The process before the style begins before the pencil touches paper. In MÉTODO, the first design act is observation — going to the site without a program, without a formal intention, without a design hypothesis to confirm. The site teaches before we draw.
This is not romantic. It is methodological. A section drawn before the site is understood may be beautiful and wrong. A section drawn after thorough observation has a better chance of being both right and beautiful.
What Observation Means in Practice
Site observation at MÉTODO is a documented process with specific outputs. We go to the site at different times of day when the schedule allows. We record:
Solar angles: Where does the sun rise and set relative to the site? At what altitude does it reach at noon in winter and summer? Where do shadows fall from existing structures, trees, and topography at the critical hours of the morning and late afternoon?
Wind: What is the prevailing wind direction and approximate speed? Where does it accelerate due to topographic channels or building gaps? Are there calm zones that suggest locations for outdoor gathering?
Vegetation: What species are growing on and around the site? Deciduous trees that are bare in winter and shaded in summer are natural climate devices. Existing mature trees that survive well on the site tell you about soil drainage, sun exposure, and wind conditions that no instrument can reveal as efficiently.
Acoustic conditions: Where is the noise coming from? Traffic, machinery, neighbors? At what distance and intensity? In which wind conditions does it increase or decrease?
Topography: How does water drain across the site? Where does it pool? What is the relationship between grade changes and buildable areas?
Neighboring structures: What are the heights, orientations, and window positions of adjacent buildings? Where do they create privacy requirements or shadow conditions?
These observations are recorded in drawings and notes, not just remembered. They become the factual basis for the design decisions that follow.
The Section That Comes From Observation
After observation, the first design act is a section — not a plan, not a massing study, not a concept diagram. The section is the instrument that translates the site observations into spatial logic.
From the solar observation: the section places openings where the winter sun enters and not where the summer sun overheats. From the wind observation: the section creates ventilation paths that draw air through the building on the prevailing breeze. From the topography: the section works with grade changes rather than leveling the site. From the vegetation: the section preserves the trees that are doing climate work.
La sección como relato: the section is the narrative of how the building responds to this specific site. That narrative is different for every site because every site is different. The design that results cannot be a template — it is a document of the site.
Observational Methodology in Mexico City
Mexico City is a dense urban landscape where site observation reveals conditions that no survey captures. A 120-square-meter infill lot in Roma Norte, Condesa, or Coyoacán has:
- Specific shadow patterns from adjacent 3 to 5-story buildings that change dramatically between summer and winter
- Noise sources from specific directions (a street market to the east, a parking structure to the north) that inform room placement
- Neighbor window positions that create privacy requirements on specific facades
- Prevailing afternoon westerly winds that can drive natural ventilation if the section allows it
- Soil conditions revealed by existing vegetation and any neighboring construction excavations
None of this appears in a standard site analysis. It appears when the architect spends time on the site, at different hours, in different seasons. This is the observational methodology: patient, specific, and prior to any design hypothesis.
What Observation Changes in the Design
The most concrete outcome of thorough observation is this: the section is oriented correctly on the first try. No late-stage revisions to rotate the building because the sun was not accounted for. No post-design acoustic mitigation because the noise source was not mapped. No drainage problems because the topography was not read.
These corrections, when they happen late in design or in construction, are expensive. A floor plan revision in schematic design costs a day of work. The same change in construction documents costs a week. In construction, it costs money, time, and often quality.
Observation is an investment at the start of the process that pays dividends throughout. We present this explicitly to clients: the first weeks of a project at MÉTODO involve less visible design output than at a firm that produces three plan options in the first presentation. The output is observation documentation and the first section. The section is the design. The plans follow from it.
Observation in Coastal and Rural Mexico
For projects outside urban contexts — coastal Nayarit, the Oaxacan highlands, the interior valleys of Morelos — site observation expands. The site is less constrained by neighbors and more directly exposed to climate. The observations that matter shift:
In coastal Nayarit: prevailing northwest winds, seasonal rainy season direction, salt air at what distance from the water, solar intensity and shade requirements.
In highland Oaxaca: frost risk at the site's elevation, valley wind patterns that differ from regional averages, water table depth visible in existing vegetation, slope drainage patterns that affect foundation design.
In each case, the observation methodology is the same — patient, specific, prior to design — but the climate variables are different.
Próximos pasos
A Mexico residential project designed from observation rather than formal preference produces a building that belongs to its site. The process is longer at the beginning and faster at the end, because the foundational decisions are made correctly rather than revised.
To understand how observational methodology shapes every MÉTODO project from the first site visit, conoce el método de MÉTODO and tell us where your site is.