Grupo Arca Showroom
Esrawe Studio carves quarry-like landscape for Guadalajara stone showroom.
Architect:
Esrawe Studio
Client:
Grupo Arca
Location:
Guadalajara
Year:
2019
Monolithic blocks of stone mimic man-made quarry landscapes for Grupo Arca’s showroom and cultural centre.
Monolithic blocks of stone mimic man-made quarry landscapes for Grupo Arca’s showroom and cultural centre in Guadalajara, Mexico, designed by Esrawe Studio. The complex is designed to promote culture and education over business transactions, with a focus on Mexican architecture, design and fine arts.
A quarry is the evidence of man’s action on nature; a manufactured landscape created in search of raw materials. The nature of this landscape nourishes the concept behind the Grupo Arca’s showroom and warehouse. Rectangular cut-outs on the building’s facade reveal a layer of ocean blue travertine underneath the black concrete exterior cladding.
Visitors access the building through a small opening in the monolithic facade and are led down a narrow corridor to the central internal courtyard. The access in the monolithic facade links the visitor with the monumental central space, the Agora.
The building is divided functionally and physically into two universes: the quarry and the warehouse.
The building is divided functionally and physically into two universes. Two separate volumes that are woven and related to each other: the universe of the quarry, which houses the Agora, the Design Center, the cafeteria, and the multipurpose room, and the warehouse, which acts as a container and distribution center, a translucent and neutral space framed in the background by a forest that links us again with the origin of matter.
A double-height space at the rear is planted with trees, separating the two buildings. Unlike the stone used in the main building, the warehouse is designed as a neutral space to shift the focus onto the material collections available to buy inside.
The sculptural walls allude the “manufactured landscape” of quarries.
Called the Forum, its walls are lined with the same travertine from the facade, designed to create the sensation of being inside an excavated space. “The character of the quarry is defined by the material,” said the studio. “The monolithic expression and the monumental scale of it makes it a one of a kind experience.
“Mexican sculptor Jorge Yazpik was invited to exhibit his artwork in the Forum for the showroom’s opening night.
The space will be lent to various cultural events over the year including exhibitions, lectures and film screenings to build a connection with the arts scene in Guadalajara.
