About Michel Rojkind

Michel Rojkind was born on Decem­ber 18, 1969, in Mex­ico City, Mex­ico. When he was 18, in 1987, he joined Aleks Syntek’s band “La Gente Nor­mal”, as its drum­mer, with whom he con­tin­ued play­ing untill 1999, when the band broke apart, after 12 years and 4 albums.

While play­ing with “La Gente Nor­mal”, Michel stud­ied archi­tec­ture and urban plan­ning at the Uni­ver­si­dad Iberoamer­i­cana in Mex­ico City and, after work­ing on his own for sev­eral years, he teamed up with Isaac Broid and Miquel Adria to estab­lish the archi­tec­tural firm “Adria+Broid+Rojkind” (1998−2002). With the idea of explor­ing new chal­lenges that address con­tem­po­rary soci­ety, to design com­pelling expe­ri­ences that go beyond mere func­tion­al­ity, and to con­nect at a deeper level with the intri­ca­cies of each project, he estab­lished, in 2002, an inde­pen­dent firm (rojkind arqui­tec­tos), rec­og­nized by Archi­tec­tural Record in 2005 as “one of the best ten Design Van­guard firms”.

Image gallery after the break— Image Gallery »

Phi­los­o­phy

By directly address­ing the users’ needs and see­ing them as poten­tial sources of inspi­ra­tion and strength, rojkind arqui­tec­tos seeks new direc­tions in archi­tec­tural prac­tice — evok­ing com­mon iden­ti­ties through the explo­ration of uncharted geome­tries that address ques­tions of space, func­tion, tech­nol­ogy, mate­ri­als, struc­ture, and con­struc­tion meth­ods related directly to geog­ra­phy, cli­mate, and local urban expe­ri­ences. By pur­su­ing all projects that rep­re­sent a par­tic­u­lar design chal­lenge, rojkind arqui­tec­tos has been able to develop a wide, and ever-growing, spec­trum of design ini­tia­tives; from the inti­ma­cies of small objects, to the intri­ca­cies of large build­ings and mas­ter plans. In recog­ni­tion to his inno­v­a­tive approach, the Vitra design museum, along with the Art Cen­ter Col­lege of Design, Pasadena, will be exhibit­ing rojkind arqui­tec­tos’ works in Ger­many, later this year, as part of Entry 2006 “Open House: Intel­li­gent Liv­ing by-design”.

With Arturo Ortiz, Derek Dellekamp and Tatiana Bil­bao, Michel Rojkind co-founded the MXDF Urban Research Cen­ter in 2004. The main object of MXDF is to inter­vene in spe­cific areas of the urban devel­op­ment, mod­i­fy­ing the pro­duc­tion of urban space in Mex­ico through the sys­tem­atic study of social, polit­i­cal, envi­ron­men­tal, global, and cul­tural con­di­tions. In order to achieve this, MXDF has been col­lab­o­rat­ing with sev­eral uni­ver­si­ties in Mex­ico, Stu­dio Basel, ETH Zürich, and MIT in Boston, Mass­a­chu­setts. MXDF is a non-profit organization.

Recently Michel has been short-listed to par­tic­i­pate in sev­eral large scale inter­na­tional projects, includ­ing Canada, Kuwait, and Spain. In addi­tion to being a reg­u­lar con­trib­u­tor in sev­eral archi­tec­tural and design pub­li­ca­tions, Michel Rojkind has served as the edi­tor of the tech­nol­ogy sec­tion “FWD” in the archi­tec­ture jour­nal “Arquine Inter­na­tional”, and has held sev­eral vis­it­ing pro­fes­sor­ships at sev­eral universities.

Aca­d­e­mic Experience

• Invited Pro­fes­sor by the Not­ting­ham Uni­ver­sity “School of the built Envi­ron­ment”, 2007.
• Invited Pro­fes­sor by the Uni­ver­si­dad Iberoamer­i­cana UIA for the ver­ti­cal work­shop MXDF, Mex­ico City, Mex­ico, 2005 to the date.
• Invited Pro­fes­sor by the Uni­ver­si­dad Anahuac Cam­pus Norte for the work­shop Sim­u­la­ciones, Mex­ico City, Mex­ico, 2003 – 2004.
• Invited Pro­fes­sor by the Uni­ver­si­dad Nacional Autónoma de Méx­ico UNAM for the exper­i­men­tal work­shop “MEXTROPOLIS”, Mex­ico City, Mex­ico, 2001 – 2002.

Main Lec­tures

• RIBA, Royal Insti­tute of British Archi­tects, Invited lec­ture, Lon­don, United King­dom, Jan­u­ary 2007.
• AUT, Architek­tur und Tirol, Invited lec­ture, Inns­bruck, Aus­tria, Jan­u­ary 2007.
• Uni­ver­sity of New­cas­tle, New­cas­tle, United King­dom, Jan­u­ary 2007.
• Not­ting­ham, School for the Built Envi­ron­ment, Jan­u­ary 2007.
• “Res­o­nance: ehcos along a per­sonal jour­ney”, Con­tem­po­rary art museum, Prague, Octo­ber, 2007.
• Guest Speaker at the AIA Awards, Col­orado, Octo­ber 2006.
• Guest Speaker at the Not­ting­ham Uni­ver­sity, Sep­tem­ber 2006.
• Uni­ver­sity of Penn­syl­va­nia, Syp­mo­sium, Philadel­phia, USA, April 2006.
• Guest Speaker in the “X Bienal de Arqui­tec­tura de Buenos Aires”, Argentina, Sep­tem­ber 2005.

Main Exhi­bi­tions

• “The World in One City: A sketch of Lon­don”, Lon­don Archi­tec­ture Bien­nale, United King­dom, June 2006.
• “Gen­era­cion D.F.”, nova arqui­tec­tura mex­i­cana, Barcelona, Spain, Decem­ber 2005.
• “Guangzhou Sec­ond Trien­ale of Con­tem­po­rary Art”, with MXDF, China, Novem­ber 2005.
• “GA Houses Project 2005″, GA Gallery, Japan, March-May 2005.
• “ABSoluut Archi­tec­tuur 02″, Sky Hall, Brus­sels National Air­port, 22^nd of April 2005.
• “Mex­ico City Dia­logues: New archi­tec­tural Prac­tices”, Cen­ter for Archi­tec­ture, N.Y. AIA, Jan­u­ary– May 2005.
• “50 Archi­tects”, Uni­ver­si­dad Iberoa­mar­i­cana, Mex­ico City, Méx­ico, 2005.
• “GA Houses Project 2004″, GA Gallery, Japan, March-May 2004.
• “III Bienal Iberoamer­i­cana”, in the mark of the V Bienal de Sao Paolo, Brasil.
• “GA Houses Project 2003″, GA Gallery, Japan, March-May 2003.
• “Bátis­seurs de lumiere: Archi­tec­tures Mex­i­canes Con­tem­po­raines”, Paris, France, 2003.
• “Panorama Emer­gente Iberoamer­i­cano”, III Bienal Iberoamer­i­cana, San­ti­ago de Chile, 2003.
• “The Pri­vate House”, Inter­na­tional Archi­tec­ture Sym­po­sium V.4.0, ITESM, Cam­pus Queré­taro, 2000.

Hon­ors & Awards

• Novem­ber 2006, jury chair for the AIA Awards Colorado.
• Decem­ber 2005, selected as one of the 10 inter­na­tional firms for “Archi­tec­tural Record’s Design Van­guard, 2005″.
• 2005, Invi­ta­tion by Vitra Design Museum, to par­tic­i­pate in the exhi­bi­tion “Open House: Intel­li­gent liv­ing by design”, 2006, Ger­many, as part of the “World Forum of Archi­tec­ture and Design”.
• 2002, Best Archi­tec­tural Ren­der­ings, Graphisoft, Hungary.
• 2002, Rrcord Houses of the Year, Archi­tec­tural Record.
• 2001, CEMEX Prize, Best House cat­e­gory for the “F2 House”.

Main Com­pe­ti­tions

• “Liv­er­pool — Con­tem­po­rary City”, 60,000 square meters of com­mer­cial, cul­tural and res­i­den­tial areas; Mex­ico City, Mex­ico, Jan­u­ary 2007 (private-invitation com­pe­ti­tion — deci­sion not made yet).
• Mid­dle East, 250,000 square meter mas­ter­plan, July 2006 (5-firm, private-invitation competition).
• “Your Absolute”, Con­do­minium Tower in Mis­sis­sauga, Toronto, Canada, Feb­ru­ary 2006 (final­ist in a world-wide open competition).
• Hotel Fiesta Inn Mon­ter­rey, Mon­ter­rey, Nuevo Leon, Mex­ico, Octo­ber 2005 (private-invitation competition).
• Hotel Fiesta Inn Can­cun, Can­cun, Quin­tana Roo, Mex­ico, Sep­tem­ber 2005 (private-invitation competition).
• Hotel in Oax­aca, 98 rooms, Oax­aca, Mex­ico, August 2005 (1^st place, private-invitation competition).
• Steel Museum (with Derek Dellekamp), Fun­di­dora Park, Mon­ter­rey, Nuevo Leon, Mex­ico 2005 (invited to competition).
• Vil­las Tacul, res­i­den­tial com­plex, 275 unit tow­ers and 10 vil­las, Can­cun, Quin­tana Roo, Mex­ico, 2005 (private-invitation competition).
• New Busi­ness School, Uni­ver­si­dad de las Amer­i­cas, Puebla, Mex­ico, 2005 (invited competition).
• Ephemeral Archi­tec­ture Com­pe­ti­tion for the Mex­i­can Pavil­lion in Madrid (Arco 2005), Conde Duque Cul­tural Cen­tre, 2004 (invited to competition).
• Span­ish Cul­tural Cen­tre, Mex­ico City, Mex­ico, 2004 (invited competiton).
• Design Cen­tre School (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Derek Dellekamp), Mex­ico City, Mex­ico, 2004 (invited to competiton).
• Mex­ico City Pub­lic Library, (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Dominique Per­rault, Miquel Adriá & Derek Dellekamp), Mex­ico City, Mex­ico, 2003 (hon­or­able men­tion, inter­na­tional competition).
• Casa de Fran­cia, New Head­quar­ters, (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Dominique Per­rault), Mex­ico City, Mex­ico, 2002 (private-invitation, inter­na­tional competition).
• New Sta­dium for the “Abierto Mex­i­cano de Tenis” (Mex­i­can Ten­nis Open), Aca­pulco, Guer­rero, Mex­ico, 2001 (1^st place, inter­na­tional competition).
• TELCEL head­quar­ters, Guadala­jara, Méx­ico, 1999 (1^st place, competition).
• TELCEL Head­quar­ters, Queré­taro, Méx­ico, 1999 (1^st place, competition).
• Stand design for Zanetti at the Pitty Image Luomo, Flo­rence, Italy, 1998 (1^st place, competition).

Work in Progress

• Res­i­den­tial

  • House in Barcelona, sin­gle fam­ily res­i­dence, 1 hectare plot in Maskefa, Barcelona, Spain, start­ing in 2007.
  • Vaca Pri­eta Ranch, house with barn, green­house and organic fields, sus­tain­able, 6 hectare plot, Atlangate­pec, Tlax­cala, Mex­ico, August 2006.
  • Michelet 43, apart­ment build­ing ren­o­va­tion, Mex­ico City, Mex­ico, 2006.
  • Vitra exhi­bi­tion “Open House: Intel­li­gent liv­ing by design”, Ger­many, as part of the “World Forum of Archi­tec­ture and Design”, Essen, Ger­many, 2006.
  • City Santa Fe, apart­ment build­ing with 180 units, Santa Fe, Méx­ico City, Mex­ico, 2005 – 2007.
  • Qi Build­ing Miami (with Derek Dellekamp), Miami, Florida, 2004 – 2006.
  • MD House, Ense­nada, Baja Cal­i­for­nia, Méx­ico, 2004 – 2006.

• Com­mer­cial

  • Hotel in Oax­aca, 98 rooms, Oax­aca, Méx­ico, August 2005 – 2007.
  • Myto Art Gallery, ren­o­va­tion, Colo­nia Roma, Mex­ico City, Mex­ico, July 2007.
  • Hotel del Angel, image ren­o­va­tion, 100 rooms, Mex­ico City, Mex­ico, June 2007.
  • Hotel San Fran­cisco, image ren­o­va­tion, 100 rooms, Mex­ico City, June 2007.

• Pub­lic

  • Toronto Island Air­port, Mas­ter­plan, Toronto, Canada, April 2006.
  • Mas­ter­plan Lin­coln Park, “Recov­er­ing the Pub­lic Space”, 106,000 square meters, Polanco, Méx­ico City, Mex­ico, 2004 — 2005.
  • Mas­ter­plan Masarik as an Urban Plaza, under­ground park­ing for 2,500 cars, 75,000 square meters, Polanco, Méx­ico City, Mex­ico. 2004 — 2006.
  • Mas­ter­plan Ira­pu­ato for a Cul­tural Expo (with MXDF) 48 ha, 2005 to date.
  • Bio­med­ical Research Cen­ter, More­lia, Michoacán IMSS, 2004 – 2006.

Selected Built Work

• Res­i­den­tial

  • PR34 House, Teca­machalco, Mex­ico City, Méx­ico, 2004.
  • MP3 Apart­ment, Colo­nia Con­desa, Méx­ico City, Méx­ico, 2003.
  • Tlax­cala 190, apart­ment build­ing in Colo­nia Con­desa, Méx­ico City, Méx­ico, 2002.
  • F2 House, Méx­ico City, Méx­ico, 2001.

• Com­mer­cial

  • Fal­con Head­quar­ters, San Ángel, Méx­ico City, Méx­ico, 2004.
  • Boska Bar, Méx­ico City, Méx­ico, 2004.

• Pub­lic

  • Mex­ico City National Videotheque, Mex­ico City, Mex­ico, 2002 (1^st place, invited competition).

Pub­li­ca­tions

• Books

  • Open House: Archi­tec­ture and Tech­nol­ogy for intel­li­gent liv­ing, Vitra Design Museum, Essen, Ger­many, 2006.
  • Casa Latino Aamer­i­cane, Electa, Italy, 2006.
  • DD / Design Doc­u­ments, Mono­grá­fico, rojkind arqui­tec­tos, Korea, in Process 2008.
  • Teoría + Praxis, Méx­ico, June 2006.
  • Amplia­ciones de vivien­das, Spain, Feb­ru­ary 2006.
  • Art Inven­tion House, Riz­zolli, USA, Novem­ber 2005.
  • Ideas inte­ri­ors, Méx­ico, Octo­ber 2005.
  • Ideas houses, Méx­ico, Octo­ber 2005.
  • Arqui­tec­tura de inte­ri­ores, Spain, July 2005.
  • Absoluut Archi­tec­tuur, Bel­gium, April 2005.
  • Lo mejor del siglo XXI vol­ume 2, Méx­ico, Decem­ber 2004.
  • Baths & Kitchens 2, inside glance, Mex­ico, 2004.
  • Méx­ico en España, Feria de Arte Con­tem­porá­neo, Spain, 2004.
  • World houses now, Thames & Hud­son, United King­dom, 2004.
  • Atlas of Con­tem­po­rary Archi­tec­ture, Phaidon, United King­dom, May 2004.
  • 20 Architetti per venti case, Electa, Italy, 2003.
  • New Home, Con­ran Octo­pus, USA, 2003.

• Mag­a­zines

  • Weekly Paper, China, Jan­u­ary 2007
  • Space 467, Korea, Sep­tem­ber 2006.
  • Inno­v­a­tive Home, USA, Octo­ber 2006.
  • L’arca, Italy (in process).
  • Arquine 37, Mex­ico, Sep­tem­ber 2006.
  • Pasajes 79, Spain, Sep­tem­ber 2006.
  • Summa +81, Argentina, Sep­tem­ber 2006.
  • D La Repub­licca, Italy, Sep­tem­ber 2006.
  • Plaza Mag­a­zine, Switzer­land, August 2006.
  • Metrop­o­lis, USA, August 2006.
  • Volk­swa­gen Mag­a­zine, Poland, August 2006.
  • Poder y Nego­cios, Mex­ico, August 2006.
  • Archi­MAD Mag­a­zine, Fin­land, August 2006.
  • Egg Mag­a­zine, Tai­wan, August 2006.
  • Future, Spain, June 2006.
  • File Mag­a­zine, Mex­ico, June 2006.
  • Civil Enge­neer Mag­a­zine, USA, May 2006.
  • Domus, Italy, April 2006.
  • Frame, The Nether­lands, April 2006.
  • Tatlin, Rus­sia, March 2006.
  • IW Mag­a­zine # 48, Tai­wán, March 2006.
  • Arquine 48, Mex­ico, March 2006.
  • Dis­eño Inte­rior, Spain, March 2006.
  • Entre Muros (Reforma News­pa­per), Mex­ico, Feb­ru­ary 2006.
  • Mon­i­tor, Rus­sia, Jan­u­ary 2006.
  • Obras, Méx­ico, Jan­u­ary 2006.
  • Nueva Arqui­tec­tura de inte­ri­ores, Spain, Jan­u­ary 2006.
  • Archi­tec­tural Record Design Van­guard 2005, USA, Decem­ber 2005.
  • Casabella, Italy, Decem­ber 2005.
  • Spaces Mag­a­zine, United King­dom, Decem­ber 2005.
  • Nau­jas Namas, Lithua­nia, Novem­ber 2005.
  • Dwell, USA, Decem­ber 2005.
  • Wall­pa­per*, United King­dom, Novem­ber 2005.
  • Nau­jas Namas, Lithua­nia, Octo­ber 2005.
  • Häuser Mag­a­zine, Ger­many, Octo­ber 2005.
  • Detail’06, Tai­wán, Octo­ber 2005.
  • Casas & Gente, Mex­ico, Sep­tem­ber 2005.
  • Vivienda y dec­o­ración, Chile, Sep­tem­ber 2005.
  • Casam­ica, Italy, Sep­tem­ber 2005.
  • Häuser mag­a­zine, Ger­many, August 2005.
  • Mon­i­tor Mag­a­zine, Rus­sia, August 2005.
  • IW Mag­a­zine # 44, Tai­wán, July 2005.
  • Obras Mag­a­zine, Méx­ico, July 2005.
  • Metrópo­lis Mag­a­zine, U.S.A., July 2005.
  • AMC Mag­a­zine, France, June 2005.
  • File Mag­a­zine, Méx­ico, June 2005.
  • Pol Oxy­gen, Aus­tralia, June 2005.
  • Entre Muros (Per­iódico Reforma) Méx­ico, June 2005.
  • A+U, Houses, Japan, April 2005.
  • IW Mag­a­zine # 43, Tai­wan, April 2005.
  • L’architecture d’aujourd’hui, France, April 2005.
  • Metrópo­lis Mag­a­zine, U.S.A., June 2005.
  • Azure Mag­a­zine, Canada, May 2005.
  • AIT Mag­a­zine, Ger­many, April 2005.
  • Summa + 71, Argentina, March 2005.
  • Met­alo­cus # 15, Spain, May 2004.
  • Pre­mium, Méx­ico, March 2005.
  • A+D, Turkey, Feb­ru­ary 2005.
  • Obras Mag­a­zine, Méx­ico, Decem­ber 2005.
  • Arquine 30, Méx­ico, Decem­ber 2004.
  • Arquine 29, Méx­ico, Sep­tem­ber 2004.
  • Wall­pa­per* United King­dom, Decem­ber 2004.
  • Arqui­tec­tura & Con­str­cao, Por­tu­gal, Novem­ber 2004.
  • Quien Mag­a­zine, Mex­ico, Sep­tem­ber 2004.
  • Spot Mag­a­zine, Mex­ico, June 2004.
  • Ambi­entes, Chile, Novem­ber 2004.
  • Neo 2, España, Decem­ber 2004.
  • DF Mag­a­zine, Méx­ico, Sep­tem­ber 2004.
  • GA Houses 86 , Japan, May 2004.
  • GA Houses 82, Japan, May 2004.
  • GA Houses 80, Project 2004, Japan, 2004.
  • Caras Mag­a­zine, Mex­ico, Decem­ber, 2003.
  • Deep Mag­a­zine, Mex­ico, Novem­ber 2003.
  • C3 corea No.249, Korea, 2003.
  • Archi­tec­tural Review, United King­dom, Feb­ru­ary 2003.
  • Axxis # 109, Colom­bia, 2003.
  • C3 corea 0202 No.210, Korea, 2002.
  • Quien Mag­a­zine, Méx­ico, June 2002.
  • Arquine # 19, Méx­ico, March 2002.
  • Archi­tec­tural Record,“Record Houses” U.S.A., April 2002.
  • AIT Mag­a­zine, Ger­many, 2003.
  • Celeste No. 5, Méx­ico, 2002.
  • 06140 codigo postal, Méx­ico, Feb­ru­ary 2002.
  • Summa + 56, Argentina, Octo­ber 2002.
  • El Arqa, Uruguay, 2002.
  • Arqui­tec­tura Viva, Spain, 2002.
  • Dis­eño Inte­rior, Spain, 2002.
  • Casabella # 703, Italy, Sep­tem­ber 2002.
  • Summa + 53, Argentina, 2002.
  • A+U, 03:02 389, Ejem­plar de Arqui­tec­tura Mex­i­cana. Japan, 2003.
  • GA Houses 74 ‚Projects 2003, Japan, 2003.
  • Arqui­tec­tos 164, 02/4 Con­sejo Supe­rior de los cole­gios de arqui­tec­tos de España, 2002.

• Arti­cles in dif­fer­ent national news­pa­pers such as Reforma, La jor­nada, El unier­sal, Uno mas Uno, El econ­o­mista, etc.

• Inter­net Publications

  • www​.noti​ci​asar​qui​tec​tura​.info (no longer available.)
  • arc​space​.com.
  • europa­con­corsi.
  • World Archi­tec­ture News​.com.
  • arqa​.com.
  • Hauz29.
  • Apple​.com.
  • Graphisoft’s “Great Archi­tects” page. or see the Quick­Time video, or the Win­dows Media video if you prefer.

From Michel Rojkind’s cur­ricu­lum vitae. Pub­lished with the con­sent of Rojkind Arqui­tec­tos. Copy­right © 2007 Rojkind Arqui­tec­tos. All Rights Reserved.

Image Gallery