PMCKM – Paz de Moura Castro King Mueckenheim
PMCKM is the joint corporation of two award-winning architecture and design firms based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Düsseldorf, Germany. Lead by the two principals Maria Paz De Moura Castro and Mark Mueckenheim, we are specialized in Residential and Cultural projects. Our work covers a diverse range of typologies, scales, and locations. Our collaborative and analytical process, as well as our concept-driven design approach, aims to deliver high-quality contextual architecture intended to create a substantial value for our clients. We seek exceptional yet tangible and meaningful solutions, which reflect the aspirations of the client’s assignment in all its intricacies. The profound care Maria and Mark apply to the execution of projects is deeply rooted in the ethics of thorough German engineering and efficiency, Brazilian elegance, and contemporary design.
PMCKM is a full-service architecture studio maintaining licenses in the United States, Brazil, Germany, and all European Union member states.
Mark Mueckenheim
Mark is a licensed architect in Germany and the European Union, the principal of MCKNHM Architekten (http://www.mcknhm.com), and the co-author of the book “Inspiration – contemporary design methods in architecture” released by BIS Publishers in 2012. Following his father’s footsteps, who is also an architect, Mark’s first job in architecture was an internship at the age of sixteen.
After his architecture studies in Duesseldorf (PBSA), New York (M.Arch. Parsons School of Design) and London (Dip.Arch. The Bartlett University College London) sponsored by a Fulbright scholarship and a DAAD Merit-Based Grant from the federal German government, he worked and collaborated with different architecture firms in Germany, the USA, and England. During this time, he gained extensive project experience from concept to realization. He established his own architecture practice in 2001.
Since then, his award-winning work has been featured in various international book and magazine publications and has also gained a reputation through a number of exhibitions – including the house of architecture in Lille, France, the German Architecture center in Berlin, and the 12th Architecture Biennale in Venice. Mark is also an educator lecturing internationally and teaching at Universities in Germany and the US for more than 20 years.
In 2017 he started to collaborate with Maria Paz De Moura Castro and her office, RIZOMA.
Maria Paz De Moura Castro
Maria is a licensed architect in Brazil and Portugal and a founding partner of Rizoma Arquitetura (www.rizoma.arq.br). Her office has worked on award-winning buildings and projects, widely recognized through numerous international publications, such as Taschen, Wallpaper, L’architecture D’aujourdhui, France, and the Financial Times, London, England.
Her work is exhibited internationally. Recent venues include the Brazilian Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and the German Architecture Museum. Maria Paz presented her work in numerous lectures in South America, Europe, and the US. Her many awards include a nomination for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize.
She has collaborated and designed buildings for contemporary artists such as Anish Kapoor, Yayoi Kusama, Tunga, and Lygia Pape, among others.
Maria completed her first buildings at a very young age while still a student in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She took a short break from building to obtain a Master of Architecture from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Maria is also an educator teaching architectural design since her time at Cornell.
In 2017 she started to collaborate with Mark Mueckenheim and his office MCKNHM.