Univeridad Intercontinental.
Mexico City October 5, 2007.
Project by Raul Basurto.
Gabriel Esquivel was invited to design and precede the jury for this competition.
It was decided to make museum for Solidarity, a city-forming object in Xochimilco Mexico, built by ideology and by technologies of 21st century. New museum should become a city brand, a visiting card of the city and region, like Guggenheim museum in Bilbao by Frank Ghery, Kiasma by Stephen Hall in Helsinki, Gratz museum by Peter Cook, MXXI by Zaha Hadid in Cincinnati.
The objective of the project is to widely confront creative design solutions and to select the project of the highest aesthetic, functional and operating values.
This Center is to commemorate the importance of Solidarity. This center is a diverse organization, with several programs supporting to the education, the culture and the new currents. These activities are diverse from exhibitions, conferences, film, theater and concerts. A fundamental aspect for the accomplishment of this project is the discussion of the emergent technologies that affect the execution of the architectonic project in XXI Century.
The points to consider were:
Originality of the aesthetic values
Generation of form and geometry control
Innovating nature of the solution
Discussion on Emergent Technologies
Nature of the design
Materiality and structural aspects of the design
This competition was a research and design workshop. The first part concentrated on the understanding of surface, geometry and ornament in different cultures; Aztec, Islamic, Mayan, Mexican Baroque, etc. The second will be an attempt at developing an alternative approach to architectural design capable of engendering a new type of bio-morphology. The proposed morphogenetic approach required a novel theory of species for architecture that may be related to the notion of genes and species within biological evolution. It will be an experiment in morphogenesis based on an abstract formal system that is autonomous and deterministic once the rules are set and defined. The result was a new generation of performative and emotive surfaces that related the genetic conditions of the precedents that were applied.
The Third step was to develop an understanding of what Solidarity could be in terms of mood, aesthetics and atmosphere in the context of Xochmilco and the technological precedent of the building by Felix Candela. The new Project will occupy the site next to it.
