(“Text as submitted by Architect”)
Edgar Ignacio Mazo Zapata
Architect graduated in 2003 from the Faculty of Architecture of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL). Studied master’s studies in Modern Architecture at the same University (2005-2006) and is currently studying a master’s degree in Landscape Design at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB). Teacher in the project workshops of Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana from 2007 to the present, in the School of the city of Sao Paulo at different times. Partner, with architect Sebastian Mejía, of the Connatural Studio (architecture and landscape laboratory) that seeks to configure a landscape architecture capable of operating at different scales in an organic manner in relation to the conditions of each project.
Sebastián Mejía Álvarez
Architect graduated in 2006 from the Faculty of Architecture of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL). Teacher in the project workshops of Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana from 2012 to the present, in the School of the city of Sao Paulo in 2014 and in the master’s degree in landscape design at Harvard GSD in 2011. Founding partner, with the architect Edgar Mazo, of the Connatural Studio (Laboratory of architecture and landscape) that seeks to configure a landscape architecture capable of operating at different scales in an organic manner in relation to the conditions of each project.
Practice Ideology
If the laboratory is the space for research, experimentation and analysis, for Edgar and Sebastian landscape and space are their subject of study, under this logic, the strategies for approaching space aim to sediment the acquired knowledge and synthesize spatial experiences lived, always seeking to redefine the idea of architecture and landscape through the implementation of different processes of approach to the project, open and diverse processes, unique to each commission.
The course of time is perhaps one of the fundamental questions that accompany the various Connatural projects, since for Edgar and Sebastian these are inevitably inscribed in natural cycles and processes; In this field it is also possible to identify a strong questioning about the current problems surrounding an environmental imbalance, in this way the project becomes for them the opportunity to propose strategies of restitution and / or regeneration of natural resources as an active part and fundamental piece of his work.
