2016 MCHAP
Tower 41
Alberto Kalach
Mexico City, Mexico
June 2014
PRIMARY AUTHOR
Alberto Kalach
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Iván RamÃrez (Architect) Patricia Lazcano (Administration) Gabriel Mancera (Architect) David MartÃnez (Architect)
CLIENT
Teofilo Kalach
PHOTOGRAPHER
Tomás Casademunt Yoshihiro Koitani Onnis Luque Pablo Rosenblueth (Text)
OBJECTIVE
To challenge the encircling sprawl of skewed development aspiring to move on… A structure over a lack of infrastructure, a ship turned island, whose lighthouse could be a sign for future syntheses that take on the unplanned growth of urban happenstance… with simply a state of grace. Its quest for balance; use textures old and new (as moods made tactile) with futuristic light (efficient, natural), and everywhere… the green (from roof to park-ing).
CONTEXT
The largest and most beautiful park in the city, seen from what could easily be called the back door, given the area’s lack of development and sort of in-between kind of shantytown by the road (or rather highway) feel, the spot seemed ripe for a statement, a link that could bridge the twenty-first century… with the nineteenth, while avoiding the shortsightedness –of the twentieth… It is a complex, hybrid area, floating between time and space, where primitive and modern blend spontaneously around a question mark; may it be progress?
PERFORMANCE
A green view with a green mind that breathes the living aspects of its context –from its own flowering roots to a wild roof’s foliage. The temperature? To please –with unconditioned ease, and sun to match it: A daylight prism aligned for self-sufficiency. And then, at night, a grid of lit inner geometries –that turn the silhouette-spire into an urban flame. It is a place to work oneself –fully, creatively (and all around as well)
