Capilla Abierta de la Gratitud /
Gratitude Open Chapel
by Tatiana Bilbao Studio +
Dellekamp Arquitectos

Landscape of Faith
Interventions Along the
Mexican Pilgrimage Route
Edited by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio.
Photographs by Iwan Baan.
Lars Müller Publishers
Paperback + jacket,
320 pages, 202 images,
English + Spanish text.
Available now

Mirador Espinoza del Diabolo /
Espinoza del Diabolo Lookout Point
by ELEMENTAL

El Camino de Santiago in Spain, Kumano Kodo in Japan, the Middle East’s Abraham Path and The Pilgrims’ Way in England: often enduring extremely arduous conditions, pious travellers around the world have walked, crawled and shuffled on their knees, along these famous pilgrimage routes for many hundreds of years.

But in Mexico where, every year, three million people trek the 117 kilometres of La Ruta del Peregrino (The Pilgrim’s Route), over the isolated and rugged terrain that stretches from Ameca to Talpa de Allende, to visit the site where the Virgin is alleged to have appeared in the 17th century, the pilgrims weren’t happy. For a start, the trail was badly marked; and while they were content to bear their crosses with equanimity, there were no proper resting places and they didn’t see why they should continue having to put up with unsanitary conditions and the absence of fresh drinking water.

After decades of complaints, in 2008, the government finally acted. To appease the wayfarers, a project was launched with the initial aim of furnishing them with better conditions. Nine local and international architecture studios – Godoylab, Tatiana Bilbao Studio, Dellekamp Arquitectos, Christ & Gantenbien, Ai Wei Wei + Fake Design, Luis Aldrete, HHF Architects, ELEMENTAL, Rozana Montiel, Estudio Arquitectura – were invited to create infrastructural interventions along the route.

The iconic structures that resulted, provided people with places to rest and reflect. The aggrandisement of the journey and its rituals, however, was also intended to broaden its appeal thereby attracting an audience that might include more secular visitors, whose spending on local goods and services would help the government to achieve its bigger goal of boosting the area’s economy.

Ermita Las Majadas /
Las Majadas Hermitage
by Tatiana Bilbao Studio

Mirador Los Guayabos /
Los Guayabos Lookout Point
by HHF Architects

Vacio Circular / Void Temple
by Dellakamp Arquetitos +
Rozana Montiel

The vertical, chunky format of Landscape of Faith falls somewhere between that of a guidebook and a missal but whereas either of those would be chock-a-block with dense text, here words are confined to a short, general introduction, a concise essay on pilgrimage and brief descriptions of each separate project (plus an arcane prose poem by Verónica Gerber Bicecci), allowing generous space for Dutch photographer Iwan Baan’s pictures.

Bahn (b 1975) produces work for the world’s top architectural practices – SANAA, Herzog & de Meuron, OMA, Tadao Ando and Toyo Ito are among his regular clients. His appeal lies in his unique ability to focus on the connection between architecture and the surrounding environment, including those who populate it. In this instance, it could be said that he has done such a comprehensive job as to render an excursion to the isolated Mexican site, for all but the most penitent sinner or devout architecture groupie, almost unnecessary.

As the book reveals, when questioned, those who do go there appear to value the architectural structures less for their aesthetic merit than for the functional services they now provide and for the plentiful supply of flat surfaces on which they can leave commemorative graffiti.

Landscape of Faith is published this month by Lars Müller Publishers.

Spreads and page from the book © 2018 Lars Müller Publishers and the authors. All photographs by Iwan Baan, © Iwan Baan

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