LEXICON FOR SELF-CONSTRUCTION | MICMAC
A modular, progressive and metabolic system for housing in Mexico
Technical Sheet
Authors: Alejandra Aguirre, Diana Monroy, Diego González Albarrán, Eduardo Pesado, Gabriel González
City: Mexico City, Mexico
Year: 2025
Typology: Ephemeral Architecture, Pavilion
Main Material: National certified Tectona Grandis timber
Call and construction: MICMAC - Mexico Mass Timber Challenge 2025
Original Location: La Laguna Rooftop, Mexico City (Mextrópoli Festival 2025)
Photography Mexico: Pablo Manjarrez, by Jasso, Osterlen, Dupeyron
Mextrópoli Coordination: Rocío Rincón Guerrieri
Context: Building Differently
In Mexico, building a home remains, in many cases, an act of resistance. More than 70% of the country's housing emerges from informality, and nearly 50% presents deficiencies in quality (INEGI, 2014). Currently, more than 60% of the housing stock has been built by its own inhabitants, which evidences deeply rooted construction wisdom, but also a lack of regulation that compromises habitat quality and safety.
To this reality is added an extraformal economy that limits access to financing and efficient construction systems, generating an estimated deficit of more than 800 thousand homes annually (MIT, 2022).
Faced with this panorama, MICMAC posed a fundamental question: is it possible to address the housing deficit through a sustainable, efficient and accessible construction system, one that is kind to the environment, to the user and to the community?
The Project: A Spatial Lexicon
From that reflection arose "Lexicon for self-construction," the winning project among more than 150 proposals of the Mexico Mass Timber Challenge 2025. The pavilion proposes a modular, progressive and metabolic system that recognizes local construction intelligence and community self-management. The term metabolic alludes to its capacity to grow, transform and adapt according to the resources and needs of each context.
The project starts from a logic of progressive growth inspired by self-construction. From a central timber core, equipment pieces can be attached as the needs and possibilities of each family change. These elements include sanitary services, circulation, furniture, kitchens and even terraces, thus establishing a spatial lexicon that articulates functions, stages and appropriations.
Construction System and Technique
The 30 m² modular housing prototype is configured from three 10 m² modules: two flexible habitable spaces and a central double-height core that articulates circulation, ventilation and lighting. The ensemble can be arranged in isolation or in groupings that foster community and belonging in urban or rural contexts.
The architecture was resolved from a structural system of national certified Tectona Grandis timber, composed of modular pieces prefabricated in plant through a balloon frame type system assembled with paired 2" studs. The tectonic language makes assembly evident, privileging precision without renouncing the flexibility that timber allows for making on-site adjustments.
The structure maintains a modular grid of 1.22 × 2.44 m compatible with standard measurements, facilitating its implementation at low cost and without specialized machinery. Service spaces and vertical circulation are integrated as independent and removable modules, optimizing installations and allowing adjustments according to home evolution.
The construction process set a record: in just three days all structural elements were manufactured in plant, and in seven days installation was completed on La Laguna rooftop. A feat possible thanks to the lightweight material, its capacity to admit tolerances and the efficient design of connections, which significantly reduce assembly times compared to traditional steel or concrete systems.
Environmental Impact
In environmental terms, the pavilion represents the absorption of more than 4,000 kilograms of CO2, equivalent to the emissions of four transatlantic flights or the electrical consumption of a home for two years. Had it been built in steel or concrete, its footprint would have exceeded 5 tons of CO2 emitted.
The system admits adjustments to different climates (hot dry, temperate and temperate subhumid) and material conditions, allowing its reproduction in diverse territories. Its replicable vocation positions it as a viable alternative for progressive housing schemes and local self-management.
Second Life: From Prototype to Urban Agent
After its construction as winning pavilion within the framework of the Mextrópoli 2025 festival, the project acquired a second life. It ceased to be solely a housing prototype and currently configures itself as a housing outreach center. This new contextual agency has begun to amplify its impact: the space activates as a meeting point and collective reflection around ways of inhabiting.
The pavilion convenes multiple agents —users, specialists, collectives and students— to dialogue about housing, land, legislation and construction technologies. Its condition on the rooftop is, at the same time, symbol and laboratory; a manifesto that puts the city, housing deficit and new material economies in dialogue.
International Recognition: Ephemeral Agents
The project was one of the Mexican projects selected to be part of the Ephemeral Agents exhibition, held on Thursday, December 11, 2025 at Gallery House Zurich, Switzerland. This show, organized by Concéntrico and DISTIGMO as part of the Grand Tour de Suisse, brought together practices that explore circular materialities, collaborative systems, temporary occupation tactics and devices capable of reconfiguring the everyday use of urban space.
The exhibition arose from an international open call that received 161 proposals, of which 49 were selected to form a collective research space about the future of our cities and the effects that ephemeral architectures can have on urban contexts.
In Ephemeral Agents, through a long central table arranged in the gallery, the project shared space with other international studios and offices, interweaving an even broader lexicon of ephemeral interventions that, little by little, come together to generate new experiments, alternatives and perhaps answers.
Curatorship: Alessia Bertini, Steffen Hägele, Javier Peña-Ibáñez and Gregory Tsantilas
Photography Switzerland: Ana Melissa Delgado Ceballos
A Call to Build Differently
Beyond technical data, "Lexicon for self-construction" materializes an idea: that innovation can emerge from simplicity, observation of territory and collaboration between trades. From its minimal scale, the project acts as an urban catalyst that reconfigures architecture's role in contexts of inequality: not as a finished object, but as a living tool, replicable and open to change.
From La Laguna rooftop, between workshop noise and the horizon of Doctores neighborhood, the pavilion becomes a call to build differently, to think of timber as a means to reimagine the future of housing in Mexico, with faster, more precise and sustainable processes.
MICMAC and collaborating teams celebrate not only the result, but the beginning of an agenda that seeks to make timber an everyday, efficient and profoundly human material, articulating design, accessibility and social transformation from a minimal but expansive scale.
Credits
Design Team
Alejandra Aguirre, Diana Monroy, Diego González Albarrán, Eduardo Pesado, Gabriel González
MICMAC Construction
Justino Torres, Jesús Reyes, Daniel Villena, Juan Huicochea
Collaborators
Consulting and furniture: La Metropolitana
Mextrópoli Coordination: Rocío Rincón Guerrieri
Ephemeral Agents Exhibition
Organizers: Concéntrico × DISTIGMO
Curatorship: Alessia Bertini, Steffen Hägele, Javier Peña-Ibáñez, Gregory Tsantilas
Location: Gallery House Zurich, Switzerland
Date: December 11, 2025
