Blending a custom masonry block, a structural stacking assembly and an age-old building method has yielded something entirely novel: the expressive windscreens that will shield Belzberg Architects’ six-storey office building planned for the trendy Roma Norte neighbourhood of Mexico City. Three of the six concrete-masonry sails curve along multiple planes, seeming to billow as gently as a silk scarf, and defying gravity in a highly seismic region.

The custom masonry’s large diagonal cavities align to create uninterrupted channels for rebar, letting masons rotate the blocks along their vertical axis to create curves as lively as they are organic.

Project: Zacatecas

Location: Mexico City, Mexico

Firm: Belzberg Architects, U.S.

Team: Hagy Belzberg, Brock DeSmit, Jessica Hong and Joseph Ramiro with David Cheung, Adrian Cortez, Udit Goel, Kristofer Leese and Corie Saxman