Device of Perception Cultural Center

Press Kit

Unique Properties

The site is in between the low rise colonial historic quarter and the high rise commercial development, as an intersection node full of complexity in Mexico City. The cultural center is not only an exhibition space for Mexico City but could also be regarded as the device of perception. The perception is twofold in this project. One is that exterior plaza as the extension of the interior stage, the other is that a spiral path with various scenery frames as the narrative to understand the city.

Dimensions & Packaging

Approximate total area 4500 square meters, with main conference/lecture hall, small theater hall, exhibition space, offices, storage, cafe.

Tags

cultural center, gallery, theater, exhibition

Production Technology

The cultural center is constructed using reinforced concrete. Informed by “stereotomic” architecture, the board-marked concrete walls of the center are treated as a found object. Corten is another material been introduced to the project. The use of the weathering steel creates an immediate visual link between past, present, and future.

Design Challenge

The selected site is adjacent to Zarco Plaza, public plaza alongside the Church of San Judeas Tadeo, near the convent of San Hipolito, located on Reforma Avenue at Avenida Hidalgo, which is an intersection node full of complexity in Mexico City. The design challenges are how to use space to fully interprete the surrounding urban context and the rich cultural and history narratices.

Project Duration

2017 in Mexico City

Operation Flow

The sunken entrance plaza of the cultural center creates a tranquil start of the narrative, separating the cultural center from the heavy traffic La Reforma Avenue. The lower ground floor surrounding the sunken plaza houses the art storage facilities and a cafe, maximizing publicly accessible space continues from the plaza into the lobby of the building.
Each floor of the short tower is twisted a quarter turn, which creates a large spiral public gallery as the extension of the interior exhibition space. The story of the city has been told through the switch-over between the interior gallery and different compositions of historical layers from the breaking points/openings in the cube of the spiral path. Two auditoriums have been embedded in this spiral discourse, with lectures, talks, debates, conferences, and film screenings conducted in front of the urban backdrop.

Research

Explore how experimental miniature stage was used as a space in which objects, 2-­‐dimensional drawings and 3-­‐dimensional constructions of different scales could coexist in a seemingly unproblematic way, to see how the same spatial base was used to accommodate different scenarios and situations, just by moving props around, adding surfaces and changing backdrops.

Inspiration

Aldo Rossi's Project the Small Scientific Theatre from 1978 is taken as a starting point to reflect upon the relation between architecture and image, and between object/ prop and space/ stage. The theatrino models made for the project then have borrowed this primary idea from Aldo Rossi to explore how does the Zarco Plaza could be regarded as the extension of the stage of the auditorium. The definition of performers has been extended in the exploration.

Image Credits

Yuting Zhang

Colors of Device of Perception Cultural Center