aI911 is an architecture and urbanism firm founded in 2002 by
Saidee Springall together with
Jose Castillo and located in Mexico City, whose work is based on the double commitment of an architecture that links the physical with the social and, which starts and ends reports by city and territory.
Throughout these two decades they have formed a study of 60 professionals with different profiles and areas of experience, which allows a multidisciplinary approach to projects. aI911's work covers architecture, urban design, territorial planning, mobility and landscape projects, with a variety of typologies approached from a methodology based on research and design.
aI911 has collaborated with a diversity of Mexican and foreign architects including Alberto Kalach, Enrique Norten, Isaac Broid, Javier Sánchez, Michel Rojkind, Productora, MMX, Julio Amezcua, Frida Escobedo, Fernanda Canales, Cadena y Asociados, Esrawe among many others.
Among its outstanding projects are the expansion of the Cultural Center of Spain, the CEDIM campus in Monterrey NL, more than 2,000 intra-urban social housing units, the Jaime García Terrés Library in the Ciudadela, the remodeling of the Siqueiros Public Art Hall, the Elena Garro Cultural Center and the remodeling of the Del Bosque Cultural Center and the Julio Castillo Theater, the Platah administrative building in Hidalgo, the Aztec Pavilion in Mexico City, the remodeling of the San Juan Market and two PILLARS - social infrastructures - for the Government of Mexico City.
Its urbanism work includes the master plan for Azcania in Azcapotzalco, developed in collaboration with Arup, Cerro Norte, a multi-use district in León, Guanajuato in collaboration with Sasaki, the Cabo Norte mixed-use and housing development in Mérida, as well as a series of tourism, industrial and mixed-use master plans in different states of the Republic and Central America.
Among her mobility projects are the Mexibús Pantitlán-Neza-Chimalhuacán transport corridor, the master plan for the BRT Buenavista-Centro Histórico-San Lázaro, the Maribús / Acabici project; a water and cycling mobility system for the port of Acapulco, the master plans for the Cetram Observatory and the urban architectural project for the Cetram Tacubaya as well as the comprehensive sustainable mobility strategy for the City of Mérida, Yucatán.
The firm has received various awards for its projects and contributions to the field of architecture and urban planning, such as the Richard Rogers scholarship for the Harvard GSD in London 2017, the National Housing Award 2011, for a 750-unit social interest housing complex. for ARA (Iztacalco); the bronze medal of the Holcim awards for Latin America 2011 for his master plan for the renovation of public space and infrastructure in a neighborhood in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and the Emerging Voices award, by the Architectural League of New York in 2012
The Elena Garro Cultural Center has received several awards, among which are the award for the best interior design in Latin America and the Caribbean by IIDA in 2013, the Best of Year 2013 by Interior Design Magazine, the Project of the Year award, by Archdaily and Plataforma Arquitectura, and the Travel and Leisure Design Award for the best cultural space of 2014. Also, in 2014, the team led by a|911 won the Audi Urban Future Award, in Berlin, Germany. In 2015, the firm was recognized as the most visionary architecture firm in Mexico by Obras Magazine. In 2018 they obtained the Silver Medal at the Mexico City Architecture Biennial.
The work of aI911 has been exhibited nationally and internationally in exhibitions such as the Sao Paulo Architecture Biennale (2005), the Rotterdam Biennale (2007 and 2005), the Venice Biennale (2012, 2008 and 2006), the Biennale of Arts and Architecture of the Canary Islands (2007), among others. Recently, the firm's proposals for the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale (2016) and the Rotterdam Architecture Biennale (2016) were selected to form part of the digital archive of Mexico and to participate in the exhibition, respectively.
