Sector 02 Irrigation Module Offices
Located in the Lerma River watershed in Salvatierra, Guanajuato, which historically has led to the settlement of agricultural producers, result in the conflict over water control in different eras: the pre-Hispanic, the Viceregal and the Porfiriato. Upon the triumph of the Revolution, the State assumed the leadership of it´s distribution. Finally, the National Water Commission (CNA) decentralizes the irrigation systems, which are handed over to peasant organizations for operation; This is the case of the Association of Agricultural Producers of the Irrigation Module in Salvatierra.
This association is made up of 6,100 users; It´s area of influence covers 16,000 acres with 70 communities; where more than 32 products are grown, including grains (corn, beans, wheat), vegetables, tubers, and fruits.
To develop the project, endow it the character and value the importance of this organization, it was essential to understand, through historical memory, the scale on which these activities were developed and continue developing, and their importance in the region at cultural level. Identifying a scheme of life and architecture where the subject, the rule and the type in their context, forms a mechanism in the search of an idea in which the three previously are necessary at a cultural, economic, organizational, ecological and tectonic level.
“The type is understood as that which constitutes the true nature of the work”1
From this premise, the references of the regional agricultural architecture genre were considered for the design; The morphologies of the haciendas, convents and storage silos were studied. Also references of contemporary architecture that make us remember those the territory and return to typologies that provide scale, cultural meaning, and connection with the environment.
In this way, we proposed a building with an agricultural nature scale, with a main entrance framed by two large pyramidal bodies, rotated in plan that represent the old grain storage silos scattered throughout the country, which gives to the building the agricultural scale and historical significance.
The plaza and patio configure the complex and generate a deambulatory that gives access to the different volumes that are located on a stone platform. Thus, the various programmatic activities are carried out in spaces with different heights and are distributed around the patio, which ends with a body of water.
For its construction, the labour of the region was considered, using stones recovered from the surrounding fields, traditional red terracotta bricks and raw concrete, while the bricks that line the interiors were covered with plaster and the floors with ceramics.
Already in Module operations, the region boosts it´s economy and it´s values; actions that give hope and certainty of harvests; as well as generate jobs and agricultural products, strengthening interest in the land, reaffirming the identity and roots that consciously inhibit migration.
1 Moneo Rafael, “On Typology”, Oppositions N°13. (New York, 1978)
