JAHN is a multinational group of professionals sharing the same passion for Architecture, Design and Technology. We operate from our 4 four international offices: Chicago, Berlin, Doha and Shanghai. The diversity of our work and the collaborative spirit of our environment stimulate a cross-fertilization of ideas. Our architects and designers collaborate with the most innovative engineers, fabricators and builders to create architecture of authenticity and integrity. Our work addresses urban responsibility, performance, engineering synthesis, attention to detail and sustainability by design.
RAAD, the department of Responsive Architecture – Advanced Design, has been established to further push the boundaries of research and design within JAHN. Challenging the given notions of design, RAAD acts to advance the future of architecture; a future which must fuse technical innovations with a responsive and humanitarian approach. It is this collaboration between JAHN and RAAD that will continue to precipitate distinctive solutions such as the SPACECRAFT pavilion.
FRANCISCO GONZALEZ-PULIDO, shares design leadership of the firm’s work with Founder Helmut Jahn.
In his approach, Gonzalez-Pulido strives for minimizing building design to the essentials, so logic, lightness and performance prevail.
He approaches each project with the belief that the architectural and engineering ideas and principles are equal in challenging and ultimately transforming a place or an experience. He has a degree in architecture from ITESM (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education) and a Master’s degree from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. With more than fifteen years with the firm, Gonzalez-Pulido has won recognition for his efforts, including being named one of the Ten Most Promising Mexican Architects by OBRAS magazine.
Gonzalez-Pulido has lectured at universities, museums and architectural forums in Mexico, Spain, Korea and the United States. He co-taught an integrated design studio with Werner Sobek at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture in Chicago.
Space
SPACECRAFT is founded on the idea of ‘elastic-space’, defined as the adaptability of space and the impact of its transformation in our daily lives. Blank space represents full potential, it is the state of mind in which anything is possible, as space gets populated it becomes more restrictive, objects in space condition our behavior. Hence SPACERAFT aims to the dilution of signals in space that pre-determine our actions and preconceptions. SPACERAFT is about what is essential.
SPACECRAFT has three components:
1) ACTIVE, the Multifunctional Wood Screens, which in standby mode are the vertical source of lighting and as they get physically activated, they reveal views, storage space as well as working and temporary display surfaces along the perimeter of the space. The space between the wall and the wood screens is the only place for personal objects. It purpose is to encourage a new relationship between Us and the Object that we think we need to live meaningful life, it also responds to the impact that technology has ad in space, how the virtual and the ephemeral have become more important and effective to store our needs than the physical.
2) PASSIVE, the two tone cladded floor defines TWO distinct functions, CREATIVE and FUNCTIONAL, the black and reflective, is the creative, which represents the space of no limits, the place we find when we close our eyes and look for inspiration, is the meditative state of our minds. The veined and mat is the functional, which brings our attention to the surfaces and its detail focusing our senses into the task.
3) MOBILE, the Quartz cladded Box contains all the WET functions; it is a source of lighting and the only physical element that through movement redefines the internal boundaries within SPACECRAFT.
