Liverpool Department Store Rojkind Arquitectos
Rojkind Architectonics has won a Progressive Architecture Citation for its habitable facade design for Liverpool department store at the intersection of Insurgents and Felix Cuevas avenues in the south Mexico City. They are the second Mexican firm to win this award which has previously been given to famous names like Zaha Hadid Architects, Thom Mayne and Eero Saarinen.
The store is opens right at the sidewalk of a very busy street intersection which also has a Subway line Station in its context ensuring high footfall. This meant that a traditionally inward looking “closed box” design could not work, a strong and dynamic urban presence was required.
Rojkind Arquitectos thus propose a habitable or “deep wall” kind of a facade which not only provides visual connections but also draws people in. Its honeycomb cavities allow a multitude of activities like shopping, restaurants, rest areas and the buildings circulation in the facade itself. Derived from Moire patterns, which are interference patterns created by overlap of grids, lines etc, the facade is 2.8 m deep having three layers of various sized hexagonal systems made of fiberglass, steel ,aluminium with glass. The design despite being digital took advantage of Mexico’s skilled metal craftsman by keeping fabrication local.
The resulting facade is not only dynamic looking but also aids in creating linkages between the interior and the exterior. Its urban presence is markedly felt as the pedestrian can look inside and also the shopper can look outside, thus making it permeable along with being a strong visual statement.
Architects: Rojkind Arquitectos
Architects In Charge: Michel Rojkind y Gerardo Salinas
Design Team: Alberto Villarreal, Gerardo Villanueva, Rodrigo Medina, Arie de Jongh, Victor Martínez, Juan Carlos Sainz, Adrian Aguilar, Alfredo Hernandez, Andrea León, Beatriz Zavala, Marielle Rivero, Nadezda Stankovic, Felipe Castañeda, Isaac Smeke, Víctor Alemán, Enrique de la Barrera, Davis Guajardo, Daniela Bustamante, Joe Tarr, Will Fox, Philipp Schlauch, Arie Hendrik, Diego Leál, Ignacio Cabrera, Linda Martínez, Karina Amparán, José de Jesús Guerra
By Akansha Gupta