THE ETERNAL FLOW

UA, Universidad Anáhuac Mexico Norte, Departamento de Arquitectura

Project idea

The project’s design and approach is to evidence the permanence of the history, testimonies and architecture by highlighting and replanting circulations, which will provide the interior spaces with new rooms, connections between them, and better general functionality in the inside and outside of the building.

"Permanence is the quality of staying, of remaining.
The static.

Its antithesis is movement, impermanence.
Circulation.

As without sadness there is no happiness,
without circulation and movement, there is no permanence."

Project description

The objective is to use this existing structure and give it a new life to create a memorial museum that remembers the victims of the Holocaust, by only intervening in a major way the existing circulation cores and trying to leave all the other spaces as they are today to preserve the historical heritage and really give the visitor a trip back in time. In this way, all new installations, interior treatments and finishes will be "floating" from the original, so as not to cause further damage to those.

For the design schemes and general intervention to the buildings, it is proposed to retake and create a new system of circulations that highlight the permanence of the existing and static, which is the architecture itself. Therefore, these are of different materiality, which in addition to reflecting a different and contemporary character, provide the building with better accessibility and connection between spaces and buildings, creating new rooms and routes, plus a memorial garden as main access of the complex. In addition, to enter the museum through the second level, the users will have to walk through a ramp that will allow them to connect with themselves, with the space, and appreciate the entire site.

In addition to the interior renovation, which will consist of new floor treatments, installations, lighting, exhibition halls, double-height reflection spaces, administration area, workshop rooms, interactive exhibitions, open terraces and services; the old German occupation building that will also be intervened and recycled, becoming a museum and space for reflection and memory within the complex, for which a roof should also be proposed since it is completely destroyed inside. On the other hand, the exterior plaza remains as a meeting and appreciation point for the historical character of the site and its immediate context.

Technical information

The actual building is mainly made of brick and concrete, so for the intervention, the dominating materials will be glass, iron and textiles. All of them give a contemporary character and contrast with the existing architecture.

For the structural solution, steel is proposed. Which will carry its independent structure in addition to taking advantage of the existing structure making joints that reinforce both facilities. There will also be spaces that need to be restored, which will be done with the greatest possible care, always respecting the historical character and without trying to replicate it, thus generating a total contrast between periods and architecture.

The new circulation modules will be made of tempered glass mounted on a structure with steel columns and beams that will support the stairs; these will be suspended by steel cables that will be anchored to the subsoil and tied to the upper beams of the blocks, as well as panoramic elevators that will give the possibility of appreciating the surroundings from different points and heights.