The Tecnológico of Monterrey, Campus Culiacan, one of the largest national private university system in Mexico, commissioned us to design a new biotechnological park building, that could work as link between academic and business environments in the state of Sinaloa.
This Mexican state stands out for its agricultural
production, because of this, the university wanted a building that
could bring together academic research and student work with the
development of new technologies in professional life, giving space to
corporations.
The building was designed to consider academic and
professional life as a growing tree. The entire program related to
the university is located in the building “roots” while
professional program grows on the top of it. Following the
requirements of such a facility, the program was translated into open
geometric spaces. Each level works by itself technological and
aesthetically with a specific sustainable system. In the end each
part “produces” something to keep the building working by itself.
We were asked to do a flexible most rectangular space, so we decided
to do identical floors and shift them accordingly to interior program
and sun shading, except one floor, that was shifted 180 degrees
because it holds the most important program in the building: the
accelerator and incubator, where students can have an office and the
university will help them improving and connecting their business to
achieve the level of a profitable company. This floor has as well a
different facade treatment, becoming a sunscreen that was designed in
collaboration with young artists Rodolfo Diaz and Marco Rountree.
