October 27, 2025 | DESIGN & INTERIORS
DAVID ROCKWELL
‘Casa Roja was where Frida felt free to be herself’
words Onur Baştürk
photos Portraits - Emily Andrews
Exterior photo of the Casa Roja, provided by the Museo Casa Kahlo
Other Photos - Rafael Gamo
New York–based Rockwell Group has unveiled its design for key spaces at Museo Casa Kahlo, a new museum dedicated to the life and legacy of Frida Kahlo. Located inside Casa Roja, a historic family residence in Coyoacán, Mexico City, the project marks the most significant expansion of the Kahlo family’s cultural legacy in decades.
Rockwell Group designed the visitor experience, entry garden, and basement exhibition — an evocative reconstruction of the artist’s long-hidden private studio. Filled with her paints, collections, and personal belongings, the space offers an intimate portrait of Kahlo’s inner world and forms the emotional heart of the museum.
Visitors enter through the same doorway once used by Frida and her family. The original driveway now leads to a reimagined courtyard featuring a handcrafted ticketing desk by Guadalajara artisans, graphic panels by Pentagram, and archival photographs. Drawing from historic images, Rockwell Group reinstated a curved stair once used for family portraits and added details like a grapefruit tree in a carved Cantera stone pot surrounded by ceramic planters from Oaxaca and Guadalajara.
In the recreated basement studio — the place where Frida wrote, painted, and reflected — candlelight illuminates her dolls, letters, and tools, evoking a world suspended between intimacy and imagination. Using her original drawings and photographs, Rockwell Group LAB created an interactive replica of her microscope, inviting visitors to see the world through Frida’s eyes.
We spoke with David Rockwell, founder of Rockwell Group, about the creative process behind this restoration.
PRESERVING THE SPIRIT OF HOME
The Museo Casa Kahlo reveals a rarely seen, deeply personal side of Frida Kahlo’s world. What was your starting point for translating such an intimate story into spatial design?
Casa Roja was a place where Frida felt completely at ease — free to be herself and express herself without limits. We wanted visitors to feel that same sense of warmth and welcome, as if Kahlo herself were inviting them in. The fact that the museum was once a real family home gave us the chance to preserve that spirit of hospitality. You sense it the moment you step inside. For the arrival experience, we kept the architecture simple and focused on sensory cues: natural light, historic photographs, and the scent of flowers from the courtyard — all combining to leave a lasting impression.
The restored courtyard and reimagined studio both carry symbolic meaning. What design gestures were key to preserving Frida’s presence while creating something new?
The courtyard merges memories from different generations, reflecting how the family lived there over time. Through archival photographs, we rediscovered a curved stair once used for family portraits — lost in past renovations — and brought it back. The grapefruit tree, famously painted by Frida in her kitchen mural, now grows in a hand-carved Cantera stone pot from Escolásticas. Beneath it, the stone floor bears an engraving of one of Cristina Kahlo’s rugs that once greeted guests at the entrance.
In the basement retreat, we rebuilt a deeply personal world: Frida’s desk, dolls, radio, and her collection of butterflies and beetles. Using her original sketches, our LAB created an interactive version of her microscope — a quiet discovery for visitors who wish to see the world as she once did.
IT WAS A CHANCE TO HONOR FRIDA’S LASTING INFLUENCE ON CREATIVITY AND HOME
Rockwell Group often blends theatre and architecture, crafting spaces that evoke emotion as much as function. How did that philosophy shape Museo Casa Kahlo?
Our work has always been rooted in storytelling and hospitality, and this museum embodies both. The design choreographs a journey — almost like a theatrical sequence — from the entrance through the galleries to the hidden studio. Each space builds anticipation and emotion, guiding visitors through Frida’s world the way a stage set leads an audience through a story.
Finally, what does this project represent for you personally — as a designer and as someone bringing new life to one of the 20th century’s most iconic creative legacies?
My childhood in Guadalajara deeply shaped how I understand design — the color, vitality, and the way courtyards bring life to a home. Seeing those same qualities in Casa Roja made this project feel like closing a circle. It was an opportunity to reconnect with my roots while honoring Frida’s enduring influence on creativity, humanity, and the idea of home itself.
