Michel Rojkind: The Power to Imagine: In a Culture Losing Depth and Meaning

Michel Rojkind (Mexico City, 1969) studied Architecture and Urban Planning at Universidad Iberoamericana. He has been a visiting professor at IACC in Barcelona, SCI-Arc in Los Angeles, IIT in Chicago, UPenn in Philadelphia, and Harvard in Boston. Founder of Rojkind Arquitectos (2002), his Mexico City–based studio explores the intersection between design, business strategy, and experiential innovation. Among his most recognized works are the 21st Century Cineteca Nacional, Foro Boca, Casa Pasiddhi, Metadistillery José Cuervo, and Pictograma Winery, as well as The Ledger in Arkansas, his first U.S. project.

As a member of the National Academy of Architecture and the National System of Art Creators (FONCA), Rojkind has lectured and served as a juror worldwide. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Wallpaper, Architectural Digest, and Forbes. In 2025, he was elevated to Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for his outstanding contributions to the profession.

In a culture increasingly driven by spectacle and distraction, imagination has become a radical act. We live in a time where depth is often replaced by immediacy, and meaning is traded for visibility. Yet, to imagine is to look beyond what is, and sense what could be. Imagination allows us to rebuild connections: between people, disciplines, and the environments we inhabit. As architects, we are not just shaping buildings; we are shaping possibilities. “The Power to Imagine” is not about escaping reality, but about re-engaging with it, questioning, reinterpreting, and transforming it. When we dare to imagine deeply, we give form to empathy, to belonging, to the poetic dimensions of everyday life. Architecture, then, becomes more than construction; it becomes a shared act of meaning-making in a world that desperately needs to feel again.