Biggest on the Biggest

As sitting in a conservative and contextual neighborhood, this project challenges the “flat” urbanism of the site, meaning the consistent and endless 5 stories that filled this neighborhood, by creating a large, over-scaled building on the North-East corner of the site. The massing which is constructed by aggregating a series of small chunks deriving from the neighborhood have eccentric courtyard cuts in them to allow for interesting moments to interlock with each other both horizontally and vertically.

When forming the solid massing, the chunks also design the void spaces which are emphasized by a different language in the section. Then, the seam line system is further added to reinforce the circulation and connection between each individual massing as well as the penetration of the natural light.

The massing which we derived from the neighborhood have eccentric courtyard cuts in them to allow for intriguing moments to interlock with each other both horizontally and vertically. Then, we have our set of primitives to construct the building by aggregating them together. Our intention is to create the concave carved out moments within the building.

We were struck by the consistent and endless 5 story buildings that filled this Mexico City neighborhood. At the same time, we were also interested in the concave and carved out moments happening around the site. The challenges is how to contextually design a new building with our language in a conservative neighborhood.

Our project challenges the “flat” urbanism of the site. The diagram illustrated the flat urban fabric and how our building stands out from the rest by doubling the average height. Moreover, in order to emphasize the concept , the largest block was positioned on the roof of the biggest existing building on the site. In assembling our large building, we were interested in maintaining the void at the center of the building as well as the area between the existing and the new building.