Atelier Noria
EN/ES

We build quiet architecture for loud landscapes.

México City, MX

Est. 2014

Selected Works
ResidentialCulturalAdaptive ReuseMasterplanHospitalityResidentialCulturalAdaptive ReuseMasterplanHospitality
Casa Maguey — rammed-earth façade framed by maguey plants at dusk

Residential

Casa Maguey

Oaxaca, México2023

Client
Private client
Typology
Residential
Area
320 m²
Status
Built

Casa Maguey emerges from the Oaxacan soil as an extension of the land itself. Built entirely from locally sourced rammed earth and volcanic stone, the house is conceived as a series of sheltered courtyards that breathe with the terrain.

The program is organized around a central patio — a threshold between outside and in — that regulates temperature through cross-ventilation and filters light through a canopy of native trees. All service spaces are buried in the slope, leaving the main living areas afloat against the sierra horizon.

Every material decision traces back to the site: the earth for the walls was excavated from the foundations, the stone was quarried two kilometers away, and the timber roof structure was sourced from certified forests in Oaxaca's Sierra Juárez.

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Pabellón del Río — folded concrete canopy above the riverbank

Cultural

Pabellón del Río

Guadalajara, México2022

Client
Guadalajara Municipal Government
Typology
Cultural
Area
780 m²
Status
Built

The Pabellón del Río occupies a contested edge between city and river in Guadalajara's historic western district. The brief called for a flexible cultural venue that could host everything from community markets to contemporary art installations.

A single folded concrete canopy — just 12 centimeters thick at the eaves — defines the structure. It shelters a fluid ground plane that dissolves the boundary between interior and the river promenade. The perforated steel screen on the south elevation acts as a thermal buffer while projecting shifting patterns of light across the floor throughout the day.

The pavilion has since become an anchoring piece of a broader riverside regeneration strategy, hosting over forty thousand visitors in its first year.

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Bodega Convertida — industrial warehouse exterior with new steel mezzanine visible through clerestory

Adaptive Reuse

Bodega Convertida

Colonia Vallejo, CDMX2021

Client
Colectiva Vallejo
Typology
Adaptive Reuse
Area
1,200 m²
Status
Built

A 1950s industrial warehouse in Vallejo — one of Mexico City's oldest manufacturing districts — transformed into a hybrid creative campus for a collective of designers, researchers, and artisans.

The intervention strategy was minimal: preserve the original steel-and-timber structure, insert a new mezzanine level in Cor-Ten steel, and open the north wall to create a shaded external courtyard. The existing concrete slab was polished and sealed. Utilities were surface-mounted and painted in a warm black, celebrating rather than hiding the building's industrial logic.

The result is a space that holds its history lightly while welcoming a new generation of makers.

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Selected Works

Studio

Atelier Noria — studio interior

Atelier Noria is an architecture practice founded in México City in 2014. We work at the scale of buildings and urban fragments, with a particular interest in the relationship between construction and climate — between the physical weight of architecture and the ecological conditions it either resists or embraces.

Our process begins with listening. We spend time on site before we draw, and we draw before we specify. Every project is treated as a site-specific problem, which means we resist the temptation of stylistic signature in favor of disciplined contextual response. The result, we hope, is buildings that feel inevitable — as though they could not have been built anywhere else.

Recognitions

  • AR Emerging Architecture Award2024
  • Premio Nacional de Arquitectura — Finalist2023
  • Dezeen Award — Cultural Building2023
  • Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize — Selected2022
  • World Architecture Festival — Shortlisted2021
Sofía Ramírez

Sofía Ramírez

Principal

Emilio Torres

Emilio Torres

Associate

Daniela Robles

Daniela Robles

Project Architect

Tomás Villanueva

Tomás Villanueva

Project Architect

How we work

01

Listening

We begin with extended site visits and conversations with all stakeholders before a single line is drawn.

02

Site

Climate, topography, material culture, and neighborhood grain drive every spatial decision.

03

Proposition

A single clear idea — tested against structure, budget, and programme — anchors the design.

04

Delivery

We stay on site through construction. The detail drawings are where architecture is truly made.

Clients we've worked with

Grupo XcaretInmobiliaria ReformaGobierno de GuadalajaraColectiva VallejoINAHUniversidad de Guadalajara

Let's talk.

Address

Colonia Roma Norte, Ciudad de México, MX 06700

Phone

+52 55 1234 5678

Email

studio@example.com