BNKR Arquitectura

Bunker Arquitectura is a Mexico City-based architecture, urbanism and research office founded by Esteban Suarez in 2005 and partnered by his brother Sebastian Suarez. In their short career they have been able to experience and experiment architecture in the broadest scale possible: from small iconic chapels for private clients to a master plan for an entire city. Bunker has continuously attracted attention for its "outside the box" approach to architecture with projects such as a three-kilometer habitable bridge that unites the bay of Acapulco and an inverted skyscraper 300 meters deep in the main square of the historic center of Mexico City.

Every new project starts with a profound research of the social, political, economical, cultural and environmental factors that surround each particular site. The analysis and understanding of all this information, crossbred with Bunker´s indefatigable pursuit of innovation, yields architecture that is specific to its conditions. In this sense, no two projects ever look or feel alike. What ties them together is an evident need to constantly push the boundaries of architecture.

Besides developing projects for private clients, the government or competitions, Bunker is continuously involved in self-financed research projects that nurture the theoretical side of their practice. In this manner, the built and unbuilt projects bear the same weight in their balance. Theory and practice coexist in perfect symbiosis.

“STOP: KEEP MOVING: an oxymoronic approach to architecture” is Bunker´s first monograph. Their belief that a contradictory view of life, the human condition and architecture is central to finding architectural meaning has led them to rely on the oxymoron, opposite words or ideas that when put together reveal a new meaning, to disclose their creative processes and ingenious solutions to eccentric demands. In an attempt to salvage the broken link between architecture and the public, this book portrays their projects through the stories of how their built works, competition proposals and projects come to life and develop, not as the usual picture-perfect coffee-table book but as a collection of failures, successes, anecdotes, and experiments. In their tireless search for questions they have come to realize that antagonistic manifestos complement each other and can coherently coexist in a congruent and inclusive statement: an architecture that stops and keeps moving at the same time.