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Educational Pavilion and Visitor´s Center of Chapultepec Zoo by TEAM730 Taller de Estudios y Análisis Metropolitanos

Architecture

2021

Photographer : Óscar Hernández

The project is part of an integral city government endeavor aiming at introducing a series of cultural-educational buildings and pavilions along with restoring, modernizing, and refurbishing historic and heritage structures located within the Chapultepec Forest. The 800-hectare urban park with its 12km of length, represents the biggest and more important public space of the country’s capital.

The architectural interventions are located at the entrance of the Chapultepec Zoo: at the north section the floating pavilion and at south, the expansion, complementing one another. Two main site conditions played an important role within the design intentions and strategies for the pavilion: the site presented an important number of trees to preserve, among them, one of the oldest ash trees within the zoo, and the site had to preserve its potential of introducing water to the underground. Based on that the project proposes open modular cubes to be used as building blocks, just as the artwork by Sol LeWitt. The open cubes are deployed naturally along the site extension aiming at defining and blurring the limits of the structure in its dialogue with its surroundings. 56 modules are grouped to accommodate walkways, corridors, stairs, ramps, an open amphitheater, a multipurpose space, a front desk and reception area, restrooms, machine room, among others. The main program components are elevated 90 centimeters from the ground level to ensure minimum building contact ensuring soil permeability.

Light and shadow act as material components to articulate the space, wrapping the geometry and connecting exterior with interior, this effect is achieved through different ways to approach the modular cube: solid, translucent, empty, and striped.

The expansion takes place on top of an historic stone building, modernizing the existing structure and adding a light structure on top of it. Both, the floating pavilion, and the expansion share the spirit of a yellow-steel structure, color that was taken from a heritage building located in between the two.