BUILDSCAPE
BUILDSCAPE: evocations of place, space and (e)motion
Guillermo Aranda-Mena
Gallery open hours:
Monday – Saturday: 10am – 4pm
Sunday: 10am – 3pm
Opening event:
Saturday, 6 June, from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Through a series of vibrant architectural and landscape compositions, Guillermo Aranda-Mena (PhD) explores the emotional and cultural dimensions of built environments. Bringing together Melbourne cityscapes, waterfronts and urban streetscapes, the exhibition creates a dialogue between large figurative watercolour tapestries, abstract acrylic landscapes on hand-made bark paper and miniature three-dimensional maquettes.
Drawing from traditions of architectural representation — elevations, plan views and sketch models — the works move beyond isolated depictions to create interconnected spatial narratives that evoke atmosphere, memory and movement. Plein-air sketches, layered abstractions and tactile constructions transform urban and natural spaces into emotional landscapes, oscillating between stillness and motion.
Guillermo’s artistic language is informed by his architectural training in México and Spain during the 1990s, where climate-responsive spaces such as plazas, patios and pergolas shaped his understanding of architecture as both social and sensory. The saturated colours of Mexican flora continue to influence his palette. Since moving to Australia in 2003, his practice has expanded through encounters with Australian urbanism, the Outback, and travels across Europe and Southeast Asia.
BUILDSCAPE is presented within the broader context of the World Sustainable Built Environment Conference 2026 (WSBE26), to be held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from 10–12 June 2026. Guillermo serves on both the organising and scientific committees. The exhibition expands the idea of sustainability beyond environmental, but also cultural and emotional — one grounded in memory, place, and the enduring relationship between people, nature and the built world.
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Artist Bio
Guillermo Aranda-Mena (PhD) is an Australian–Mexican artist, architect, and scholar whose interdisciplinary practice spans architecture, visual arts, and cultural heritage. Shaped by lived experiences across four continents, his work moves fluidly between disciplinary and professional boundaries, exploring memory, place, travel, and the poetics of the built environment through both analogue and digital media.
Since 2012, Aranda-Mena has contributed to UNESCO’ s Architecture Chair. He currently collaborates with Lund University and the Skissernas Museum on a project examining the Mexican Mural Movement of the 1920s, drawing on the museum’s significant collection of preparatory sketches by leading Mexican muralists.
Recent solo exhibitions include Strati Sfumatti: Layers of Contemporary Architecture at the UNESCO Chair in Mantua (2024); Neo Eden: Singapore’s 60th Anniversary at Highlight Art Gallery (2025); Rancho Contento: The Architecture of Happiness in Guadalajara (2025); and, in Australia, Voyage 50505 at AYG St Kilda (2023) and La Città Ideale 2033: Drawing Visions of Future Cities Through Personal Constructs at Gasworks Arts Park (2024).
Aranda-Mena studied architecture in Mexico and Spain before completing an Erasmus master’s program across four European universities and earning a PhD from University of Reading in 2003. During his studies, he travelled extensively, documenting avant-garde architectural commissions while visiting major galleries and museums across Europe and beyond.
Working across drawing, watercolour, and digital processes, Aranda-Mena often begins with plein-air sketches and concertina travel diaries created during his journeys. These intimate studies can be transformed into large-scale tapestries. Although digitally reproducible, each work remains grounded in the autographic tradition, with hand-finished interventions in ink, pencil, and paint ensuring every tapestry is a unique piece.
image credits: Mark Raffety Photography