Ludwig Godefroy’s sensitive brutalism
STUDIO profile
ARCHiteCtURE
PUBLISHED IN IMPRINT
Photography by RORY GARDINER
A peculiar itch for the big city life, combined with a desire to learn Spanish, made French-born architect Ludwig Godefroy move to Mexico City in 2007. Today, his style is described as sensitive brutalism, located at the intersection between Mexican architecture and Modernism.
“I like the way modernists looked at everything in architecture, factories, farms, industrial buildings, even boats and planes, and how they made a mix of everything. I think they made architecture limitless in terms of inspiration.”
It’s the spirit of freedom in modernism that Ludwig finds particular inspiring—you can use what you want and mix it with whatever you like, and just make it your own, he says. This clearly manifests in all his projects, and even though he would describe his architecture as Mexican, it’s a mix of taste and heritage.
“To the Mexican, I’m French and to the French, I’m Mexican. I like the condition of being none of them and both at the same time, and I think my architecture reflects that.”
Ludwig’s design is inspired by the blocky, massive, and colourful style that has become typical of Mexican architecture. Massive and rough materials, little decoration, yet a lot of details. His work often contains reference to the historical, pre-Hispanic style, combined with something rural and farmer-like. It’s both bold and still, massive and soft. Brutal and sensitive.
“I would describe one of my latest projects, The Zicatela House, ‘a Normandy on the outside, protecting a Mexican pyramid on the inside’. This is more or less what I’m aiming for with all of my projects.”
It’s the spirit of freedom in modernism that Ludwig finds particular inspiring—you can use what you want and mix it with whatever you like, and just make it your own, he says. This clearly manifests in all his projects, and even though he would describe his architecture as Mexican, it’s a mix of taste and heritage.
“To the Mexican, I’m French and to the French, I’m Mexican. I like the condition of being none of them and both at the same time, and I think my architecture reflects that.”
Ludwig’s design is inspired by the blocky, massive, and colourful style that has become typical of Mexican architecture. Massive and rough materials, little decoration, yet a lot of details. His work often contains reference to the historical, pre-Hispanic style, combined with something rural and farmer-like. It’s both bold and still, massive and soft. Brutal and sensitive.
“I would describe one of my latest projects, The Zicatela House, ‘a Normandy on the outside, protecting a Mexican pyramid on the inside’. This is more or less what I’m aiming for with all of my projects.”
