Laura Aviva’s Home Is A Tribute To Mexican Interior Design & Crafts

A captivating blend of personal expression, artistic collaboration and a deep reverence for craftsmanship, businesswoman Laura Aviva’s pied-à-terre defies categorisation

In the heart of La Condesa, Mexico City’s vibrant artistic enclave, sits Laura Aviva’s newly minted pied-à-terre. The mid-century modernist building with a façade covered in tiny lavender and green tiles is one of the last survivors of the devastating 1985 earthquake that flattened most of the city’s Art Deco and modernist heritage.

It’s a space humming with a unique energy. When Laura saw this apartment for the first time, she was instantly and profoundly struck by its gravitas: “There was just something about it that felt weighty and substantial,” she expresses. The former Creative Director of Travel + Leisure magazine found her calling in design, which she says was driven by a sense of community and connection.

“Having all things flowing and working together allows for community , connection and innovation”

Laura Aviva

Now founder of New York-headquartered design studio L’Aviva Home, Laura has had a two-decade-long slow-burn affair with Mexico City. Fuelled by frequent trips over the years to recharge her creative battery and shopping trips to La Lagunilla – the remarkable Sunday flea market – she says she had always been subconsciously building her home in the city.

“The idea for this space was one that both evolved over time and one that came about completely from one moment to the next,” Laura explains. “Mexico City was the first place I came once I started traveling again after the pandemic started and it was on that first trip back that I was hugely struck by how much I crave being here, by how much it feeds me on so many levels.”

When the opportunity presented itself, Laura took the leap to buy this pied-à-terre, renovating everything except for the original thin slat-wood floors. It’s a space that defies categorisation. This is a sanctuary – for her, her friends and team – and a tribute to Mexican contemporary design and craft. A hybrid project that also creates a context to showcase L’Aviva Home pieces.

“Normally, we design products to shine in a range of contexts,” she says. “With this space, we flipped our creative process, and designed a living space for our collections. Our goal was to create a context; a world showcasing our collections in a way that feels like a platonic ideal of where we would like them to live, and how we would like to live with them.”

“This project is by far the most personal thing I have ever done”

Laura Aviva

The original layout features all the design hits of modernism: floor-to-ceiling windows that bathe the apartment in abundant Mexican sunshine, an open plan layout and a curving entryway bisecting the space, offering intriguing possibilities. To the right is the front of the apartment with the kitchen and common living areas. And to the left are the three bedrooms.

“The door to the hallway leading to the bedrooms can be closed off to become a wholly realised space that feels more public: common area, living area and gallery at once. When open, it feels like an integrated living space that is also a gallery,” she says.

This multi-purpose nature aligned with Laura’s intentions as well. “Part-sanctuary, part-playground, part-gallery and showroom, part-studio for both our NYC and CDMX teams to work, part-space to host friends and clients – it has an endless malleability. Having all things flowing and working together allows for community, connection and innovation.”

Sustainability is a core value for the entrepreneur, who consciously utilised natural materials whenever possible. Light became a guiding principle – revelling in the interplay of shadows cast by the midday sun, Laura spent hours studying its movement.

Texture and warmth are the cornerstones of the colour-forward palette. Ceramic tiles, hand-forged metal accents, mesquite wood and locally sourced stone elements weave a tactile tapestry; shot with bright green and pink accents. Indigenous Mexican references abound – the verdi alpi marble in one of the bathrooms, for instance, references the built heritage of CDMX’s downtown.

Almost everything is custom-made, in keeping with the longstanding Mexican tradition of creating site-specific installations and furniture, tapping into local traditions and handicraft to do so. Furniture and lighting fixtures are predominantly by L’Aviva Home. Artisan friends created custom site-specific pieces such as the hammered copper bathtub co-designed by Sergio Velasquez, a long- time collaborator. Artwork was commissioned from another friend, artist Maddalena Forcella, who works with all natural dyes and materials, while woodwork was crafted by Isaac Castañeda. He created the bedroom shutters inspired by both Barragán and Prouvé, but also by the ever-present circular motif of quotidian CDMX life.

Laura muses: “This project is by far the most personal thing I have ever done. It pulls together into one place the manifestation of my design sensibility as it has evolved over the years and the collections that we have created as a team at L’Aviva Home, and then combines it all with the thing that I most treasure: the relationships and the creative partners we have cultivated over time.”

Images Courtesy of: Photography by Fabian Martinez and Maureen M. Evans. Styling by Tessa Watson

From Harpers Bazaar Interiors’ Summer 2024 issue