Dezeen School Shows: a lamp crafted from volcanic stone and informed by a sunrise is among the projects from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.
Also featured is a stone plate with a glass cloche referencing Mexican cinema, and a wooden stool featuring leather tassels.
Tecnológico de Monterrey
School: Architecture, Art and Design
Showcase: Inédito Universitario 2026 at Design Week México
Tutor: Luis Miguel Gutiérrez
School statement:
"In Mexico, black has been matter before pigment, an ancestral tradition in which colour is born from origin or from fire.
"Black takes up that heritage through contemporary design, with pieces whose tone comes from the material itself: black clay, volcanic stone, marble, charred wood and ceramics.
"As part of Design Week México, thirteen pieces, by design students at Tecnológico de Monterrey, were developed alongside artisans and workshops from different regions of Mexico.
"The exhibition core is monochromatic: every object is read through its form and the trace of the process that turned it black."
Estrato by Mariana Gayón García
"Estrato is a tabletop book organiser made of black volcanic stone that links the memory of the earth with the knowledge held in books.
"The design draws on the stone's natural qualities (weight, texture and density), turning them into part of its function of holding and organising books.
"The piece comes from understanding matter as memory. Volcanic stone carries the history of the land, and its black colour evokes the wisdom and knowledge inherited from earlier generations.
"That material memory meets the intellectual memory held in books, bringing materiality, memory and knowledge together in a functional, contemporary object."
Student: Mariana Gayón García
Course: Black: A Study of Mexican Dark Matter
Tatemada by Gabriela Covarrubias Rodríguez
"Tatemada is a table lamp made of black clay from Oaxaca that brings artisanal pottery together with contemporary design, turning a traditional material into a decorative lighting object for interior spaces.
"Inspired by Oaxaca's traditional smoke kitchens, the piece reinterprets the trace that fire and the passage of time leave on objects and the spaces they inhabit.
"Its rough finish evokes the soot that builds up on surfaces, while the warm light emerging from its openings stands for the warmth of a wood fire."
Student: Gabriela Covarrubias Rodríguez
Course: Black: A Study of Mexican Dark Matter
Tutor: Luis Miguel Gutiérrez
Comitl by Lucía Gallegos Bátiz
"Comitl is a decorative vessel inspired by the shape and structure of the cuexcomate, the ancestral structure used to store corn.
"Its silhouette draws on the essence of these ancient corn containers and reinterprets it for the present day. The rounded body extends into a conical section, creating a contrast between textures and elements.
"The piece seeks to recover and reinterpret the design, knowledge and forms of ancient Mexico from a contemporary point of view."
Student: Lucía Gallegos Bátiz
Course: Black: A Study of Mexican Dark Matter
Tutor: Luis Miguel Gutiérrez
Inframundo by Juan Pablo Castillo Villalón
"Inframundo starts from the colour black, understood not as a finish, but as the natural outcome of a material process.
"In the Mesoamerican worldview, black was linked to the underworld: a sacred space of transition where darkness did not signal an end, but the origin of transformation, life and rebirth.
"Working from that idea, the piece is a ceramic set made up of a cup and a filter for preparing cacao. Joined together, the two pieces evoke the silhouette of a pre-Hispanic vessel, and their geometry – divided into three sections – represents the underworld, the world of humans and the celestial world.
"The black colour emerges naturally during firing through glazes with natural pigments and reduction reactions, making the transformation of the ceramic visible.
"More than a utensil, the piece proposes a contemporary ritual for preparing cacao, inviting people to rediscover this ingredient with respect for its origin."
Student: Juan Pablo Castillo Villalón
Course: Black: A Study of Mexican Dark Matter
Tutor: Luis Miguel Gutiérrez
Veda by Emanuel Reyes Díaz
"Veda is an appetiser plate that uses a frosted glass dome to progressively cover and reveal the food arranged on a volcanic stone base.
"The piece takes as its reference the way censorship in Mexican cabaret cinema (cine de ficheras) concealed certain images, leaving room for fantasy and desire.
"The device is carried over into the act of eating, drawing a parallel between desire and appetite through anticipation, reveal and enjoyment."
Student: Emanuel Reyes Díaz
Course: Black: A Study of Mexican Dark Matter
Tutor: Luis Miguel Gutiérrez
Bartola by Alejandra Arnaud Escobar
"Bartola is a stool inspired by cowboy aesthetics and guided by the Japanese philosophy of conscious use of resources, built in purpleheart wood, leather and brass fittings.
"The piece revalues traditional crafts – carpentry, leatherwork and jewellery-making – bringing them together in a contemporary object that puts materiality, craft and permanence first.
"According to its own author, Bartola rests on three core ideas: craft, because it seeks to revalue traditional techniques; material, because the materials are the protagonists of the design; and character, because every detail is meant to communicate identity and permanence.
"The piece aims to become a statement object, capable of showing that furniture can preserve crafts, reinterpret traditions and create meaningful experiences."
Student: Alejandra Arnaud Escobar
Course: Black: A Study of Mexican Dark Matter
Tutor: Luis Miguel Gutiérrez
Bucle by Paulina Ibarra Gutiérrez
"Bucle is a modular shelving system built around a crocheted wire panel, scaling jewellery-making processes up into functional, contemporary furniture.
"The piece does not treat manual work as a disadvantage against industry, but instead challenges its historical devaluation as domestic labour.
"By bringing it into contemporary design with a high level of technical rigour, it becomes a statement of exclusivity, intentionality and precision."
Student: Paulina Ibarra Gutiérrez
Course: Black: A Study of Mexican Dark Matter
Tutor: Luis Miguel Gutiérrez
Rastro by Tamara Cagigal Esclusa
"Rastro is a modular system made of two charred-wood pieces that, combined, generate different patterns and compositions for cladding or decorating walls.
"Its reliefs evoke the textures of cooling lava, and the contrast between geometry, texture and materiality turns each composition into a surface that transforms the space.
"The piece grows out of the idea that transformation does not disappear, but remains as a trace. It interprets the solidification of lava through charred wood, carrying the memory of a process of change into a new material."
Student: Tamara Cagigal Esclusa
Course: Black: A Study of Mexican Dark Matter
Tutor: Luis Miguel Gutiérrez
El Resguardo – Teresa, Carola and Lidia by Anabella Cariño Olivier
"El Resguardo is a family of three containers – Teresa, Carola and Lidia – made of black Tecali marble with charred maple lids.
"The collection combines the weight, shine and permanence of stone with the warmth of a wood transformed by fire, in soft, compact forms meant for keeping personal, everyday objects.
"The project starts from the act of keeping close what we choose to hold on to. It explores the contrast between two dark materials: marble, mineral and polished, which reflects light; and charred maple, organic and transformed by fire, which absorbs it.
"The natural variations in grain and tone of each block of marble are kept as evidence of the material's origin and of each piece's craft process."
Student: Anabella Cariño Olivier
Course: Black: A Study of Mexican Dark Matter
Tutor: Luis Miguel Gutiérrez
Tlecuil by Sophie Nicole Aguilar Ramírez
"Tlecuil is a table lamp that holds a sunrise. A crater carved into a volcanic stone base is where the light lives.
"The bulb barely peeks out from its upper half, like a sun rising between mountains, and a hand-dyed cotton cloth shade fades from black to ochre, letting that first glow escape.
"The name comes from the Nahuatl word for hearth, the hollow where fire is kept. The piece draws on the Legend of the Suns, in which Nanahuatzin throws himself into the hearth, and his sacrifice lights the fifth sun.
"With that, it proposes black not as absence or death, but as the origin from which all light is born. Darkness is the condition for fire to exist, and fire the condition for light to exist."
Student: Sophie Nicole Aguilar Ramírez
Course: Black: A Study of Mexican Dark Matter
Tutor: Luis Miguel Gutiérrez
Partnership content
This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.