2024
MCHAP
Nave de envasado y oficinas para fábrica de tequila
Alejandro Guerrero | Andrea Soto | ATELIER ARS
Tepatitlán de Morelos, Jalisco, Mexico
January 2023
PRIMARY AUTHOR
Alejandro Guerrero Gutiérrez (Co-director), Andrea Soto Morfín (Co-director)
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
GSARCH (Builder), CPI | PCI (Project Management | Building Management), CIVITA | THE PASSIV COMPANY (Sustainability), Juan Montaño (Horticulturist), BEST (Structural engineer
CLIENT
Eugenio Franco Ramírez Corzo
PHOTOGRAPHER
César Alejandro Béjar Anaya | César Béjar Studio
OBJECTIVE
Being a production architecture, we decided to use a classic industrial form - the sawtooth roof. The building is presented as a hybrid that relates regional elements such as the Catalan vault, load-bearing walls and brick buttresses, with typical industrial forms such as trusses, metal columns and glazing in the sawtooth interstice, that allows the entry of light softened by the use of artisanal glass, which in addition to controlling the intensity of natural light, produces an ethereal atmosphere typical of distillate warehouses.
The bay that is located to the east of the nave and that contains the offices and laboratories, enjoys a particular relationship with the interior slope system, and in the same way, houses a longitudinal portico that functions as a pedestrian connection to the rest of the master plan. In this way, in addition to containing production and work areas, the building also manages to integrate the landscape contemplation into people's daily lives.
In this way, a hybrid building was achieved, which is able to simultaneously relate to the site, the local material tradition and the technology of the present, informing about our deep engagement with ritualized construction methods to contribute to the preservation of the artisanal knowledge, still alive in the region.
Our interest in hybridizing landscape and architectural typologies, led us to propose an unusual relationship between slopes and roofs that collect rainwater to direct it to the exterior infiltration gardens and bioswales, making the building participate in the ecological infrastructure and the habitat regeneration.
CONTEXT
Our work as architects has been defined by 3 main themes: the role of history in the project, the relationship between architecture and landscape, and the attention to human aspects through the inclusion of rituals and myths. When we were commissioned to develop an industrial facility for a tequila company, and after visiting the site - a typical Mexican landscape of volcanic origin - we thought that the building, despite its scale, could reduce its presence to better relate to the surrounding landscape, to maintain as much as possible the natural atmosphere we found in the original habitat.
For this reason, we decided to bury part of the building through a large excavation - a typical Landart operation- in relation to the original topography, producing a large platform where the building could be located. From the east, the building appears as a “ceramic horizon”, because its roof covered with clay elements anchors physically the building to the earth, producing a topographic relationship with the terrain, blurring the limits between architecture and landscape.
The intention of using local materials, such as typical ceramic elements locally produced and stone resulting from site-excavation, is related to the idea of anchoring the building to its geographical volcanic context, revealing the mineral substrate, the same condition that allows the growth of agave species to produce tequila.
Most importantly, with the conviction that doing so, could benefit regional producers and local artisan labor, which in fact is a fundamental part of the tequila company´s philosophy.
PERFORMANCE
The building process benefited regional producers and local labor. Most of the processes during the construction methods were consciously done to perpetuate traditional built techniques and knowledge passed from one generation to another, echoing the company’s values, because their main philosophy, is to share the beauty of our Mexican culture, traditions and land with the world.
Visitors will experience the site, where beyond understanding the processes of the tequila production, the goal is to promote and perpetuate the knowledge about Mexican traditions to communicate their values and the context behind our culture. Through various initiatives the company protects the heritage and cultural legacy of their artisans’ community, such as the Company’s non-profit foundation, and their own ceramic workshop where artisans create the decanters, using and thus preserving that knowledge and techniques.
Initially, the company had the intention to create a large campus located within a regional artisan’s area to share this place with visitors to get immersed in the place through the exploration of the landscape and production areas within the site. However, the company commitment with the immediate local community, took another shift after the construction of the production factories, and is planning new open events to bring diverse audiences that during traditional festivities -as long preserved and valued like the day of the Death in Mexico-, will welcome local people to experience the architecture and landscape spaces tuned with our Mexican culture.
