Mexico City

Art, architecture and a city alive with ideas.

There are cities you visit, and cities that completely draw you in. Mexico City was the latter.

I arrived during Zona Maco, when the city becomes a gathering place for artists, collectors, designers and galleries from around the world. The energy was incredible – art spilling well beyond the fair and into galleries, homes, courtyards, restaurants and the streets themselves.

A room with pink and ochre walls, a large painting with a green circle and a wooden lattice cabinet

A pink-walled room with a white piano, a dark painting and a low white sofa

A cobbled square with a stone fountain under tall trees

But what stayed with me most was Mexico City.

The architecture. The colour. The extraordinary mix of modernism and history. Luis Barragán’s particular way with light and proportion. Volcanic stone, saturated walls, hand-worked materials, incredible gardens and moments of complete restraint alongside exuberance.

A sweeping oval staircase with a long brass pendant

A stair, a brass pendant

Museo Soumaya

Faceted stone pavilions lit at night under trees

Pavilions by night

A pale curved staircase lit from a slot above

A stair, lit from above

Everywhere, there was evidence of the hand.

I came for the art, but found inspiration in almost everything around it – the buildings, the food, the landscape, the craftsmanship and the way this city seems to embrace creativity as part of everyday life.