Wrinkles

Research, Film
Mexico City, Mexico
M.Arch Thesis at MIT
Drawing acquired by MIT Museum as permanent collection
2022

This multimedia research investigates the aging of architecture. A building is never a static object but a living being that grows - a building exchanges care. Rooted in a standard residential building in the center of Mexico City - one with 70 years of history being born, lived, earthquake-destructed, abandoned, repaired, and cared for - this project traces the reciprocal relationship between the life cycle of the building and the lives unfolding within it.

Working closely with the local residents, this project borrows the camera as a spatial tool to experiment with film language, 3D scanning, digital fabrication and robotic printing. From matters to actions, between bodies and rituals, an alternative literacy is composed that breaks the binary of before/after in architecture design. By disentangling the gendered and often invisible labor of upkeep, the project foregrounds maintenance not as an afterthought but as a generative, political force in the built environment.

“This building is not just composed of 16 floor slabs and 40 walls. But rather, 160,000 broom strokes, 24,000 wipes, 1,000 hammering, 20 pipe replacements.”

Film Screening
Screening and Lecture, Architecture + Urbanism Public Lecture Series, MIT Department of Architecture, USA, 2025
Screening, “Forms of Care”, Salt Beyoğlu, Türkiye, 2025
Screening, XXII Bienal de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de Chile, Chile, 2025
Official Selection, Arquitectura Film Festival Santiago, Chile, 2024
Official Selection, Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2023
Official Selection, ArchFilmLund Film Festival, Sweden, 2023
Finalist, Venice Architecture Film Festival, Italy, 2023
Finalist, 17th Istanbul International Architecture and Urban Films Festival, Türkiye, 2023
Official Selection, Vienna Architektur. Film. Sommer 2023, Austria, 2023
(excerpt “Caretaking”) Shortlisted, Copenhagen Architecture Festival Film Mosaic Competition, Denmark, 2023
Winner, “Transmedial Media Architecture” at Media Architecture Biennale, Canada, 2023

Special thanks to Lila from Mexico City; thesis advisor William O’Brien Jr. and readers Jeffrey Landman, Rosalyne Shieh, Anne Whiston Spirn

Wrinkles / She Crossed / Kiss and Bones / Spring, Along Beijing Central Axis / Melt, Remelt / No Leftovers No Left Out / Spine / Just A Level / Intimate Immensity / We Build / How Green? / Frozen Forces / Portfolio Agency / Vessels / Water Garden / Commissions