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COVER STORY

PÁG. 40 ARCHETONIC RESPECT, COMMUNICATION AND TRUST

“We wholeheartedly believe that when good will and blood merge, the natural unconditional love of the family surfaces and aligns in the same direction, with the goal of achieving great things. We think about that and work with that attitude every single day.” –Jacobo Micha Mizrachi, founder and director of Archetonic

“Archetonic was born 30 years ago, when I started doing interiors. For many years we did commissions, mostly interiors and every now and then a construction or architectural project that often ended up being built by us or a third party. Things went very well for a long time, especially with the frequency of interior jobs, but there was always that ‘gnawing’ desire to take the leap and do more architecture, pure architecture. The opportunity came along with a bid for the Hotel Marquis, which turned out to be the second or third architecture project that helped us make the decision.” With this brief explanation, architect Jacobo Micha Mizrachi starts the verbal tale of the history of the firm he has built up along with his family and crew: over three decades of lessons, wise choices and wrong turns that he has shared with us.

“It was right at that time –he goes on– that we had bought a piece of land for a development, and we were also in the process of acquiring some others in Mexico City’s Condesa district. The year was 1999, and when we won the bid, I thought: ‘It’s the right time to take the plunge.’ At that time, we had also made a change in terms of interiors and were doing more institutional projects and dealing with businesses rather than private homes. It was a period of very intense work, and having projects for stores underway gave us a certain flow institutionally, which provided the chance to make the change. So, for several years we have had a lot of activity in the Condesa area. From there, we continued on to Polanco, first with small projects and then with other medium-size and large ones, for which we are still in the work stage and that will surely be the launching point for even bigger plans.”

Following the chronology the architect is presenting, this is the point in the firm’s history when his son Jaime Micha Balas joined Archetonic, where he found a valuable and committed team from which he learns and to which he contributes every