation, as it diverts our attention from the true focus of the work: cropping scenes as fragments of your daily life.
2. The second set of work is more successful without the variety of mediums, and communicates more effectively. Cropping successful and is able to immediately draw us towards a comparison of the two frames.

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Additional comments:
1. FORM: Response from peers suggest that there is insufficient details or inaccurate study of form to represent the tiger's head successfully. Much improvement needed to successfully establish the use of a tiger as a symbol of power.
2. GESTURE: Gesture of figure is unsuccessful in communicating fear. Many responded that it showed a thinking character. Adjustment needed if you would like to show a timid character from childhood. Use a reference picture.

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Additional comments:
1. MOOD: There is good amount of response from peers about the solemn attitude despite the figure's apparent lack of facial features. The intentional removal of eyes, mouth and ears calls to question: How much and what facial features do we need to define a human representation? What does this say about the human identity and how we recognise one another?
2. ABSTRACTION: Can you push the limits of this work more to further abstract the face? Is the neck and 3D head necessary if the focus is on the face?

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Style: Consider Negative Space drawing
Artist Reference: MC Escher OR Impressionist artists (Pointillism)
Technique: Colour Pencil
Consideration: What is out of the frame? Can a single scene be captured as various narratives in different compositions cropped down?

The space in which marks are not left ('unseen') is as important to tell a story.

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One of the most important lessons you learn as a student of design is the importance of negative space. For every mark you make you are changing the space around it. Artists understand that this negative space is just as important as the mark itself.

Visually this is a critical lesson, but it is equally important as a way to evaluate other aspects of life. When you are listening to someone speak it is also important to hear what they aren't saying. To appreciate Colorado's weather you need to acknowledge the absence of Missouri's weather. For every headline begging for your attention there is an untold story few can hear. Negative space is everywhere but it takes practice to see it.

When I was a boy, I spent many dreary Missouri days studying my favorite artist, M.C. Escher. I was captivated by how Escher could break your brain by bending the positive and negative space of his art. Echoes of these brain-twisting lessons still reverberate in my skull. It has made me a skeptical adult, permanently questioning visual information, constantly on the lookout for fraudsters who manipulate our perceptions to serve selfish needs.

If you strive to develop an eye for negative space it's hard not to feel like the lost beings in an Escher print. We sit in empty rooms, complete meaningless tasks, fill our bellies with tasteless food. Gravity shifts, stairs flip, and it is hard to know if we are going up or down. Faceless people pass us, incapable of eye contact, destined to remain strangers. How can you not feel lost in this uncanny valley? It appears to be three-dimensional and yet something is missing.

Our education system rarely concerns itself with negative space. Schools are primarily interested in cramming the kids' brains with facts, memorizable shortcuts, and stats that are easily tested. The negative space of education is only occassionally breached by the rare teacher who touches the lives of her students. Some of us can point to these rare exceptions, we remember a teacher who encouraged our questions, fueled our uncertainty, and pointed us at unknown worlds where our curiosity found open space for our imagination to thrive.

Our political system denies negative space. To be an independent thinker in an era of partisans will almost certainly cause your voice to be shouted down from both directions. So we remain silent.

Negative space in the workplace is equally scarce. Businesses require process, they are well-lubricated systems that flush out the unpredictable in favor of safe, recreateable, predictable humans. Even Apple, a company where thinking different is supposedly honored, can do little more than tip a hat in the direction of ellusive free thinkers. Strip away the fluff from their advertising masterpiece and you get this:

"Here's to the ones who see things differently. You can't ignore them because they try to change things."

Perhaps that is the most we can strive for, the ability to change things. But how? How do you think different? How do you train yourself to see the negative space hiding right in front of your eyes?

Perhaps the answer is to once again step inside the artwork of Escher. You've spent your life climbing a staircase in search of answers. Perhaps it's your first time around, maybe it's your last. With each loop you gain a little clarity, and for the first time you notice a doorway. You step into its negative space and all of a sudden...

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One of the most important lessons you learn as a student of design is the importance of negative space. For every mark you make you are changing the space around it. Artists understand that this negative space is just as important as the mark itself.

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26/3 Project 1: Tactile Exploration (3D)

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26/3 Project 1: Tactile Exploration (3D)

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Material: Modelling Clay
Artist Reference: Ai Wei Wei's Zodiac animals
Technique: Pinch, Roll, Scratch, Add
Consideration: The idea of a tiger as a symbol to capture a time or experience in your childhood is a unique and personal one. Can you consider manipulation of the tiger head to draw the connection to your childhood? (E.g. Adding it to a separate body?)

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26/3 Project 1: Tactile Exploration (3D)

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26/3 Project 1: Tactile Exploration (3D)

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Material: Clay
Artist Reference: Cubist artists (Picasso, Cezanne - multiple perspectives/ angular cuts)
Technique: Slice, Fold, Cut
Consideration: How can you apply the quality of angular corners to your work more meaningfully to convey something? You have chosen to present a head in a distorted manner: why? What does it convey about (identity?)?

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Style: Aerial flat lay, Combining together, Connecting, Arranging
Artist Reference: Joseph Cornell, El Anatsui
Consideration: Weaving of memories and experiences through representations of objects of childhood (or stages in your life). How have you presented them? Is there order, sequence or category? If so, why?

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French assemblage artist calls for attention to the ocean pollution

Caroline Secq (1956) is born in Lille, the city located near the border between France and Belgium. After taking a Master's degree in Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica (USA), she did design work for an advertisement company. She later worked as a press officer, and then became an international consultant in communication. Her versatility never ceased, as she started the assemblage of found objects.

Secq picked up plastic wastes, which were once thrown into the sea and washed up on the shore. In her studio situated in Landes, the South West of France, there are piles of rubbish that she collected from the nearest beach. The artist carefully composes them on a panel - usually about 1 metre long. Some of her works are like neatly aligned toy box, or the others look like the three-dimensional motifs on a chiffon dress.

Her strict policy allows no additional colouring or cutting of the objet trouvé. In fact, there is no problem in finding rubbishes that fit into the artwork. That's simply because she can find anything on the beach, any colour and any shape, really anything that satisfies her aesthetic inspiration. There is immense amount of plastics that the sea spit out.

It is estimated that the plastics thrown into the ocean are around 8 million tonne per year (about 8.8 million US ton), nearly equivalent to 1.2 million elephants. 236,000 tonnes out of them are to be microplastics, the tiny fragments of the plastics, that are killing many sea animals and fishes. The marine animals who ate large quantities of plastics end up in disease or, if not, in a constant starvation because plastics fills up the stomach but gives no nutritious value. Secq's work is quick to grip our attention because of the unique feature and attractive pattern. But if looking closely at each object, we will find a shocking reality of the pollution that threats the marine ecology.

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French assemblage artist calls for attention to the ocean pollution

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Caroline Secq (1956) is born in Lille, the city located near the border between France and Belgium. After taking a Master's degree in Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica (USA), she did design work for an advertisement company. She later worked as a press officer, and then became an international consultant in communication.

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Theme: Nature, Beauty, Commodity, The Unnatural
Artist Reference: see attached
Techniques: Cut, Paste, Crop, Layer, Overlap, Perspective, Proportion, Contrast
Considerations: You have used compositional techniques to direct our attention to a strong focal point. The use of digital collaging to manipulate an imagined scene can be further enhanced by introducing some traditional mediums to the scene. Use of more personal images/photos/items can help.

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Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao refuses to produce computer visualisations of designs still in progress. She says that making collages helps her to develop more exciting buildings.

Bilbao's work is currently on show at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark. The exhibition doesn't contain any computer renderings; instead designs for projects such as Casa Ajijic and Vivienda Popular are shown through models, sketches and collages.

The architect doesn't like finalised images as they can become obstacles in the creative process. She prefers collage as she believes it fosters a more collaborative approach to design.

"I want my architecture to be a platform for anyone to create their own way of living," she told Dezeen. "I think a collage accepts all of those personalities, diversities and complexities that are not only my ideas."

"A collage also accepts processes, it accepts mistakes," she continued. "I like to think that our buildings are the same."
Renders "dangerous and damaging"
Bilbao, 47, vowed to stop producing renderings for clients following her first residential project. Her client had been surprised by the result, because he had a fixed idea in his mind based on an early rendering.

"He stopped following the process because he fixed an image into his mind," she explained. "I thought, this could be very dangerous and damaging to the creative process."

"I totally believe that the process is a dialogue," she continued, "and obviously in that case it became only a monologue, because my mind evolved and his mind stayed with that image."

"After that we banned renders from our process, until the very end," she said.
Collages were "a revelation"
Collages that feature in the Louisiana exhibition include a conceptual floor plan of the Mazatlán Aquarium, which is currently under construction, and a visual of the Culiacan Botanical Garden.

The idea to start using collage came to Bilbao by chance, while working on a proposal for one of her best-known projects, Casa Ventura.

Ahead of a meeting with the client, there wasn't enough time to complete a proper model, so her team improvised. They created a quick foam model, cut it in half, then used Photoshop to turn it into a composite image.

"It was the first collage we made for a client and for me it was a revelation," she said. "Collage became an incredible tool for design with a lot of meanings for us."
Collaboration is key
This collaborative technique epitomises Bilbao's entire approach to architecture. She often likes to involve other creative minds, rather than taking on everything herself.

A key example of this is the Ruta del Peregrino, a project to create architectural interventions along a 72-mile pilgrimage route in Jalisco, on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Bilbao invited respected names, from artist Ai Weiwei to Chilean architecture practice Elemental, to design different sections.

Collaboration is "not just important to me, it's the only way I do architecture", she explained.

"I really can't believe anyone that says they can do useful architecture for a lot of people from one single mind."
Architecture has power to change lives
Bilbao has worked on a variety of different types of projects, but housing is her biggest passion. As well as building luxury homes for rich clients, she has also worked on several prototypes for affordable, mass housing.

The big-budget projects inspire her when she is working on a more restricted scale and budget, she explains.

"I always think that, when you start out thinking on the maximum, you can arrive at incredible places, but when you start with a restriction you arrive at a restricted space," she suggested.

It is Bilbao's firm belief that every citizen has the right to a "dignified and enjoyable house" and, if the government is unable to provide that, then it's down to her as an architect to make a difference.

"I think architecture has the power to impact the lives of others," she said. "I take that very seriously."

Read on for an edited transcript of the interview:

Amy Frearson: Congratulations on the exhibition. I understand you've been working on it for the past two years. What did you want it to say about you and your work?

Tatiana Bilbao: We wanted to create these three environments which are: the mind, the process and the experience of our architecture. That's how I see it.

I really wanted to transmit the message about how we think, how we operate, how we create projects, and our resources for doing them. I hope people get that the process is very complex and it's very different from project to project. We really focus on each project's challenges, context, situation and people. Every project has its own process, its own mind and its own experience. We worry about trying to understand a lot of things, but also about creating an experience that's unique.

Amy Frearson: Can you tell me a bit more about your process? Your residential projects vary between luxury villas and affordable housing. Are you consistent in the way you approach these types of projects?

Tatiana Bilbao: Every design we do is created specifically for the person, for them to develop their own possibilities. My hope is that our architecture brings a certain platform to people's lives, as a source of inspiration to enhance their lives in many ways, whether it's a living space, a public space, an educational space or whatever. It's to allow them to create their own way of living. That is what we're wishing for. That is why every project is completely different to the next, and every project has its own very strange and different process. And we try to to integrate those different ways into the results.

Amy Frearson: The exhibition features a lot of collages. Why do you make these images, rather than renders?

Tatiana Bilbao: It's been a long history in the office and it really is part of the process of our office.

One of the most important phrases I remember from when I was studying was something I read from Rafael Moneo about the understanding of what a piece of architecture does to a city. It stuck in my mind. Every piece of architecture comes into context as part of a collage. Sometimes it becomes the detonator of many things, sometimes it's just one addition, sometimes it gets lost in that complexity, and sometimes it becomes the icon, the new point of reference for that context. I have always thought that my architecture comes to any context, that it adds something to the collage. I have always thought of my work in that way.

Every piece of architecture comes into context as part of a collage

Then, in the beginning, we were having difficulty understanding why we didn't like renders and realistic images. One day, it became very clear. When we finished the first house we built - it was not completely finished but it was almost there - the client said to me, "Tatiana this is not what I thought it was going to be". I asked him why and he started describing the second render he saw of the house during the conceptual process. I realised that he stopped imagining how the house was going to be after that. He stopped following the process because he fixed an image into his mind, as if it was a finished product. And, for sure it had changed completely because that was just a concept.

I started realising why he had never questioned things, he never realised the whole process of the evolution of the design. I thought, this could be very dangerous and damaging to the creative process. I totally believe that the process is a dialogue and obviously in that case it became only a monologue, because my mind evolved and his mind stayed with that image. After that we banned renders from our process until the very end, even though clients would ask to see renders. I would say no, there's models, there's drawings and that's it.

Then we made a discovery, almost by chance. For Casa Ventura, we were in a hurry and we wanted to do a big model but we didn't have the time. So we did a quick foam model that we cut, and then we photoshopped the section model with a photograph. It was the first collage we made for a client and for me it was a revelation. I understood how good it was. So we started really getting into it.

Amy Frearson: So for you, these images really capture the spirit of your design process?

Tatiana Bilbao: As I said, I want my architecture to be a platform for anyone to create their own way of living. I think a collage accepts all of those personalities, diversities and complexities that are not only my ideas. A collage also accepts processes, it accepts mistakes. I like to think that our buildings are the same, so it became very clear that collages were a very good way of representing our buildings.

We presented our first collage for a competition around five years ago. They only asked for one image and it was supposed to be a render, but it was a conceptual idea that they wanted. So we did a beautiful collage. We didn't win the competition - maybe because they didn't like our collage, or maybe our idea was too radical - but what I was really sure was that it was an incredible technique for showing that conceptual idea, and that it proved to be very helpful.

A collage allows a lot of voices to be in one place

Then we were asked to do a house we called Ways of Life. The brief called for a house that would respond to new ways of living, which it described as working and living in the same space. That for me was very strange because we have been working and living in the same spaces for centuries. We only decided after the Industrial Revolution that it was a good idea to divide them. For me, it was more about how the house can allow different ways of life.

We didn't have a client, it was just a proposal. So we decided to think about how we could create this platform for many ways of life, not only our idea of living and not only the general described idea of living. We started creating a chart of emotions and activities that we wanted to do. We were thinking about how space can represent communion between the inhabitants of a house. We started pulling out images and, little by little, more naturally, it started to become this collage. Then we decided to deliberately collage six moments of the house, with images that we found everywhere. When we had the six collages, we collaged them all together, and we started sketching on top of them.

Collage became an incredible tool for design with a lot of meanings for us. A collage allows a lot of voices to be in one place. That has allowed us to develop theories around possibilities of a project but also ways of representing projects.

Amy Frearson: You've worked on several collaborative projects in the past, like the Ruta del Peregrino and the Jardín Botánico. Do you think it's important to be collaborative in architecture?

Tatiana Bilbao: I really can't believe anyone that says they can do useful architecture for a lot of people from one single mind. I can't believe someone could say they understand everything, that they have all the tools to design something for someone else. I believe it is really hard to do that translation and I don't believe that you can have all the inputs that you need.

I think that every mind sees things in different ways and that really helps to create incredible input to a project where you're responding to someone else's way of life. It's not just important to me, it's the only way I do architecture. The times when I don't have the chance to collaborate with someone else for any reason, at least it's always a collaboration here in this office, it's a very horizontal way of working.

Amy Frearson: Tell me about some of the affordable housing projects you've worked on. What led you to work in this area?

Tatiana Bilbao: I think architecture has the power to impact the lives of others. I take that very seriously. And if it has that power, why don't we use it? I'm always thinking about why architects are not relevant to society, at least in my society, architects are truly not relevant at all. If you ask someone in the street what an architect is for they might say to fix the plumbing problem in my bathroom or to choose colours in houses. I've heard that before.

I'm always thinking about why architects are not relevant to society

We are very relevant for society in general, because that's how society is able to represent itself in a more general way, in terms of representing a time's history through architecture. But if you speak to an individual, they don't get why it is relevant directly for them. I think it's because we architects have failed to understand that we are able to provide that second most important necessity for a human being, which is living space.

The first most important necessity we have is our health. But the second is to have a refuge. We are not animals that can be living in the wilderness, we wouldn't survive. We have proven, as humanity, that caves are not enough for us. We need a space that is not only a refuge but that is able to allow for and inspire our lives. This is what architecture should be but I think we have forgotten that.

I wanted to be thinking about that all the time, so I decided to work very much in domesticity. And obviously a huge thing in my country is that not everyone has housing. And in my country, housing is one of the constitutional rights, every citizen has the right to a dignified and enjoyable house. Therefore the government has a mandate to provide housing for the people and it's not happening. At least not with the those words, dignified and enjoyable.

I decided to really tackle those issues and started doing research and then a kind of a political activism to change that. It was through by work but also through doing.

Amy Frearson: The exhibition curator, Kjeld Kjeldsen, describes you as a Robin Hood character, in the way that you use the profits from designing luxury, one-off houses to fund socially driven projects. What you do think about that?

Tatiana Bilbao: It's not my intention to be a Robin Hood. What I can say is that I have had the opportunity of exploring many possibilities when I have had a lot of budget, which has allowed me to understand where the basic ideas are when I don't have budget.

I always think that, when you start out thinking on the maximum, you can arrive at incredible places, but when you start with a restriction you arrive at a restricted space. That's my way of thinking. For me, being able to not just do projects where I need to meet a budget in 43 square-metres of space has allowed me to understand what the most important necessities are in a domestic space. I understand what the most basic things are needed for an inspired way of life, by doing them in places where I don't have a restriction.

I see it as opening possibilities in my mind and for others that maybe they don't have that opportunity of seeing them.

Amy Frearson: So in a way, you take the ideas you develop in high-end commissions and rework them for the masses?

Tatiana Bilbao: I've been trying to do that, as I said, for many years, all my life I think. You would probably call someone an innocent or naive person for thinking that architecture has power, but I do, I do truly believe in it. I do believe that architecture can be a platform for many, many things. And I will not give up.

Amy Frearson: Do you find other architects are receptive to your ideas about collaboration and activism?

Tatiana Bilbao: Well, no. Collaboration is not something that everybody would do. I think there's been so much history of competition. I really find that in the US, where competition is a basic survival tool. Because in the US, not being a welfare state, everything needs to be done by you. So in the end, you really have to compete with everyone to be able to protect your life. Even for your health services, you have to fight. That has been also the basis of capitalism and this is how society shapes us nowadays.

For me, architecture is a way of communicating with others

So I think that when it comes to collaboration, I have found that for some people it's very difficult. They don't understand the basic understanding of collaboration, which is respect and openness to the other one. That is probably the most interesting challenge that I've had in the way I've worked with some people. And with some others it's been very successful.

Amy Frearson: You often use materials in unusual ways. Can you tell me how you choose the materials for your designs?

Tatiana Bilbao: For me, architecture is a way of communicating with others. It's me who starts the first sentence or the first paragraph in the conversation, but then it needs to become a dialogue. I believe the only way that can happen successfully is if that conversation is very honest. So I think that the material needs to also be honest.

We have a very intense process of researching possibilities for each project, of understanding what material is going to allow us to do a building and what it is going to say about it. How does it really communicate our idea? How is it lived and seen?

It is also very important for us to think about where we are and where the material comes from, how can we get it and how we can build with it. That is a very big part of the process as well.

Amy Frearson: Can you give me some examples of how you've chosen materials for some projects?

Tatiana Bilbao: In the botanical garden, for example, it was very clear to us that we needed to use a material that would reflect the spaces, becoming this architecture that is imposed on this very beautiful nature that is in the garden. Through this imposition is the possibility for people to do activities that they cannot do in the exterior. We as human beings need diversity, but also to some point become part of this by dialogue with nature. So we decided to use concrete, as a material that could be everything, the structure, the aesthetic definition, the installation, the acoustic protection, etc. And that would allow us to create these beautiful spaces in one gesture.

We were then asked to create another set of buildings that would not use concrete because it became very expensive to build with. So we decided to use concrete blocks. We used concrete blocks in the same way, to do everything. And we challenged the material to do that.

We as human beings need diversity

In the Ajijic house, we needed to find a material that would allow us to build a very big house, or very big for the budget.

We had to find a material that would allow us to do that. After discarding a lot of them, we looked at what was there in the place. The answer was earth. I had seen another project done with rammed earth so I started researching it and we found a really good way of using this material, when you understand the possibilities of the material. That material allowed us to build this house in the way we wanted.

Amy Frearson: Can you tell me about some of the new projects you have coming up?

Tatiana Bilbao: The aquarium is being built and that's very exciting. Foundations take a long time, but now we are out of the ground rising up, which is a very beautiful moment in construction.

We are working on a church in Monterrey, which is also an incredible project, and we are working on a monastery in in Germany for Cistercian monks, which is a beautiful project. The museum project in Spain is evolving, which is not a museum but more a new model of what a museum could be in the future. We're doing a big residential project in Monterrey which is starting construction really soon, and we're doing a project in St Louis, Missouri, of individual houses.

We are also doing a lot of proposals for a new law that the government wants to pass on creating these quotas for social housing, in the middle of the city. So we're working with them and those proposals. We recently won three competitions and that's very exciting. I'm happy that they haven't started because we have so much work!

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"We banned renders" from the design process says Tatiana Bilbao

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Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao refuses to produce computer visualisations of designs still in progress. She says that making collages helps her to develop more exciting buildings. Bilbao's work is currently on show at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark.

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Theme: Female Empowerment, Gender roles, Bourgeoisie lifestyle, Fashion, Cultural Appropriation
Artist reference: see attached
techniques: Cut, Paste, Layer, Overlap, Contrast, Connect
Considerations: The sense of divide created by the direction of the women's faces is subtle and may not be suggestive enough of past and present. There is positive response from the audience where symbols of culture, gender and identity is picked up. Aesthetically, there can be more effective use of colours and lines applied to further enhance the symbols' meanings and connections.

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This Eclectic Magazine Spring SS14 fashion editorial finds an artsy edge with handmade floral collages.

Photographer Danil Golovkin teamed up with famed collage artist Ashkan Honarvar to merge art with fashion with his latest art series. This fashion editorial brings to life Henri Rousseau's famed painting The Dream. All collages are handmade with over fifty flowers.

Stylist Masha Mobelli pulls together some of the most iconic looks from the SS14 collections to get the full flower garden makeover including Gareth Pugh, Manish Arora, Shao Yen, and Mary Katrantzou. Bold spring florals bring out the prints and colors in the designers shot by Golovkin beforehand.

Bringing the garden to the pages are insects, snakes, frogs, birds and other fauna to match the flora. Not a single piece is used twice, and will never be used again for a collage, making the editorial truly a unique piece of art.

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This Eclectic Magazine Spring SS14 fashion editorial finds an artsy edge with handmade floral collages. Photographer Danil Golovkin teamed up with famed collage artist Ashkan Honarvar to merge art with fashion with his latest art series. This fashion editorial brings to life Henri Rousseau's famed painting The Dream.

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Theme:  Material Consumerism, Branding, Youth Culture, Marketing Regurgitation and Overload
Artist Reference: Pop Art, Consumerism Photography
Techniques: Cut, Paste, Layer, Overlap, Paint
Considerations: There is a clear message of branding overload across the work, with immediately identifiable labels to youth culture. There is a strong personal relevance, but may lack personal response as it does not trigger the audience to reflect or become curious. Painting of 2 figures in center of composition does not attract attention or make connection. Some refinements can be made to gesture, colour, or choice of image to create stronger connections to a personal story.