Episode 94: Tonny Zwollo
Tonny Zwollo was born in Randwijck, Netherlands on February 1, 1942 during WWII. Her father was a goldsmith and her mother was also interested in the arts. After the war, they often brought the children into Amsterdam for cultural outings to expose them to music, art, and architecture. This prompted Tonny’s interest in architecture. After graduating high school, she enrolled at TU Delft to study architecture. Sadly she wasn’t as happy with the curriculum there and found other hobbies and artistic pursuits outside of school to keep her interests alive. In 1962, she read an article about a school building project in Mexico and immediately reached out to the program to ask if she could come and join. They accepted and arrived in Mexico in October of 1964. She worked in an office in Mexico City to start before reporting to the CAPFCE office where she was eventually posted to Oaxaca. She spent several years there and built at least 35 schools in various rural indigenous communities throughout the state. In 1970, Tonny put together an exhibition for her final thesis project: a market design for Otavalo in Ecuador called Ninety Nine Parasols. The project was very well received and she lobbied the Dutch and Ecuadorian governments for funding and approval to build the project. It was completed in 1972. During these years, Tonny had met her partner Martin Ruiz Camino and had a daughter, Paulita. They moved to a small town outside Mexico where Tonny designed them a house and they had two sons, Cristobal and Antonio. In 1974 & 1975 Tonny wrote a book called Fantasy and Architecture which was a collection of photographs, theories, and ideas. Tonny and Martin were asked to work on a project to convert the Santa Catalina Convent into a hotel. They made sure to keep the integrity of the architecture and the project received the Prix Triomphe award in 1977. In 1990, Tonny got to design another market, but this time in Tlacolula, Mexico in the state of Oaxaca. She designed both the everyday market and the Sunday market for artisans to come from surrounding villages to sell their items. Tonny also served as a Consultant for Special Projects for the State of Oaxaca from 1996-1999. In 2005 she published a book called Blue is my Colour which is a collection of essays about her life and work. She is still living today at 81 years old.
Caryatid: Fernanda Canales
Fernanda is a Mexican architect originally from Mexico City. She studied at Universidad Iberoamericana and graduated in 1997 winning the award for best thesis. She also received a Masters from the Polytechnic University of Barcelona and a PhD in Architecture from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Madrid. Fernanda has focused on residential architecture including low-income housing. Her projects are often awarded by government agencies or local charities. Some are pro bono some are paid contracts. She has stated that low budget is pretty much the only thing that differentiates social housing from private housing. Her pro bono projects often don’t have money to pay consultants and are built by non-experts with community involvement. One of the other main focuses of her design is flexibility. You never know what the building will become or who will use it later. ‘They need to be projects that can take that level of unexpected’ she says. She has been researching Mexican housing architecture and written several books about it. She says ‘how do you define luxury and give the same privileges to all in low-income housing? Luxury is light, air, space. It is not about the expensive kitchen or imported woods. It is about understanding the quality of shade or a tree. And that can be accessible to all.’
References
https://fernandacanales.com/wp-content/themes/fernanda-canales-theme/humans.txt. “Fernanda Canales | Contact.” Fernanda Canales Architecture, fernandacanales.com/contacto.
Pelham, Lynn. “Tonny Zwollo - Google Arts and Culture.” Google Arts & Culture, artsandculture.google.com/entity/g11bwgvjf2q.
Stathaki, Ellie. “Can Good Housing Be Accessible to All?” wallpaper.com, 7 Oct. 2022, www.wallpaper.com/architecture/architect-fernanda-canales-on-housing-mexico.
“Tonny Zwollo.” The Subject of Place, 23 May 2009, thesubjectofplace.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/tonny-zwollo.
Wikipedia contributors. “Tonny Zwollo.” Wikipedia, 24 Mar. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonny_Zwollo.
Zwollo, Tonny. Blue Is My Colour: Designing as an Answer to Nature, and Discovering the Essence of Female Architecture. 2005, read.amazon.com/?asin=B005FCAHAG&ref_=kwl_kr_iv_rec_1.
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