JSa: Built in Mexico City

Join us for a conversation with Aisha Ballesteros, Benedikt Fahlbusch, and Javier Sánchez, partners and principals of JSa, to celebrate their new book, a comprehensive overview of the firm's most prominent projects that helped it become one of Mexico City's leading architectural practices. The conversation will be followed by a signing.

PLEASE NOTE: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 5:30 pm.

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The studio acclaimed for its visionary transformation of Mexico City’s best-known neighborhoods, or colonias.
This is a richly layered exploration of one of Mexico City’s most respected architectural practices, known for its refined designs, adaptive reuse projects, and deep commitment to heritage and sustainability.
This volume presents standout projects from the past decade — spanning residential to institutional buildings — offering a vivid look at the firm’s philosophy on urban renewal and historic preservation.
Mexico City is not merely a backdrop but a central character in this narrative. From its lively neighborhoods to its historic corridors, the city’s cultural richness infuses every page. Organized by region — North, West, East, and South — the book provides an engaging tour of the capital, with special attention to Roma and Condesa, where many of JSa’s most influential works reside. The packaging features a special touch: a beautifully printed city map on the inside of the jacket, adding both character and value to the edition.
The story is enriched by leading Mexican cultural voices: Reygadas reflects on the origins of Colonia Roma; Mallet traces the development of Condesa; Olvera explores how Mexican traditions shape contemporary dining spaces; and Anaya reveals the layered history of the city center. Additional essays examine neighborhoods, housing, and JSa’s acclaimed Museo Morelense de Arte Contemporáneo Juan Soriano.
Together, these perspectives form a comprehensive portrait of JSa’s work and its lasting influence on Mexico City’s architectural identity — an inspiring testament to how thoughtful design can honor the past while shaping the future.

AISHA BALLESTEROS

Mexico City, 1978

Partner & Principal

Aisha Ballesteros studied at Mexico City’s Universidad Iberoamericana and holds a master’s degree in Housing from that institution and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Since her early research into community-forming domestic models, her practice has evolved into a steady engagement with public space, a domain in which her designs explore the immense civic impact well-considered architecture can have.

Manifesting an ethos straddling contemporary aesthetics, regional traditions, and meticulously constructed sensory environments, Aisha values materials as much for their functional and tactile properties as for their associations, lineage, and ability to showcase the skills of Mexican craft. Invested in the way spaces are claimed by communities and evolve with time and use, she often revisits completed projects to witness their lived performance as a user.

Her lauded body of work — from intimate salons and seductive interiors to cultural buildings that center accessibility and communal participation amid layered contexts — has positioned Aisha as a defining voice in Mexico’s creative scene. Meanwhile, her collaborations with leading chefs have been pivotal to the rise and current boom of the Mexican capital’s food scene.

BENEDIKT FAHLBUSCH

Hannover, Germany, 1976

Partner & Principal

Rooted in the momentum of 1990s Berlin, Benedikt Fahlbusch came of age in a city radically redefining its identity following decades of geopolitical division. As a student at Berlin’s Technical University, he experienced the way a questioning of memory and the rampant transformation of structures for new uses could be quotidian components of urban life.

Benedikt eventually moved to Mexico City, where he found parallels to Berlin’s swaths of overlooked but promising districts. After completing a master’s dissertation that examined ways to revitalize the Mexican capital’s historic center, he embarked on a practice focused on housing proposals aimed at re-densifying old neighborhoods through sensible additions. His cosmopolitan background is evident in projects that carefully blend local history with innovative form and rigorous functionality.

More recently, Benedikt broadened his scope to encompass ambitious lifestyle hotel projects across Mexico, leveraging his keen understanding of the country’s coastal ecosystems, environmental challenges, and socioeconomic dynamics at varying scales.

Along the way, the landscape-sensitive schemes he has conceived from Baja California to the Yucatán Peninsula have translated the studio’s urban and residential strengths into holistic designs in different climates.

JAVIER SÁNCHEZ

Mexico City, 1969

Founding Partner & Principal

Hailing from a family of architects with a special interest in housing, Javier Sánchez completed his initial studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Hadn’t yet graduated from Columbia University’s GSAPP in New York, Sánchez established JSa as a practice that used real estate development as an extension of architectural agency. A combination that allowed him to contribute to the regeneration of Mexico City’s central colonias by means of strategic interventions.

As Javier’s practice matured, his expertise in the rehabilitation of heritage structures — along with a vocation for generous compositions that can be traced to his admiration of Mexico’s great mid-century masters of the discipline — resulted in novel dwelling types and resilient mixed programs throughout the metropolis. In recent years, his focus has expanded toward architecture’s potential to help counter environmental decay, a concern materialized in a number of self-sustaining designs.

His contributions to architectural discourse have earned Javier wide acclaim, including inductions into the American Institute of Architects as an Honorary Fellow, and Mexico’s National Academy of Architecture as an emeritus member; while in 2014, he held the prestigious Federico Mariscal Chair at UNAM’s School of Architecture.