Museo Soumaya / Fernando Romero - Laboratory of Architecture
At Platform we have published works of the new generation of Latin American architects who are giving that talk. Among these is a group of Mexican architects, who at one time worked together. Architects such as Fernando Romero, Tatiana Bilbao, Michel Rojkind Dellekamp and Derek have managed to position the world Mexican architecture, with a high level of experimentation, but with a strong influence on the local.
In this article we present an innovative museum that is starting to build in Mexico City, by Fernando Romero (Laboratory of Architecture). Fernando Romero was a member of the team that won the tender for the Casa da Musica in Oporto, with OMA. Has developed projects not only in Mexico, but in several parts of the world and was the curator of the show at the last Latin American Architecture Biennial Beijing. Then, the memory, pictures and diagrams of this project in construction phase.
The museum seeks to explore the possibilities of a specific context, economics and engineering in the country, and turn them into an overall solution, a building and make it relevant and meaningful. Its aim is to reflect this by the deformation of a rhomboid extruded and rotated, the ends of which penetrate and spread, eventually producing a compression twisted in the central and elongated at the edges.
The Museo Soumaya is a different character in its design. It covers a wide range of time from the twelfth century to the twenty-hosting almost 1.600 pieces. Thus, the building should reflect this diversity by offering a variety of plants which each one is unique in size and shape: this unique geometry arises from the rotation and torque.
In addition, the collection requires specific conditions to ensure their maintenance, such as temperature, lighting, humidity and security, which are achieved with different exhibition halls offer a variety of potential exposure, openness, closeness, size and natural light.
The Museo Soumaya can be thought of as a vertical museum, where programs are located in response to the logic of operation, and size requirements. When one enters the museum with 6.000 m2 of exhibition, one moves through five levels of exposure by lifts or stairs connecting the floors, and through one of the stairs leads to the upper floor, which houses the second collection Rodin's largest world, as well as a temporary exhibition. The latter has natural light filtered through a dome, which aims to reduce energy expenditure.
The design has no interior partitions as walls or columns, giving total freedom to adapt the space to the requirements of each exhibition.
Program: 14,000 m2 of exhibition space, auditorium, library, offices, parking, storage and trade.
Location: Cologne Irrigation, Mexico City.
Design: 2005-2006
Construction: 2007-2009
Budget: USD $ 1,200 / m2
Team: Fernando Romero Omar Felix Geral, Thorsten Englert, Max Betancourt, Luis Fuentes, Luis Flores, Rodolfo Rueda, Ana Paula Herrera, wonna Ickx, Dolores Robles, Sappho Van Laer, Ophelie Chassin, Victor Chavez, Elena Haller, Ana Medina, April Tobar, Diego Eumir Jasso, Homer Yañez, Cinthia Melendez Gerardo Galicia, Alberto Duran, Camilo Mendoza, Dafne Zvi Zaldívar, Cecilia Jimenez, Angel Ortiz, Raul Antonio Hernandez, Alma Delfina Rose, Wendy Guillen, Raul Flores, Daniel Alejandro Farias, Jesus Monroy.
Landscape and Interiors: Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse
