Subtle Disruption
3D Printing / Casting
_A Graduate Design School
This project adds a Graduate Design Institute above the historic IMSS headquarters in Mexico City. An adaptive reuse project, the design creates a hybrid of old and new where government offices and a school of design coexist. It explores how circulation, program, and structure can overlap to foster collaboration, learning and public life.
DATE
Spring 2024
DS 1121
2GB Architecture in the City
INSTRUCTOR
Darin Johnstone
COLLABORATORS
Geng Chen
Xiaoyun Zeng
THE SITE
The school is situated above the existing IMSS building on Avenido Paseo de la Reforma in the bustling neighborhood of Zona Reforma. Adjacent to multiple highrises, a bus line, freeway, and Chapultec Park, the site functions as a major urban node defined by the intersection of multiple urban grids and infrastructure.
APPROACH
A delaminated form negotiating the city's shifting grids.
Our massing is distinguished by two main volumes, distinct in both form and materiality. They create tension by separating from the existing IMSS building while still responding to the surrounding city's grids.
One mass is transparent and light, opening toward the street, while the other is heavier, wrapped in stone panels while cutting through the IMSS below. Together, they frame a new identity for the design school.
The school consists of two main masses. The mass at the front consists of a transparent facade, bringing the creative abilities of the school to the forefront. The mass at the back consists of an opaque stone facade, obscuring the irregular programmatic spaces from the outside.
{ DRAWINGS }
{ MODELS }
A translucent glass facade envelops the solid mass, appearing to delaminate from the facade and exposing the stone within.
{ OTHER WORK }
