Villa Panamericana in Guadalajara
4. fevereiro 2009
The commission called for new uses and meanings to be given to a space in the historic center of Guadalajara. Its essential features were to be respected, in order to reverse the process of degradation and to convert the area into a catalyst of the urban context that will emerge with the complex of the Villa Panamericana.
The layout of Parque Morelos and its present use reflects it vocation as a pedestrian transit space, with more circulation areas than gathering points. It is a self-contained space, delimited by the Calzada Independencia: an isolated context surrounded by characterless, poorly integrated elements.
Photos: Gustavo Montalvo
The proposal seeks to transform the park into a territory that links the various spaces and buildings, like the Plaza Tapatia and the Calzada Independencia. Part of this strategy is the construction of a mirador that orients the visitor within the dense green fabric.
The park is to be equipped with restaurants, bars, and cafés, as well as an auditorium, a cinema, open-air seating, a multifunctional space, and a community center with workshops, a conservatory, a playground, open-air gym facilities, and infrastructure for fairs and markets.
The aim is to generate interactive, programmatic relations with the surroundings, conceived as links, bridges, hinges, nodes, and junctions, while respecting existing landmarks, especially the trees, whose branches and shadows will be like lines bifurcating to give direction to the new layout of the walkways.
The defragmentation of the park into its principal components will create a new compositional logic based on principles of unity and integration. At the same time, this layout will convert the park itself -in relation to its context- and the context -in relation to the park- into an abstract pattern of circulations.
Miguel Echauri (Guadalajara, Jalisco 1964) and Álvaro Morales (Guadalajara, Jalisco 1963) received Silver Medals at the IV and V Bienales de Arquitectura Jalisciense for their Patria Acueducto interchange and Casa 15, respectively.
Graphics: Daniel Cano
The Alameda Poniente building is located across from the Parque de la Alameda in central Guadalajara. The rectangular lot stretches from corner to corner, providing the building with two open façades, one facing the street and the other the park.
The project consists of two mixed-use towers whose composition -and sort of serrated skyline- plays with the different height, as an interpretation of the various structures united at the base. The program calls for residential use with ground-floor commercial spaces.
The complex is oriented east-west, so the façades play a central role, representing the formal and functional study of sunlight and climatic control.
On the eastern façade there is a two-color collapsible latticework which generates an intrinsic visual movement on the inside of the building, reflecting a constant cinematic stream of perspectives. The western façade is based on a formal ecological study, with the structure covered in vegetation to shield itself from sunlight, providing ventilation and bioclimatic control of the building.
Eastern facade, fifth level plan
Western facade, fourth level plan
Carme Pinòs (Barcelona, 1954) worked in partnership with Enric Miralles for almost decade before starting her own practice, in 1991, and undertaking projects such as the Escuela Hogar (Morella), the Pasarela Peatonal (Petrer), and the Paseo Marítimo in Torrevieja. In 1995 she received the Premio Nacional de Arquitectura in Spain and was awarded the Premio Arqcatmon of the COAC. She has taught at Columbia University, Harvard, and the Academia de Archittetura di Mendrisio.
Parque Morelos
2008
Guadalajara
Architecture
Miguel Echauri y Álvaro Morales
Sociological Research
Dr. Bernardo Jiménez
Equipo de alumnos de la maestría
en psicología social
Universidad de Guadalajara
Edificio Alameda Poniente
2008
Guadalajara
Architecture
Carme Pinós Desplat
Constructed Surface Area
35.000 m2