Portal of Awareness

Nescafé commissioned 8 artists (Rojkind Arquitectos, Francisco Serrano, Mario Schjetnan, Bernardo Gómez-Pimienta, Fernanda Canales, Manuel Cervantes, Alejandro Quintanilla and Alejandro Castro) to develop site-specific installations on Paseo de la Reforma, one of the city’s most important avenues, with the basic requirement of utilizing a maximum of 1500 metal coffee mugs.

Rojkind Arquitectos conceived its installation as a portal activated by city dwellers and the everyday stimuli of Mexico City. It combines a common every-day-life object, a mug, with a basic common architectural construction material, steel rebar. The rebar, configured as a mesh, is used as the primar y structure for the mugs, which are then mechanically attached to it. The mesh is woven from 41 main arches, ranging in length from 10 to 12 meters, intercepted by two additional layers of 56 diagonals each, creating 1497 nodes where the mugs reside.

The final shape of the portal, along with the different colors of the mugs selected, reinforce the sense of movement in the piece, which plays a key role in the concept of the project. The steel planters anchor the structure and allow for the vines to grow in between the rebar; in time the outside of the structure will be covered in green foliage, while the inside will continue to display the gradient of the mug’s chromatics. The play of the shadow’s patterns casted on the sidewalk adds an extra layer that shifts throughout the day. This installation is intended to be in place during the winter months of 2012, providing a space of expression and interaction in the public realm.