La Puerta

This project was part of an exchange program with the Rafael Landivar University in Guatemala, Guatemala, as an exercise to explore different views over the same matter. The idea emerged from a government program called Mexico-Panama, which had in purpose to trigger development through the length of the Pan-American Highway, which works as a link between Mexico and Central America.The selected site was la Mesilla a ravine divided by the border between Mexico and Guatemala. The project would consist of a series of requirements to enhance cultural exchange between these countries. We developed the projects and flew down to Guatemala to present them. La Puerta literally translates as the door/doorway.

This particular project had very ambitious requirements, in first place, we had the intention of placing the project right in the inclination of a dominant hill in site, this added certain complexity to it, because we needed to include a control base for the border-crossing of trucks and trailers, which would have been very difficult in such conditions, so we decided to divide the project, sending these area to a less difficult geography, leaving the use of the hill to a less aggressive use, destined to buses and general public, with a more extensive program, including banks, a hostel, a hotel, a cultural centre, a school, government offices(both Guatemalan and Mexican), a marketplace, various restaurants and small shops, a bus station and a small train station used to communicate the complex with the neighboring cities in both sides of the border.

We took advantage of the existing topography, forming platforms which mimetize with the environment as phalanges in which all the activities converge for ephemeral and static population from the cities nearby, Cuauhtemoc City in Mexico, and La Mesilla in Guatemala.

School Works UIA 1998-2003

La Mesilla-Border Guatemala-México

Studio VI

Team: Moises Covalin-Rodrigo Langarica-Soledad Taddei

El Faro

This was an open competition for the Delegacion Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico City. Authorities reflect the necessity of cultural spaces for young people, basing this purposes in a plan conceived in Curitiba, Brasil,called “El Faro del Saber” translated as “The lighthouse of knowledge” which involved a series of public libraries with free access to computers, technicaleducation and various public services. The invitation was extended to a number of architecture faculties, as a space for its students to develop the project.

We reinterpreted the concept of the lighthouse transforming it into a horizontal luminous building that stands through a thick mass of trees in the park in which the site stood.

A premise for the competition was the access to everyone, so we decided to use horizontality as a mean to develop the project as a series of ramps which evolve around a concrete wall that becomes the medullar spine of the project, not only does it support the ramps, but with help of the steel structure which surrounds it, the wall works as the structure from which all the spaces hang, suspending slabs cover important distances which do not work as single slabs but as a story high built-in framework.

We took advantage of the existing infrastructure and we made an addition to the requirements, using our lighthouse as a mean of projection and lightning for an open scenic stage which existed in site.

We worked in the possibility of using the glasses which we proposed to sponsorship, so that the lighthouse would not need a great investment from city authorities for its operation and maintenance.

School Works UIA 1998-2003

Tacubaya-Mexico City

Construction VI

Team: Gina Ampudia-Rodrigo Langarica-Guillermo Ramirez