COLAR Colectivo de Arquitectura
is an emerging collaborative design studio founded in 2021 by Santiago Constantino, Maximiliano Animas, Mateo Torres and Roberto Marroquín. Its distributed structure allows the studio to operate across multiple territories, enables a collaborative practice shaped by situated knowledge and informed by multidisciplinary perspectives.
The collective approaches each commission through a careful analysis of its specific conditions, developing tailored design responses. In the face of the economic, political, and socio-environmental constraints that define contemporary practice, the design process is understood as a synthesis of spatial strategies, material systems and context.
Rather than adhering to a hierarchical structure, decisions emerge through ongoing dialogue and critical exchange among all participants—design team, clients, and users—where differing perspectives are collectively negotiated toward a shared position. While this process introduces a certain degree of friction, it ultimately enables each project to evolve through a more rigorous and contextually grounded response.
The studio’s work spans housing—ranging from private commissions to experimental domestic typologies—as well as architectural installations, ephemeral structures, renovations and extensions, hospitality projects and furniture design.
Architecture collective based in Mexico