Keeping It Rael and Celebrating “Mexcellence”

The new Riv design mag “The Long Road from Prada Marfa to Montecito” is finally out. The Riv always has its finger on the design pulse, and if there’s not a story in there that gets your juices flowing, you might want to check your own pulse.

What you’ll find between the heavy card stock covers of our Spring issue is, as you know, some of the best architecture and design happening not just in Montecito, but in the world. 

For our Spring ish, the Riv was lucky to interview, among other enormous talents, one of the greatest architects working today: the mother of “soft brutalism,” Tatiana Bilbao. 

They say soft brutalism is hard to pull off, but Bilbao makes it look easy. Bilbao, who also teaches at Yale when she’s not designing museums or high-end residences, has also designed (and built) truly gorgeous affordable housing in Mexico. Yes, Mexico, a country where “the right to housing” is actually written into the constitution, and where “affordable” means a price of $8,000 – and that’s to purchase, not per week. 

Still not intrigued? The new Riv also features the human cannonball who shot himself over the border wall from Tijuana into San Diego. The well-attended effort not only successfully landed the projectile in San Diego, that performance is now in the permanent collection of The Guggenheim.

So what does all this have to do with Prada Marfa? Read the new Riv to find out!