Hasta La Ideas

An aluminium canopy speckled with triangular perforations shelters the space between old and new buildings at Mexico‘s National Film Archive and Film Institute, recently renovated by Rojkind Arquitectos (+ slideshow).

Mexican firm Rojkind Arquitectos was tasked with upgrading the existing facilities of the campus in Xoco, south of Mexico City, as well as adding extra cinema screens, an outdoor amphitheatre and additional storage vaults for the film archive.

Rebranded as Cineteca Nacional Siglo XXI, the complex is used a cut-through from a local metro station, which prompted the architects to create a sheltered space at the centre of the campus that functions as both a public gathering area and a lobby for the buildings.

“We didn’t want it to feel like you’re in the lobby of a commercial cinema, we wanted it to feel more like a university campus, with everything floating in a park” said studio founder Michel Rojkind.

The aluminium-clad canopy curves downwards to form the facade of a pair of new buildings. These accommodate four extra screening rooms, bringing the overall total up to ten, and create a two-storey zone for shops, cafes and seating areas.

“The added amenities have turned the campus into a favourite gathering space not only for moviegoers but also for Xoco residents and workers who have appropriated the space as if it were their backyard,” said the design team.

Two archive vaults were added to the existing four, making room for 50,000 extra reels of film, and a museum dedicated to the history of Latin American cinema was constructed.

Car parking areas previously dotted  around the campus have been consolidated into a single six-storey building, creating space for planted landscaping and the new 750-seat amphitheatre.

Photography is by Paul Rivera, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from Rojkind Arquitectos:

Cineteca Nacional Siglo XXI

Located in the southern quadrant of Mexico City, the National Film Archive and Film Institute of Mexico is home to the most important film heritage of Latin America. Its campus occupied an underutilised site of considerable dimensions within the strangled town of Xoco. This historic town, once surrounded by agricultural land, now sits deep within the urban sprawl and faces extinction due to economic and political pressures from developers and municipal authorities which covet its privileged location.

The existing complex dated from 1982, when a fire destroyed part of the campus and most of its archive, and was a “temporary” facility never well suited for its purpose. Additionally, thousands of people cross the grounds daily as they walked to and from one of the city’s nearby metro station, Estación Metro Coyoacan.

Facing total renewal, Cineteca’s original project brief included the expansion and renovation of the existing complex incorporating additional vault space and four more screening rooms. But in response to the immediate urban condition, additional restorative work needed to be done to reclaim part of the site as public space, give relief to the dense new-development – filled surroundings of Xoco and accommodate the constant flow of pedestrians and casual visitors.

First, surface parking was consolidated into a six-storey structure freeing 40% of the site. Then the pedestrian friendly “back entrance”, located across the street from the historic town’s cemetery, was reactivated – 70% of Cineteca patrons use public transportation and arrive by foot. The reclaimed space now houses the new program organised along two axes, one perpendicular to the street of Real Mayorazgo becoming the main pedestrian entrance and the other perpendicular to Av. México-Coyoacán for both car and pedestrian access.

The axes intersection became a new 80m x 40m public plaza sheltered from the weather by a hovering canopy connecting the existing complex with the new screening rooms. Clad in composite aluminium panels, with varied size triangular perforations, the roof structure wraps around the new screening rooms and becomes their facade. The sheltered space functions as the foyer for the old and new screening rooms and can accommodate additional program options such as concerts, theatre, exhibitions, etc.

An outdoor amphitheatre, extensive landscaping and new retail spaces were added to the original program expanding the possibilities for social and cultural interaction and exchanges, and giving the complex a university campus feel.

The new screening rooms seat 180 each and the existing screening rooms were updated with current technology. Overall the complex can now seat 2,495 visitors in indoor theatres. The outdoor amphitheatre has a 750-person capacity. Two new film vaults were also added to the site, increasing Cineteca’s archive capacity by 50,000 reels of film. Parking capacity was also increased by 25% to a total of 528 cars.

The thousands of people that use the grounds everyday now find welcoming unrestricted public space: commuters still walk back and forth across the campus in the morning and evening, medical staff from a nearby hospital stop by to eat their lunches at noon, students hang out at the park in the afternoon, and moviegoers attend free outdoor events in the evening. The added amenities have turned the campus into a favourite gathering space not only for moviegoers but also for Xoco residents and workers who have appropriated the space as if it were their backyard.

Architectural project: Rojkind Arquitectos
Interior design: Alberto Villareal Bello, Esrawe Studio
Structural engineer: CTC Ingenieros
Roof structure engineer: Studio NYL
MEP: IPDS
Landscape consultant: Ambiente Arquitectos
A/V consultant: Auerbach Pollock Friedlander
Acoustical consultant: Seamonk
Lighting consultant: Ideas y Proyectos en Luz
Graphic design: Citrico + Welcome Branding

Program: Cultural
Construction Area: 49,000 m2
Location: Mexico City

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National Film Archive and Film Institute appeared first on Dezeen.

Mexican firm Taller 6A has renovated a library inside an eighteenth-century building in Mexico City, adding a bookshop with hundreds of wooden boxes on its walls, its ceilings, and under its glass floor (+ slideshow).

Named La Ciudadela, the historical building had previously served as a military headquarters, a prison, a school and a weapons factory, but was converted into a library in 1946. Its last renovation was in 1987, when Mexican architect Abraham Zabludovsky added canopies over the courtyards, so Taller 6A was brought in to modernise existing facilities and make room for new activities.

The architects created a combined bookshop and exhibition space within a pair of symmetrical corridors at the northern end of the complex.

Hollow wooden boxes of different sizes and proportions were mounted to the long walls of the two corridors, creating an assortment of niches for storing and displaying books, as well as recessed lighting fixtures.

More of these boxes cover the ceilings, while the floor comprises a grid of criss-crossing wooden planks that provide extra display areas beneath a transparent surface.

The project also included the addition of a new children’s library at the western end of the building, which is divided into two sections to separate quiet workspaces from rooms dedicated to group activities and play.

Here, circular bookshelves and desks are interspersed with brightly coloured furniture, and spaces open out to a pair of adjoining terraces.

Upgrades to the rest of the building included reinstating the main courtyards as public areas, introducing natural lighting and ventilation, and improving disabled access.

Photography is by Jaime Navarro.

Here’s a project description from Taller 6A:

The City of the Books and the Images

“La Ciudadela” is a building from the end of the XVIII century and it was conceived as the Royal Tobacco Factory from Spain. It was built at the border of the colonial city of Mexico and it has had different functions over the time: military headquarter, prison, weapons factory, school, and, from 1946 to the present, as a Library; in fact, it was the first Library, as that, in Mexico. In 1987, the building had a big intervention, designed by Abraham Zabludovsky, in which the four main patios and the central one were covered with structures as umbrellas covering them.

The actual intervention in the historic building aims in: a) reorganising the program of the different activities for a more logical and efficient operation; b) recovering the character of the building by taking back the functioning of the original patios and restoring the pathways, crossing from north to south and in the perimeter, of the building; c) improving the conditions of natural light and ventilation to get a better and rational use of the energy and resources available; d) attending the requirements of accessibility by using tactile guides and signals and ramps in a topography that eliminates any kind of step in the common areas; and e) updating the installations and equipments of the library according to the needs and uses of interconnectivity of the modern life.

Children’s Library

The project for this area guarantees the safety of the children. The section beside the street houses the Braille area, a multipurpose space, digital teaching, the toy library, and a specialised area for babies, everything organised around a patio; the second one, around a garden that connects this area with the central patio of the building, contains the general library and the workshop area; this differentiation of sections allows the division between playing and reading areas to avoid distractions in the last one. In its interior, bookcases and the control points are solved with independent circular elements adapted to each need that permits free flows, a general visual contact of the area, and to concentrate small groups of children inside them.

“Alejandro Rossi” Bookstore

Conceived not only for selling but also as an exhibition area, the bookstore is located in two symmetrical spaces separated by the north-south corridor of “The City of the Books in La Ciudadela”: one is for general books, other for young and children material. In both cases, the access contains the control and cashiers area while a long and narrow space is treated as a covering honeycomb which varies in their deeps: in the walls, it works to contain books, screens and seating containers; in the ceiling, it hides the lights and MEP; in the floor, if conforms a mesh, covered with glass, that receives books, objects and other kind of stuff for exhibition to identify each block of the bookstore with kind of public it will receive.

Project: The City of the Books and the Images Master Plan
Location: La Ciudadela Square, Centro Neighbourhood, Mexico City
Architect: Taller 6A (Bernardo Gómez-Pimienta, Luis Enrique Mendoza y Alejandro Sánchez)
Team Members: Alejandro Juárez, José Barreto, Alfredo Cortes, Christian Santillano, Iván Rey Martínez, Alejandra Aguirre, Edgar González, Mariana Ruiz, Homero González, Raymundo Alonso, Luis Felipe Márquez, Lourdes Lozano, Monserrat Díaz, Roberto Andonie, Otto Pérez, Sebastián Navarro, Álvaro Rodríguez, Héctor Fuentes, Andrea García, José Manuel Estrada, Juvencio Nuñez, Gerardo Estrada, Freddy Jafet, Ana María, Flor.

Year of Design: 2011
Year of Construction: 2011-2012
Area: 25,450 m2
Structure: Izquierdo Ingenieros y Asociados, S.C.
MEP: Diseños Integrales de Ingeniería, S.A. de C.V.
Lighting: Luz en Arquitectura, S.C.
Landscaping: Entorno Taller de Paisaje.
Graphic Design: Varela + Kimura
Rendering: Erick Barrón
Model: Patricia Aguerrebere
Virtual video: Erick Barrón

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features bookshop covered in boxes appeared first on Dezeen.

This headquarters for an oil and gas company in Mexico City features a square pool of reflective oil in the centre of the lobby (+ slideshow).

The interior was designed by local studios BLANCASMORAN and LSA Arquitectos, who selected materials that evoke the client’s business.

In the lobby, the architects inserted a metal plinth and filled the top 15 centimetres with a processed oil that produces a slick and highly reflective surface.

Elsewhere, materials with rich patterned surfaces have been chosen to reference the millions of years it takes for geochemical processes to transform fossilised organic materials into crude oil.

“Since oil is a material generated after million of years we thought about using materials that could suggest the passing of time as well so we chose one mineral material, in this case the Iranian Travertine, and one vegetal material, the walnut timber veneer,” architect Abel Blancas Morán told Dezeen.

The Iranian marble is used to cover a wall behind the reception desk that leads into the offices, where it also appears on walls and partitions.

The walnut veneer is used to clad the curving external wall of the circular boardroom and in the directors’ offices.

“Each layer in the marble texture represents a period of time where different kinds of sediments settled and the result of all these years is this lovely texture,” said Blancas Morán. “In the case of the timber texture, each line also represents a year.”

The round boardroom is situated in the centre of the interior plan with a circulation area containing breakout spaces surrounding it.

Directors’ offices feature desks with glossy surfaces that reflect the warm wood panelling, while an open plan work space has a contrastingly minimal interior with rows of bright white desks.

Photography is by Rafael Gamo.

The architects sent us this short project description:

ON Headquarters

Located west of Mexico City within the corporate and financial district boundaries, -ON- Headquarters is the base of operations of a company providing services to the oil and gas industry.

After accessing the headquarters through the Lobby and its oil pool, the Board Room functions as the project´s epicentre and generates in its surroundings a concourse where most of the company´s activities and interactions take place. This concourse is the crossing and meeting point for directors, associates, assistants, interns, and guests.

The nature of the company´s business is intended to be reflected in the materials chosen to allocate architectural brief. Being TIME the most important component in the creation of the industry´s raw material (oil), textures and surfaces expressing time and its traces where specifically chosen to contain the required spaces in the programme.

ON Headquarters
LSA Arquitectos / BLANCASMORAN (Imanol Legorreta Molin, Pablo Sepúlveda de Yturbe, Abel Blancas Moran)
Project Architect: Almendra Corona

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by BLANCASMORAN and LSA Arquitectos appeared first on Dezeen.

This house in Mexico City by local firm Taller Hector Barroso is built around a courtyard to bring in more natural light and to make up for a shortage of exterior views (+ slideshow).

Taller Hector Barroso designed the house for a mother and son in the capital’s Santa Fe neighbourhood, creating a two-storey structure with a penthouse on the roof.

Natural grey stone clads most of the house’s exterior, interspersed with pine slats that wrap some of the lower walls around the entrance.

The architects used the same stone for the walls surrounding the courtyard and added more pine to create the surface of the deck.

“The project is based on communication with the outside and outside,” they said, comparing the facade with the courtyard elevations. “We sought to eliminate the boundaries between the two so they were connected visually and spatially, generating views that extend towards the edge of the plot.”

Glazed doors fold back to allow the house to be completely opened out to the courtyard, connecting the space with living and dining rooms on either side.

“By having the indoor and outdoor continuity we generated light-filled spaces with natural ventilation,” added the architects.

A trio of large square windows sit within recesses on the rear facade, overlooking a garden that can be accessed from both the living room and a bedroom on the ground floor.

More bedrooms and a second living room occupy the second floor, while the glazed rooftop penthouse is sheltered beneath a steel roof that protrudes over the edge of the walls.

Hardwood timber floors throughout the house tie in with the decked surface of the courtyard, which has a single tree growing in its centre, and interior walls feature sections of marble panelling.

Photography is by Yoshihiro Koitani.

Here’s a short project description from the architects:

Casa Cumbres

Located in Santa Fe at Mexico City in one of the most exclusive areas of the city, the project is built around a courtyard, due to the shortage of exterior views. From this courtyard different areas of the program are connected as well as an extension of the living room. Boundaries are lost and create a indoor-outdoor which gives more fluidity into space. The living room area can be completely open witch enriches natural lighting and ventilation. The inner courtyard was the main driver of the project and is the main element in the composition of the project.

The presence of textures is very important; we used different woods of pine and a variety of natural stones. Finally on the rooftop we proposed a set of lines and lightness, we have a floated slab of steel to contain the playground witch takes advantage of the remaining outdoor area.

The inspiration for the project is the integration of the house to the immediate context, the incorporation of natural light to the interiors and the play of textures.

The project is based on communication with the outside/inside. We sought to eliminate the boundaries between the two so they were connected visually and spatially, generating views that extend towards the edge of the plot. Another important factor that was light. By having is indoor-outdoor continuity we generated light-filled spaces with natural ventilation.

The main idea in choosing the materials for the house was to highlight this same connection from the outside to the inside, several tests were made with different types of materials until we found the proper relationship between the taste of the client, the architect, the texture and the integration with the outside.

Light is one of the elements that best define all spaces, each room is naturally lit and surrounded by gardens, the interior and exterior are intermingled with the textures of vegetation through the crystals and the different finishes in the spaces: hardwood floors, marble wall panelling, wooden walls and continuity of material outward. In the end, interior spaces end up speaking the same language as the outside by means of light and texture.

Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Clients: Single family
Building area: 635m2
Credits: Hector Barroso
Partner architects: Alejandro Cortina, Rafael Montiel, Flavio Velazco

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Taller Hector Barroso appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: this wooden sideboard by Mexican designer Hector Esrawe is intended to reference the way raw materials are stored in piles.

Stack Buffet by Hector Esrawe is a long black-lacquered sideboard that can be built from either walnut or ash.

Two drawers are contained at one end, inside what appears to be an irregular stack of wooden panels. The other end is an open space for displaying larger objects.

Two criss-crossing pieces of wood are fixed to the base to provide the feet.

Hector Esrawe, who leads Esrawe Studio, previously collaborated with Mexican studio Rojkind Arquitectos to design a Japanese restaurant in Mexico City.

Other sideboards we’ve featured include a television cabinet with perforated doors and a collection of sideboards carved with geometric patterns.

See more furniture »

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Hector Esrawe appeared first on Dezeen.