Balance between permeability and presence. Community center PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911
04/04/2023.
[Mexico City] México
metalocus, ANA SAIZ
metalocus, ANA SAIZ
Architecture firm a|911 has completed PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías, a community center located in Benito Juárez municipality, Mexico City. The building is located inside the Parque Rosendo Arnaiz, within the limits of the old pediments of the park that were deteriorated, favoring crime.
The construction of this complex is part of an initiative and public policy that aims to rebuild, through committed architecture, a community center that benefits citizens. The proposed program is intended primarily for the young population that have dropped out of educational institutions, women who need to strengthen their economic autonomy, and other communities that currently do not have access to decent cultural and sports facilities.
The construction of this complex is part of an initiative and public policy that aims to rebuild, through committed architecture, a community center that benefits citizens. The proposed program is intended primarily for the young population that have dropped out of educational institutions, women who need to strengthen their economic autonomy, and other communities that currently do not have access to decent cultural and sports facilities.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
Site plan. PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911.
Ground floor plan. PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911.
Sections. PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911.
Diagrams. PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911.
Axonometric. PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911.
Model. PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911.
Model. PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911.
Model. PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911.
The building designed by a|911 is related to the history of both the context and its typology. Its materiality of brick walls and reinforced concrete columns resemble the social and educational infrastructures of previous decades, but with a new morphology. The set seeks to create a new landscape, the horizontality of the lattice walls contrasts with a system of skylights with a marked verticality.
Two walls with brick lattices frame the building on the eastern and western limits of the plot. Inside, a reticular enclosure is distributed in a series of classrooms and educational spaces that are naturally illuminated and ventilated thanks to a series of north-facing skylights with different heights. Two gardens at the North and South ends receive the users of the centre and function as an extension of the park that houses various programs such as seating areas, reading, and an open-air forum. The building is interwoven with the park achieving a balance between permeability and presence.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
Two walls with brick lattices frame the building on the eastern and western limits of the plot. Inside, a reticular enclosure is distributed in a series of classrooms and educational spaces that are naturally illuminated and ventilated thanks to a series of north-facing skylights with different heights. Two gardens at the North and South ends receive the users of the centre and function as an extension of the park that houses various programs such as seating areas, reading, and an open-air forum. The building is interwoven with the park achieving a balance between permeability and presence.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
Project description by a|911
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías is a venue located in the Benito Juárez mayor's office in Mexico City, which is part of an initiative and public policy with the aim of rebuilding the neighbourhood through committed architecture, a community centre that benefits the citizenship. According to the program, the proposal gives priority to the young population that has abandoned formal educational institutions, to women who need to strengthen their economic autonomy, and to communities that currently do not have access to decent cultural and sports facilities. The building is located inside the Rosendo Arnaiz Park, next to the San Antonio metro station, within the limits of the old frontons of the park that were deteriorated and gave rise to crime.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
Two lattice walls frame the building at the eastern and western ends of the property, developing inside a reticular enclosure that is distributed in a series of classrooms and educational spaces illuminated and naturally ventilated thanks to a series of north-facing skylights with different heights. The classrooms are connected to each other by a longitudinal walkway, making this a pavilion more than a building. Two gardens at the North and South ends receive the users of the centre and function as an extension of the park that houses various programs such as seating areas, reading, and an outdoor forum, creating an educational system where learning is also done outside the centre. The building is interwoven with the park through a noble and balanced gesture between permeability and presence. It is a low-impact architecture, conceptualized on the footprint of what were the park's pediments.
PILARES Valentín Gómez Farías by a|911. Photograph by Onnis Luque.
The building is intertwined with the history of the context and its typology. Its materiality of partition walls and reinforced concrete columns seek to remember the social and educational infrastructures of previous decades with a new morphology. Its central concept is the creation of a new landscape, a horizon with a civic dimension. The horizontality of the lattice walls is contrasted by multiple gestures of verticality: a system of skylights with an expressive force in the environment.
More information
Architects
a|911. Lead architects.- Saidee Springall and José Castillo Oléa.
Project team
Iván Cervantes, Facundo Savid, Pedro Tortello, Gerardo Hernández, Karla García, Valerio López.
Collaborators
Landscape architect.- Janisse Cruz, David Díaz, Anahí Toriz.
Structure.- Ing. Oscar trejo.
MEP.- Ing. Gilberto Jocirin.
Illumination.- Light & Effect Pablo Gadsden.
Structure.- Ing. Oscar trejo.
MEP.- Ing. Gilberto Jocirin.
Illumination.- Light & Effect Pablo Gadsden.
Area
650 m².
Dates
2022.
Location
Mexico City, Mexico.
Photography
Saidee Springall, Jose Castillo. a|911
aI911 is an architecture and urbanism firm founded in 2002 by Saidee Springall together with Jose Castillo and located in Mexico City, whose work is based on the double commitment of an architecture that links the physical with the social and, which starts and ends reports by city and territory.
Throughout these two decades they have formed a study of 60 professionals with different profiles and areas of experience, which allows a multidisciplinary approach to projects. aI911's work covers architecture, urban design, territorial planning, mobility and landscape projects, with a variety of typologies approached from a methodology based on research and design.
aI911 has collaborated with a diversity of Mexican and foreign architects including Alberto Kalach, Enrique Norten, Isaac Broid, Javier Sánchez, Michel Rojkind, Productora, MMX, Julio Amezcua, Frida Escobedo, Fernanda Canales, Cadena y Asociados, Esrawe among many others.
Among its outstanding projects are the expansion of the Cultural Center of Spain, the CEDIM campus in Monterrey NL, more than 2,000 intra-urban social housing units, the Jaime García Terrés Library in the Ciudadela, the remodeling of the Siqueiros Public Art Hall, the Elena Garro Cultural Center and the remodeling of the Del Bosque Cultural Center and the Julio Castillo Theater, the Platah administrative building in Hidalgo, the Aztec Pavilion in Mexico City, the remodeling of the San Juan Market and two PILLARS - social infrastructures - for the Government of Mexico City.
Its urbanism work includes the master plan for Azcania in Azcapotzalco, developed in collaboration with Arup, Cerro Norte, a multi-use district in León, Guanajuato in collaboration with Sasaki, the Cabo Norte mixed-use and housing development in Mérida, as well as a series of tourism, industrial and mixed-use master plans in different states of the Republic and Central America.
Among her mobility projects are the Mexibús Pantitlán-Neza-Chimalhuacán transport corridor, the master plan for the BRT Buenavista-Centro Histórico-San Lázaro, the Maribús / Acabici project; a water and cycling mobility system for the port of Acapulco, the master plans for the Cetram Observatory and the urban architectural project for the Cetram Tacubaya as well as the comprehensive sustainable mobility strategy for the City of Mérida, Yucatán.
The firm has received various awards for its projects and contributions to the field of architecture and urban planning, such as the Richard Rogers scholarship for the Harvard GSD in London 2017, the National Housing Award 2011, for a 750-unit social interest housing complex. for ARA (Iztacalco); the bronze medal of the Holcim awards for Latin America 2011 for his master plan for the renovation of public space and infrastructure in a neighborhood in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and the Emerging Voices award, by the Architectural League of New York in 2012
The Elena Garro Cultural Center has received several awards, among which are the award for the best interior design in Latin America and the Caribbean by IIDA in 2013, the Best of Year 2013 by Interior Design Magazine, the Project of the Year award, by Archdaily and Plataforma Arquitectura, and the Travel and Leisure Design Award for the best cultural space of 2014. Also, in 2014, the team led by a|911 won the Audi Urban Future Award, in Berlin, Germany. In 2015, the firm was recognized as the most visionary architecture firm in Mexico by Obras Magazine. In 2018 they obtained the Silver Medal at the Mexico City Architecture Biennial.
The work of aI911 has been exhibited nationally and internationally in exhibitions such as the Sao Paulo Architecture Biennale (2005), the Rotterdam Biennale (2007 and 2005), the Venice Biennale (2012, 2008 and 2006), the Biennale of Arts and Architecture of the Canary Islands (2007), among others. Recently, the firm's proposals for the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale (2016) and the Rotterdam Architecture Biennale (2016) were selected to form part of the digital archive of Mexico and to participate in the exhibition, respectively.
Throughout these two decades they have formed a study of 60 professionals with different profiles and areas of experience, which allows a multidisciplinary approach to projects. aI911's work covers architecture, urban design, territorial planning, mobility and landscape projects, with a variety of typologies approached from a methodology based on research and design.
aI911 has collaborated with a diversity of Mexican and foreign architects including Alberto Kalach, Enrique Norten, Isaac Broid, Javier Sánchez, Michel Rojkind, Productora, MMX, Julio Amezcua, Frida Escobedo, Fernanda Canales, Cadena y Asociados, Esrawe among many others.
Among its outstanding projects are the expansion of the Cultural Center of Spain, the CEDIM campus in Monterrey NL, more than 2,000 intra-urban social housing units, the Jaime García Terrés Library in the Ciudadela, the remodeling of the Siqueiros Public Art Hall, the Elena Garro Cultural Center and the remodeling of the Del Bosque Cultural Center and the Julio Castillo Theater, the Platah administrative building in Hidalgo, the Aztec Pavilion in Mexico City, the remodeling of the San Juan Market and two PILLARS - social infrastructures - for the Government of Mexico City.
Its urbanism work includes the master plan for Azcania in Azcapotzalco, developed in collaboration with Arup, Cerro Norte, a multi-use district in León, Guanajuato in collaboration with Sasaki, the Cabo Norte mixed-use and housing development in Mérida, as well as a series of tourism, industrial and mixed-use master plans in different states of the Republic and Central America.
Among her mobility projects are the Mexibús Pantitlán-Neza-Chimalhuacán transport corridor, the master plan for the BRT Buenavista-Centro Histórico-San Lázaro, the Maribús / Acabici project; a water and cycling mobility system for the port of Acapulco, the master plans for the Cetram Observatory and the urban architectural project for the Cetram Tacubaya as well as the comprehensive sustainable mobility strategy for the City of Mérida, Yucatán.
The firm has received various awards for its projects and contributions to the field of architecture and urban planning, such as the Richard Rogers scholarship for the Harvard GSD in London 2017, the National Housing Award 2011, for a 750-unit social interest housing complex. for ARA (Iztacalco); the bronze medal of the Holcim awards for Latin America 2011 for his master plan for the renovation of public space and infrastructure in a neighborhood in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and the Emerging Voices award, by the Architectural League of New York in 2012
The Elena Garro Cultural Center has received several awards, among which are the award for the best interior design in Latin America and the Caribbean by IIDA in 2013, the Best of Year 2013 by Interior Design Magazine, the Project of the Year award, by Archdaily and Plataforma Arquitectura, and the Travel and Leisure Design Award for the best cultural space of 2014. Also, in 2014, the team led by a|911 won the Audi Urban Future Award, in Berlin, Germany. In 2015, the firm was recognized as the most visionary architecture firm in Mexico by Obras Magazine. In 2018 they obtained the Silver Medal at the Mexico City Architecture Biennial.
The work of aI911 has been exhibited nationally and internationally in exhibitions such as the Sao Paulo Architecture Biennale (2005), the Rotterdam Biennale (2007 and 2005), the Venice Biennale (2012, 2008 and 2006), the Biennale of Arts and Architecture of the Canary Islands (2007), among others. Recently, the firm's proposals for the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale (2016) and the Rotterdam Architecture Biennale (2016) were selected to form part of the digital archive of Mexico and to participate in the exhibition, respectively.
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