The Nido de Quetzalcóatl, designed by Mexican architect Javier Senosiain, in Naucalpan, Mexico.
Photographer: Alfredo Estrella/AFP
A Bug’s Eye View of Mexico City’s Modernist Architecture
The sprawling megacity hides a trove of weird and wonderful contemporary buildings. Its once-omnipresent VW Beetles provide a stylish way to see them.
The Mexican architect Javier Senosiain has an aversion to straight lines; his sinuous, surreal buildings take their design cues from flowers, mushrooms, mollusks and snakes. So it feels appropriate to roll up on one of his globular homes in one of the world’s most easily anthropomorphized automobiles, a vintage Volkswagen Bug.
This combination is the inspiration of Nicolas Caillens, who leads a series of architectural tours of Mexico City that exploit the synergy between two local design icons: ultra-modern buildings and old-school VWs.