AD Editor in Chief Amy Astley on Innovation in Design

“Architecture really can change your life. I take that responsibility seriously. We have to realize what we have in our hands.”—Tatiana Bilbao

Bilbao, the celebrated Mexican architect who moves with humanitarian ease from building bold dream houses to designing user-friendly, government-commissioned affordable housing, is at the forefront of what it means to be creatively relevant today. As we compiled talents for the October Innovators issue—brilliantly masterminded largely by editor Sam Cochran—certain themes continually arose, equally expressed by architects, landscape designers, and interior decorators: sustainability, geographic sensitivity, and a sincere respect for how people will experience the environment. Consider this quote from the California-based Surfacedesign about the National Parks Conservancy visitors’ center in San Francisco that the firm crafted from a parking lot: “None of the plantings are irrigated—they survive, as they should, in the climate. That’s one of the ways we are thinking about water conservation.” Architect Achim Menges tells AD that contemporary buildings tend to be either “efficient but boring” or “exciting but wasteful” and insists that “there is a possibility to reconcile both ambitions . . . [and] make a lasting cultural contribution.” As for the human element, Bilbao spent years interviewing the families who would live in her affordable homes, and she calls them the true designers and herself merely a “translator.” These are innovators with heart.

Tatiana Bilbao created this Oaxaca, Mexico, beach house with artist Gabriel Orozco.

The sinuous curves of China’s Harbin Opera House by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects.

Orpheus , an inverted-pyramid garden by landscape master Kim Wilkie in England.