Art Café

Location

San Pedro Cholula, Puebla, MX

Year

2022

Built surface

206 m2

Project Director

Leonardo Neve

Design team

Jesus Amezcua, Otli Campos, Jessica Alcántara, Max Pasquel, Rita Bustos, Itzhel Zambrano

Status

Project

Art Café is an example of how a sustainable project, can also be fun, affordable, and above all, generate a positive impact in its context.

It is common to think that a sustainable lifestyle Is something hard to achieve since it requires constant efforts to choose alternatives to reduce our ecological footprint. Some examples could be the need to spend more for products to be “green”, the difficulties faced when choosing an alternative way of transport to the personal automobile, or the complications from recycling and treatment of domestic waste, which in several countries still has to be made by the individuals instead of the governments.

The challenge

When we were commissioned with the Art Café project, one of the main requisites was for the project to be sustainable, naturally when we reflected on the traditional burdens of sustainability.

Alternatively, our response was to propose a building that promoted a fun, pleasant, and aesthetic place, where the community gathers and feels good, integrated with nature and its context, and above all, that would be economically affordable.

So, we took away the negative burden to replace it with a pleasurable experience, innovating with sustainable technologies that not only benefit the environment but also have a positive impact on the community.

A familiar and cultural space.

In terms of the architectural program, the Art café project incorporates a familiar and cultural space where a diverse set of users are included, from a library and a workshop area for the children to a beer garden for the adults, also an open-air forum, an orchard, and a coffee shop, this generates a dynamic and open space for the general public.

Materiality is one of the principal innovations, since we utilize densely packed bales of straw covered in soil, and structured with wooden frames.

This system offers the following benefits:

It is an economic and resistant material, with an easy-to-implement constructive system that allows a fast construction.
It is a natural, renewable, and durable material
It is a constructive system that can be easily learned in a few days
Provides thermic and acoustic isolation
It's fire-resistant
It has a low ecological and carbon footprint, since it's a natural element that requires little resources for its transformation, and can be reincorporated into the ecosystem after being utilized.

To conclude, Art Café is an example of how innovation and sustainability don't necessarily have to be expensive if it is challenged with creativity, imagination, and the conviction to generate a pleasant place that provides a positive impact on the community.