A new 180m² open-air gallery by Mexican architecture studio Sordo Madaleno has opened at Ánima Village, creating a permanent space for contemporary art in Baja California Sur.
Project Name: Arte Abierto
Studio Name: Sordo Madaleno architects
Location: Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Year: 2025
Construction area: 24,000 sqm
Terrain area: 112,057 sqm
A new destination for contemporary art has opened in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur. Arte Abierto Baja is a permanent, open-air gallery designed by Mexican architecture studio Sordo Madaleno, providing a new setting for large-scale sculpture and site-specific installations by Latin American and international artists.
Located at Ánima Village, the gallery occupies a deliberately understated position within the six-hectare development. Rather than competing with its surroundings, the 180m² structure is embedded four metres below ground, allowing the architecture, artwork and surrounding desert landscape to become part of a single experience.
Visitors reach the gallery via a gently sloping, 17-metre semi-covered ramp that forms part of the building itself. The gradual descent provides a transition from the activity of Ánima Village above, narrowing the focus before opening out into the gallery. At the bottom of the ramp, the space is open to the sky, with the surrounding landscape visible beyond its high walls.
The gallery’s walls rise more than five metres, creating a generous volume for monumental works and installations. Its surfaces are formed from pigmented, bush-hammered concrete, chosen for their tactile quality and ability to weather and settle naturally into the arid surroundings. The result is an architecture that feels both contemporary and enduring, with the rawness of its materials connecting it directly to the desert setting.
“We wanted Arte Abierto Baja to be an experience that responds to the beauty of the Baja landscape. The arrival sequence is choreographed to heighten the senses—there’s this moment of compression as you descend, and then at arrival, an expansion to the elements. The architecture becomes a frame for the landscape, and the landscape becomes a canvas for large-scale art.”
— **Fernando Sordo Madaleno**
Arte Abierto Baja forms part of the wider Ánima Village masterplan, also designed by Sordo Madaleno. The six-hectare development has been conceived as a walkable, human-scale neighbourhood centred on a strong public realm, with six terracotta pavilions and six open-air squares set among extensively planted, desert-adapted gardens.
The landscape strategy is particularly important in a climate where temperatures can reach 36°C. Planting provides shade and cooling while creating spaces intended to support wellbeing and encourage people to spend time outdoors.
Across Ánima Village, Sordo Madaleno has sought to establish a more permeable and organic form of development in contrast to the urban sprawl and proliferation of gated communities that have characterised parts of the region in recent years. The plazas and pedestrian routes lead naturally towards Arte Abierto Baja, making the gallery part of the public experience of the neighbourhood rather than a destination separated from it.
At the gallery, two substantial stone walls appear to rise directly from the earth, reinforcing the relationship between the building and its setting. The sunken architecture gives the gallery a discreet presence while retaining a sense of openness, allowing it to accommodate both planned visits and more spontaneous encounters with art.
