Onnis Luque

OBJECTIVE

Our objective was divided on to two strategies. One purely urban, by opening the square to the northern west corner, in order to create a new relationship with the neighborhood and to create an openness for the public to come in freely. The other strategy was purely through the power of architecture to connect and articulate the city and the public space and the city. Therefore we set the building strategically between the sports field and the public park, while at the same time introducing and connecting the Tortilleria to the spatial system, mainly by an L shape building, slightly raised from the floor for also to make it perform as an Urban scenario. The project was meant to be administrated by the community of El higuerón, therefore we thought that maintenance was going to be almost non existent or could become a heavy burden. In order to protect the social infrastructure from decay and to ease the future maintenance we thought that to was best to offer a very austere and easy to access building, and adaptable to different social or programmatic definitions, that surely would change through time, specially after an earthquake. On the same line, we considered very important to keep the space ventilated free of machines and to have comfort without compromising a cost for the community.

CONTEXT

On September 19th, 2017, An earthquake with a strength of 7.1, destroying almost all the town. No other town in Mexico was as damaged and destroyed as Jojutla. Almost all of its social infrastructure and housing was completely teared down.

The small town is located at 882 meters above sea level, with a warm climate almost all year round. Its surroundings are mostly for agriculture and its economy dependes on a rural basis.

With most of its infrastructure destroyed, INFONAVIT institute led a process for its reconstruction. First through the construction of public and community spaces for people to gather again.

The site is located in municipality of El Higueron and surrounded with beautiful mountains and a very exotic nature. The site itself is surrounded by a small sports field on the East side, and an existing taqueria that was mandatory to keep and rebuilt on the South West.
The site is squared shaped, leaving the other sides open and in direct contact with the street. This situation allowed the new building to mediate between the sports field and the Taqueria with the public space and the street. On the near by South West side the tower from the San Francisco de Asis church can be seen from the site, creating a visual relationship that was important to keep.