Chapultepec Environmental Culture Center by ERRE q ERRE | An Educational Space in Mexico City
- Arq. Pablo Vazquez
- Jul 16
- 3 min read
Author: Pablo Vazquez
A lover of discovering new places and addicted to work—in short, an architect.
PROJECT DATA:
PROJECT NAME: Chapultepec Environmental Culture Center.
ARCHITECTS: ERRE q ERRE arquitectura y urbanismo, Taller ID.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Margarita Gorbea.
LOCATION: Mexico City, Mexico.
YEAR: 2023.
AREA: 2,000 m².
It is a new cultural, landscape, and environmental node within the Second Section of Chapultepec Forest in Mexico City. It is part of the initiatives of the “Chapultepec Nature and Culture” Master Plan coordinated by Gabriel Orozco. The proposal was selected as the result of a public and open competition convened by the Government of Mexico City in coordination with the Federal Government.
The Chapultepec Environmental Culture Center includes a Pavilion surrounded by a series of Gardens with a naturalistic design and an ethnobotanical perspective. These Gardens reference the diverse ecosystems and natural landscapes of the Basin of the Valley of Mexico—temperate forests, grasslands, wetlands, and Pedregal vegetation—and are carefully integrated with the existing vegetation, topography, and infrastructure of Chapultepec, thus optimizing and increasing its great potential as an urban forest.
For the accessibility and enjoyment of these Gardens, a series of Biocultural Paths has been incorporated, significantly improving pedestrian connectivity in this section of the Forest. The Paths offer an immersive experience in nature and an educational rediscovery of the importance of natural elements within an urban forest and our relationship with them, thus transcending their merely connective and aesthetic functionality.
The Biocultural Paths adopt concentric spiral trajectories that give continuity to the curved lines defining the outline of the Lower Lake. Their routes begin from the existing cultural infrastructure at different points around the perimeter of the site and intuitively converge at the Environmental Culture Center: a cultural node conceived as an open public space that allows visitors to experience the close relationship between nature and new cultural and environmental dynamics. It is formed by the duality and interaction of an outdoor Cultural Space with a circular forum or plaza, and an Environmental Pavilion that houses exhibitions focused on promoting environmental culture.
The spatial configuration of the project comes from strategically locating the Environmental Culture Center. It is delicately incorporated into the geometry of the lake and into a natural slope with existing vegetation, which provides an optimal space to place a set of volcanic stone bleachers that serve as containment, rest, and contemplation for the new landscape or environmental stage.
The Environmental Pavilion is conceived as another element of the landscape. Its semi-conical geometry and black recinto stone cladding on the 2,000 m² roof reference the volcanic landscapes of the Pedregal and subtly integrate into its natural and cultural surroundings. The result is a light, flexible, versatile, and very low-maintenance pavilion. Its formal simplicity is accompanied by the conscious choice of optimal construction systems and new technologies that minimize its carbon footprint and environmental impact. The interior of the Pavilion offers total continuity and spatial flexibility, allowing it to host and explore different museographic proposals, while always maintaining visual transparency toward its two exterior fronts: the Gardens and the Cultural Space.
These characteristics highlight its versatility and spatial dynamism to host activities and exhibition programs that require a certain degree of shelter and shade. In addition, the experience of direct contact with the Gardens / Paths is encouraged, providing visitors with a unique landscape from inside the Pavilion and emphasizing the importance of natural elements and landscape within an educational and cultural environment. This approach to the Pavilion makes it possible to visualize the harmony, direct interrelation, and fusion between the natural and the human, the existing and the project, landscape and architecture.
Where there was previously a vehicular parking lot, there is now the Agroecological Zone, with various plots of rotating crops contained by stone walls in the manner of “tecorrales.” These offer a new landscape in harmony with the Pavilion roof, while improving the environmental conditions of the space and promoting biodiversity. This area also seeks citizen participation through various educational, demonstrative, and agricultural production programs. The project prioritizes the design principles of permaculture, which zones the space and regulates its level of maintenance according to proximity criteria—in this case, proximity to the Environmental Culture Center.
The irrigation system for the agroecological zone works by gravity. It begins its route at the Lower Lake and is distributed through a visible main channel and several secondary channels with manual gates that optimize the use and management of water.
The project offers a unique set of landscapes, emotions, encounters, activities, and learning experiences within the context of an urban forest, ensuring the fulfillment of its ecosystem functions and becoming an active promoter of environmental culture.
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