Objects made with waste from banana production and designs utilising traditional techniques are among those made by nine design studios in Guadalajara, Mexico, we've rounded up in our North American Design 2024 series.
The next piece in our weekly series providing cross-sections of independent designers in North American cities looks at the state of the furniture scene in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Located in Jalisco, it is sometimes considered Mexico's second city, with a thriving cultural scene and an agricultural hub – notably its production of tequila.
The city's design production has centred around medium-scale manufacturing of craft products, such as textiles and shoes, as well as ceramic manufacturers including Cerámica Suro – a family-owned factory that also serves as an incubator for international artists.
A number of larger design firms such as outdoor furniture manufacturer Mexa and design platform Tributo anchor the industry and provide starts for many young designers, including some on this list.
The University of Guadalajara has a strong industrial design program, which draws from the impressive architectural legacy of the city as well as the curriculum set in place by designer and professor Gerald Gulotta, who helped set up the program in the 1970s.
"Melting pot of creativity"
Today many of the designers working are embracing pre-colonial craft techniques in their work.
"The region's cultural heritage is reflected in the variety of techniques and materials used by artisans, ranging from pottery and ceramics to blacksmithing and glasswork," curator Ana Elena Mallet told Dezeen.
"The quality and originality of Guadalajara's handicrafts have been recognized nationally and internationally, contributing to the region's economic and social development."
While remaining functional, the designs work to create a syncretism between different cultures and techniques, working with the strong culinary and fashion streams in the city.
"It is a melting pot of creativity, where tradition merges with innovation to create a unique and vibrant environment," added Mallet.
"From fashion and design to art and gastronomy, Guadalajara represents a legacy that is still alive, not static, and keeps transforming and surprising us all."
Read on for nine independent studios defining Guadalajara's contemporary design scene.
Estudio Claudina Flores
Founded by Claudina Flores, the studio utilises local handcraft techniques carried out by artisans to create functional, aesthetic pieces made with natural materials. From more recent collections of complex cabinets to more pared-down pieces with slender wooden and stone elements.
Flores said that local issues, specifically those of women, are a large factor in her work. Her recent Cabinet Society collection pays tribute to women of the past and the future by attaching narratives to the cabinets and highlighting the importance of women in design.
"There is a historical disregard for the contribution of women in design and architecture practices," Flores told Dezeen. "Everything we work on begins with research and analysis of situations and events that we live in today, and we want our pieces of furniture to be an invitation for reflection."
Bolsón
The brainchild of designer Norberto Miranda, Bolsón is a studio that creates a variety of objects – including stools, bags and moveable structure – from the waste plastic used to protect bananas during the growing cycle.
Miranda and his two collaborators seek to combine handcraft techniques with post-industrial waste materials, and much of the textiles and materials he produces are created through manual pressure.
"The first motivation was to find a material that I considered more sustainable than buying plastic with biomass in it," the designer told Dezeen.
The project also involved working with local communities to gear the waste towards "performance-based" needs such as clothing to go beyond "than urban or consumer-based speculation", he added.
Piedrafuego
Led by Aldo Álvarez Tostado, Piedrafuego is an art and design practice that utilises local materials and craft techniques to create innovative forms and takes on traditional objects.
Trained as an architect, Tostado started his studio in 2013. On the design side, he focuses on small household objects such as stools and planters made with thoughtfully sourced regional materials such as upcycled volcanic stone and horsehair. He is also a co-founder of the Occidente gallery, aims to showcase local design.
"[Piedrafuego] is an exploration of the visual tradition behind the idea of México; a concept as vague and flexible any other country," he told Dezeen. "We rarely start a new object with the goal of fulfilling a necessity, but rather of reading a new potential use on a material or crafting process."
Popdots
Popdots is a research and design collective working with ceramics, from mapping different regional clay techniques to creating pieces infused with sprouts to highlight the entwinement of the biological and manmade.
"We have been working with the purpose of studying, analyzing and finding the best adaptation of the past with the present, in order to aspire to the constant improvement of the things and/or activities that surround us, coexist and grow at the pair of our current society," the team told Dezeen.
Consisting of artist Melisa Aldrete, designer Luis Cárdenas and photographer Moy Bautista, the studio was founded in Guadalajara in 2012.
Marcelo Suro
Part of the famed Suro ceramics family, Marcelo Suro's work embraces his family's legacy but has also moved towards more industrial material, such as metal and glass, typified by his recently launched Yellow Mellow coffee table, made with bronze and amber glass.
Trained at SCAD, Suro has worked under internationally renowned designers such as Héctor Esrawe and Misha Kahn, and is currently in the process of starting a bronze foundry in Guadalajara. He said that his connection to the city comes more from its manufacturing legacy and from explicit cultural forms.
"While I don’t necessarily incorporate explicit references to Mexican culture in terms of form, colors, or typologies, I believe the materials I use offer subtle cues to my background," he told Dezeen.
"With a family tradition of craft and manufacturing, my intention is to produce most of my work in-house in the studio."
Álbum
With the most explicitly industrial designs on the list, Álbum is a collective that creates durable furniture from steel using designs created in-house and by guest Hispanic designers such as a bench by Guadalajaran designer Eduardo Altamirano and a chair by Spanish designer Jordi López.
The studio was founded in 2023 by Pedro Arturo, who works with three partners to create and commission designs; all of the pieces are fabricated in a nearby metal workshop.
Arturo told Dezeen that he hopes to show another side of Mexican design separate from what he sees as a stereotype focused on "exotic crafts".
"In 2024, there are many Mexicos," he told Dezeen, noting that the post-pandemic "nearshoring" has provided an opening for in-country production of furniture usually supplied by larger studios.
"We want to embed design in daily life products, to include it in the value chain, to stop exoticizing the idea of 'Mexican design' as something folk or flamboyant."
Peca Estudio
Founded by designer Caterina Moretti, Peca Estudio works in natural materials to create unique pieces of furniture, from terracotta rendered black by the use of bronze dust to cabinets, tables and other pieces made with wood or stone.
Moretti explores different raw materials and works with craftspeople in order to preserve local tradition.
"At Peca, we're concerned with the disappearance of traditions and are dedicated to preserving them. While innovation brings new and exciting designs into the world, it also has the potential to replace and even, erase, traditional ways of working," she told Dezeen.
"However, we also experiment with contemporary design methods that complement those traditions and bring them into the future."
Supermorphe
Supermorphe brings architectural practices to furniture design, utilising digital design software, woodworkers and CNC machines to create variations on traditional wood furniture. It is led by Rodrigo Loaiza Cabeza and Martha Alava, who founded the studio in 2011.
"Supermorphe is a project focused in bringing back the crafts from the antique tradition by means of technology and automation of processes," Cabeza told Dezeen.
Each of the studio's pieces is made with sustainably sourced wood, is customizable and finished by hand. According to Cabeza, the allows for the synthesis of contemporary technology without "of industrialized standardization" that has erased design traditions.
Javier Reynaga Fletes
Javier Reynaga Fletes creates furniture pieces with modern forms made using materials informed by Jalisco, such as wood, cowhide leather and steel.
"I aim to give furniture a distinct Jaliscan identity, blending local cultural elements with functional design," he told Dezeen. "This not only preserves cultural heritage but also offers unique pieces that stand out in the market."
A graduate of the University of Guadalajara, Fletes works by himself to design, source "ethical" materials, and oversee production. He was recently brought on under the Tributo design label to distribute his designs.
North American Design 2024
This article is part of Dezeen's North American Design 2024 series selecting independent furniture and product design studios from cities across Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The first edition of this series is created in partnership with Universal Design Studio and Map Project Office, award-winning design studios based in London and now in New York. Their expansion into the US is part of The New Standard, a collective formed with Made Thought.