The School of Visual Arts of Oaxaca was developed at the request of the artist Francisco Toledo, in collaboration with the Universidad Autonoma Benito Juarez. The lack of a master plan integrating the pre-existing buildings led to the project being designed as a large garden rather than just another building. At the same time, the building under construction on the campus were producing huge amounts of earth. These contingent factors suggested raising a bank of earth to provide the isolation necessary for an art school. Due to calendar and budgetary issues, the school was planned in three stages. The first two have already been built, giving form to what’s become known as “the crater”, which defines its perimeter with regard to the rest of the campus.

Architect: Taller de Arquitectura-Mauricio Rocha
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
Project Team: Gabriela Carrillo, Carlos Facio, Rafael Carrillo
Collaborators: Francisco López, Silvana Jourdan, Pablo Kobayashi, Francisco Ortiz, Juan Santillán
Structural: Sai Group – Gerson Huerta
Services: Tomas Rodriguez
Furniture: Yurik Kifuri
Landscape Consultants: Luis Zárate, ENVIRONMENT, Ethnobotanical Garden City Oaxaca
Lighting Consultants: Prolur, Light in Architecture
Contractor: Enrique Cabrera y Asociados SA de CV
Project Area: 2,270 sqm
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Luis Gordoa, Sandra Pereznieto, Rafael Carrillo