LA CEIBA
La Ceiba is a series of textile artworks created for the offices of Promotora Social México as part of Gensler's interior design project in México.
Promotora Social México's mission is to seek the integral development of individuals by promoting sustainable social projects. The commission required conceptualizing and designing the project, analyzing the stages an entrepreneur faces, and symbolizing their growth on each floor of the new offices.
From this, we created an analogy between tree growth, the majestic ceiba, and human development; their metaphorical connection involves starting from a seed, germinating, taking root, and establishing a path.
Many external factors affect plant growth, the most important being water, nutrient availability in the soil, light, and gravity. If a tree takes root and grows, it represents a home and shade for many, a living community.
Under this narrative, we created organic illustrations, lines that reflect the complex path of human growth.
Simultaneously, we considered it essential to develop a collaborative, creative-productive design process that embraced Mexico's multiculturalism; for this, we chose to work in the municipality of Huixtán, Chiapas, with women artisans who are weavers and embroiderers from various municipalities of the Chiapas Highlands.
During the product development, we focused our efforts on the following goals:
Design an experimental embroidery workshop with the team.
Explore large textile formats for collective product development by experimenting with creative exercises.
We analyze and research new creative fields and opportunities for embroidery that artisans may use in the future.
Design a fair trade workshop to analyze production costs with the artisan.
Create a project that provides training and paid product development to strengthen job opportunities for women artisans who head their households.
Architect and interior design: Gensler, in collaboration with Pentágono EstudioYear: 2016
