Omelette y héctor galván

The University of Sheffield School of Architecture MAAD MA Architectural Design

ARC – ARC 6989 Reflections on Architectural Design
Omelette and Héctor Galván Griselda Arteaga Trejo 100127432 May 4, 2011

“It’s time for natural creation, it’s time for Omelette.”(1)
Omelette is the name of Héctor Galván’s Design Studio, whose work I’ve decided to reflect upon in terms of their approachto design. I am especially interested in what they call sustainable luxury and how they accomplish this in the most original, creative and unexpected ways. By quoting Héctor, I attempt to create subtitles for this essay as I talk about different things; for example, who he is and where he comes from, the origin of the name Omelette, the home of the studio, and the different aspects of their designpractice by looking at possibly their most famous project, the Hotel Básico, a small boutique hotel in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo; to finalize with a brief conclusion.

“I was born by a river wishing to reach the ocean and my first mountain was a boat. Its movement motivated my first shouts of joy, terror and astonishment towards technology and nature; the contradiction between them bringsgreat meaning in the horizon. I design through those desires, reactions, histories and conducts.” (2) Héctor is not like any other designer, starting with the fact that he didn’t go to school to study architecture or any other kind of design. He’s self taught by conviction. While others went to school to study architecture, industrial, graphic or fashion design, Héctor spent time in severalregions of the Mexican Republic investigating the ethnographic textile design of the natives, and doing communitarian work in the valley of Oaxaca. He was always interested in ethnographic fashion and the development of textile projects. The lack of a formal education, didn’t stop him from taking jobs from art direction in music videos and films in Mexico City, to landscape architecture and assistanceto fashion designers in Italy. He was art director for Picnic Magazine and Chairman of Textile and Fashion Design at Centro in Mexico City. He has been immersed in the world of design for over twenty years. You can’t really expect Omelete’s design to be like any other Design Studios, because Héctor Galván is not like any other designer. Born in Tampico, Tamaulipas, and adopted by Mexico City, he’sone of Mexico’s most prominent and talented designers, but above all, he’s a hyperactive and fun creator.

“I had been dedicated to fashion and Mexican textiles for over 20 years. With time I found a great interest in architecture.”(3) Héctor founded Omelette in April of the year 2000, when he moved to Mexico City to work on a residential project. He saw this as an opportunity to venture intoa previously unexplored face of design: interior. The practice gets its name from its location at the Colonia Roma in Mexico City: “An area that meant to be frenchified, but in the end turned out to be a mixture of different ingredients, some are left out, others get in, and the recipe always changes.” (4) Like in an omelette. The team is made of several professionals of different areas of design:architects, interior and industrial designers, and occasionally, chefs. They work closely together with their clients and seek professional expertise when the project calls for it.

Current team of Omelette, in the courtyard at Casa Prunes: in the chairs: Georgina Sánchez and Héctor Galván; in the stairs, top to bottom, Sean Dugan, Fernando Bueno, Adolfo Lara and Cindy Ocampo.

“By day thehouse is like a twelve year old, overflowing with creative energy. But as the afternoon arrives the house becomes slow – slow, and by night it is an insolent old woman and I can’t wait until it’s dawn.” (5) Casa Prunes is the home to Omelette, but also, to Héctor. He lives in the top floor and the studio is in the ground floor; this way he avoids having to move across the city and wasting time...