Casa de Música
Music and festivities play a fundamental roll in Nacajuca´s daily life, both in the Mesoamerican-rooted pocho dance and in contemporary manifestations.
The new Community Center reuses the foundations of the pre-existed building and provides and space for social gatherings, with an open floor plan of 32x24 meters, and a core of services with cellars, restrooms and a kitchen for special events, the upper floor works as a mezzanine for workshops or as a stage for local musicians.
Mirroring the Community Center, conformed by a public boulevard between both buildings, the new music school faces a polluted creek. The walls are aligned to the rhythm of the pre-existing structure of the Community Center in such a way that when all its doors are opened it is possible to look through the entire complex in a cross direction.
The Music School is made up of eight classrooms, a cafeteria, restrooms and management offices, thanks to the slope of its roof, each of these spaces has double height and an upper terrace from where you can observe the treetops. The complex is the first building in Nacajuca that discharges clean water into the rivers, through a system that culminates in a series of treatment wetlands. Our intention is to demonstrate how another approach to the river is possible.
Wide, well-ventilated spaces were built with local coconut wood, partitions and clay tiles to provide warmth, natural freshness, and good acoustics.
The project provides a space for the social gatherings of local people, with warm materials and natural freshness through cross ventilation. For musicians, spacious, isolated and equipped classrooms. It is a project of SEDATU (Secretaría de Desarrollo Agrario Territorial y Urbano), of the Federal Government, as part of the PMU (Programa de Mejoramiento Urbano) to attend to highly vulnerable areas in the country.
It´s fundamental that the projects pay homage to the place where they belong, especially if it has the opportunity to highlight what already exists.
The rainwater is captured, collected and filtered, for use in the restrooms, after that it passes through a system of biodigesters and biofilters through wetlands, before returning to the river.
In addition to water treatment, the coconut wood for this site is highly sustainable, since it is an abundant and renewable resource. During its life it captures a huge amount of CO2. Its production and transfer generate a minimum carbon footprint in comparison to other materials.
The materials used recognize the advantage of implementing local resources, and encourage handicraft production and local workforce.
Design Team: Álvaro Martínez, Fernando Venado, Eduardo Palomino
Executive architect: Leticia Sánchez, Victor Arriata
Structures: LABG (Eric Valdez), GIEE, GECCO Ingeniería
Electrical and mechanical engineering: Enrique Zenón
Landscape architects: Taller de Paisaje Hugo Sánchez
Other consultants: Carlos Hano, Laurent Herbiet
