Preventive Health Centre

Project idea

In the last years, preventive medicine has begun to take importance within the different health centres that exist in Mexico. The following proposal, located in the health corridor on the Avenue Calzada de Tlalpan (Mexico City), seeks to make people relate to the fact that health is not related to white gowns, hospitals and expensive treatments. It is through nutrition, healthy habits and exercise that people can prevent and deal with different types of diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, smoking and obesity.


“Health as part of the daily being of the human being”

Project description

Through the integration of plazas and public space, which are concepts of Mesoamerican architecture, added with a reinterpretation of the local urban trajectory, the “Preventive Health Centre for the Second Half of Life” aims to make health an integral part of daily life, and a reference for healthy coexistence. The project is composed of an area of medical offices and a rehabilitation area, which includes exercise machines and swimming pools of different types. These nuclei are connected by a central vestibule, where the visitors can see the way to transform their health. Across the lobby, the health program is complemented by a jogging track and outdoor exercise, yoga rooms, a series of multi-purpose classrooms, auditorium, nutritionists, and finally, a cafeteria that connects directly to the sports area via a bridge, creating the union between exercise and food.

Technical information

The master plan embodies, as said, the urban principles of Mesoamerican cities. The project, with is contained plaza, anchors the long corridor running from north to south between the hospitals found in the area.
The complex concept is developed as a simple monolithic element of concrete. This allows us to profit from a material, both for its aesthetic and structural qualities. The main building, which holds the pool and the hall in its interior, is developed on a mixed structure of concrete and steel trusses. These trusses allow the pool area to be within one light at the same time we can assure a clean surface on the roof top, proposed with a solar panel system. The building is then open on the south façade to profit daylight in its interior. Its protected by a double skin, that works also as a rainwater discharge system for the roof. The main building is connected by an iron and glass bridge into the main cafeteria, made by trusses who also land on concrete walls.
The whole complex is deployed on basaltic ground, which didn’t require us a complex model for the foundations. It was proposed a foundation slab for the main buildings, profiting also from the excavation of the pool and the parking areas.

Co-authors

The Project was developed in collaboration with fellow students Mauricio Moreno Romero Valdez and Luis Enrique Muñoz Gutierrez, students under the tutoring of José Villagrán García Atelier for the UIC Competition in Mexico.