Ambrosi Etchegaray is a Mexico-based architectural practice founded in 2011 by Jorge Ambrosi and Gabriela Etchegaray. They have been seeking "architecture that blends with nature, where site, mechanics and light are essential." So far, many of their representative architectural works have been built.

Yinjispace：How does your career begin?

Ambrosi Etchegaray：I guess it began when I decided to study architecture. At that time, I had a lot of doubts and questions regarding the field of practice in architecture, questions that may have been answered along the years but that the essence of those questions will be a constant if one chooses to be critical of the agency that architecture needs to address in today’s issues.

Yinjispace：How do you introduce Mexico culture to your projects?

Ambrosi Etchegaray：I think of Culture as a set of ideas, traditions and customs that characterize a place, it´s people as well as a time. With that in mind each project addresses those forms of knowledge and of understanding in relationship to the projects aim and it´s geography. Mexico is full in diversity, is a Country that may have similarities to China, where each territory has a history of traditions and heritage that is related to its geography. Therefore, the architecture that we attempt to design should reflects in its affinities to the environment, forma the human perspective as well as for the natural resources, intertwining threads of the past as well as present issues. Acknowledging that architecture cannot be thought as it used to be, architecture need to be present for the people, for the land, for the cities and all sort of infrastructures based on nature and for the nature.

Yinjispace：How long generally your projects are?

Ambrosi Etchegaray：I would prefer to answer this question with how long we would like the project development to take. But truth is that architecture is part of political decisions, of clients’ interest, and it is linked to multiple chains where we struggle to accommodate the project to it, in order to be archived. So, all projects have their own times, and sometime this surpasses the clients or our own ideas to the project schedule. However, I would say that we are always working against time to be as precise as the project requires from start.

Yinjispace：Your work beautifully integrates into the landscape. How do you achieve that?

Ambrosi Etchegaray：How we approach the notion of place is crucial at each project. We start by acknowledging that each site has a history, it is never a white page for a project. With that in mind, we attempt to read the geography to the site, its environment and to construct a narrative to the landscape that will hold a program, one to be express within an architectural language. 

Also, we think of architecture as an agency, and we work with different advisors. We always team up with specialists to improve the conditions of the projects, according to the program require we accommodate precise expertise and a more robust team. However, we have a close relationship to certain advisors we always a landscape designer, either Hugo Sanchez or Tonahtiu Martinez. For acoustics we work with Omar Saad; with Ricardo Camacho or Gerson Huerta for the structure design, with Maurici Gines for the illumination design, with Claudia Espinosa or Xavier Valladares for eco-strategies, along with our colleagues that form the teamwork in AMBROSI ETCHEGARAY. Even for small projects there is always a lot of research and people that end up being part of the project. 

Yinjispace：How do you coordinate the clients' needs and your own wish?

Ambrosi Etchegaray：As years go by it has become easier to meet our interest as well as the clients. We have learned to communicate the spirit of our work, our interest in architecture and how we understand our practice. We talk of architecture as a facilitator, a medium, a conduit of research, a practice that evidence and articulates conditions in relation to space and time. 

A facilitator to advocate for our environments, built and natural; a medium who expresses and experiments with material, social and technological possibilities. A conduit of research that is pronounced in design, thought, interventions, approaches, and buildings. A practice that unmasks endless interconnections and links for a greater good in the political, in the ecological and in the social scope. The material that we develop for a client’s project to be built, it also builds our understanding toward the material of representation, it is constructed under a critical scope, and it becomes part of a collection of materials that contain data. Material that relates to other materials, once connected and overlayed it allows a broader and more complex understanding, and in turn it becomes another form of knowledge. It is because of this material of representation that we can raise new questions. Helping us understand what the limits of our practice are as well as to construct our ethos.

Yinjispace：How do you think oriental architecture and culture?

Ambrosi Etchegaray：We think of Oriental Architecture and culture as a reference. We recognize Oriental architecture rooted in traditions and culture, in which the relation to nature is essential. Architecture built in the East or Asia –is also diverse as the one found in the country of Mexico– it tends to be associated according to the different geographic region. And ethnic heritages. Thus, oriental architecture has various characteristics with which we feel alike, and we relate to them in our work.