Errre taller's mirrored acrylic pavilion around the Cubo MEM in Guadalajara

The idea behind Sfumato is to make a building vanish without moving it. Mexican practice errre taller won the first Pabellón MEM competition with a plan to cloak the Cubo MEM, a sculptural landmark at the ITESO architecture complex in Guadalajara, in a reflective skin so that it blurs into the trees and sky around it while keeping its exact footprint.

The 6.40-metre cube is wrapped in 3mm mirror-finish acrylic. Standard sheets are paired with shorter cut sections to waste as little material as possible, and the panels are fixed with double-sided tape and silicone to a light metal stud-and-track frame, itself supported by a timber sub-structure attached to the original steel. The seams run continuously, so every face reads as one smooth mirror.

To keep the illusion intact, there is just one way in, tucked onto the quieter west side. Inside, the cube is open to the sky: a still room for looking up, where the shifting sun throws changing shadows that mark the time of day.

Worth knowing: this came to designboom as a reader submission from the studio itself, and no dates are given for how long the pavilion stands. Anyone visiting the ITESO campus should check before going.

Our summary of a story from designboom, published 18 October 2026. Read the original

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