ECOMIC

Vincent Callebaut Architectures as Architects

A SYMBOL OF INSSURECTION


The place of “Three-Cultures”, located in Tlateloco area in Mexico City, is a place with a big story. On one side, we find the base of an Aztec pyramid with the temple of Santiago, on the other side a lot of foreign Affairs Ministry’s modern buildings.


When the Conquistadors, led by Cortes conquered the area, the Aztecs directed by Cuauhtémoc were In Tlatelolco. There they made their last combat. They have been massacred with their family, forty thousand in all, the 13th August 1521!


In may 1968, there where a revolt of the students in France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, in the United States and Mexico. In the 2nd October 1968, just ten days before the celebration of the summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, the Place of Three-Cultures was the scene of “Massacre of Tlatelolco”. More than three hundred students were killed by the army and the police force.


Between the vestiges of a prehispanic and colonial past, and the Utopia of the Modern Movement, drawn by Mario Pani in the Sixties, the ECO-MIC project (Ecological and Metropolitan Infographic Center) creates a new symbol of insurrection. Against the lost of freedom and resignation of modernity!


AN ECOLOGICAL TOWER


The aim of the project is to join spaces of exposures in an ecological tower, and deal with the current archaeological course. The tower will come out from the foundations of an Aztec construction. This project is a contemporary minaret interacting with the Santiago’s temple and the horizontality of the modern bars. The spinal column of the tower is created by verticals circulations. Linked all around, boxes and hanging gardens contain the dense program of the museum. This tower is a contemporary vertical landscape. A challenge to gravity. A recovered freedom!


Each entity, office, workshop, exposure or file spaces, has its own expression. The organisational diagram is perfectly read from external public space. Each course of the visitor is visible. The various graphic expressions of the territory of Mexico City are exposed on all the boxes of the tower. Including the codes prehispanic, the colonial, revolutionary and contemporary plans, the subway plans, the seisms areas or the infrastructures charts. Scenography is spread along the electronic tape including the structure. This electronic tape deals information through an optical fibre network to the several boxes and showrooms. Thanks to this system the infographic data are shown on interiors and exteriors façades.


The ECO-MIC Project is an interface between passed and future creating a new skyline between the architectural landscape and the metropolis. This green tower is part of the ecology movement, incorporating renewable energies such as the photovoltaic wind mills.


Its vocation of information is clearly expressed to the citizens, as much as its flexibility space mixing the prehispanic, colonial and modern entities. It is an ambitious project talking with Mexico and her future development.

Featured Projects
Latest Products
News
Working Waterfront by GreenSpur draws inspiration from the organized chaos of old wharf designs
21 Mar 2023 News
Working Waterfront by GreenSpur draws inspiration from the organized chaos of old wharf designs

The Working Waterfront by GreenSpur draws inspiration from the rich boat-building history of Camden,... More

Ambitious Nanhai Guicheng Jingui High School maintains and simple rhythmic architecture of order and poetry
20 Mar 2023 News
Ambitious Nanhai Guicheng Jingui High School maintains and simple rhythmic architecture of order and poetry

As part of a larger urban planning project to provide improved and increased infrastructure to the g... More

10 stunning washbasins redefining luxury and style in private houses
20 Mar 2023 News
10 stunning washbasins redefining luxury and style in private houses

Luxury and comfort are the two factors that homeowners aspire to incorporate into their bathroom des... More

[Y/N] Studio complete the refurbishment of one of London’s most unique and community-focused public spaces
19 Mar 2023 News
[Y/N] Studio complete the refurbishment of one of London’s most unique and community-focused public spaces

One of London’s most unique and community-focused public spaces, Bradbury Works in Gillett Squ... More

Forgas Arquitectes bring a friendly image to a Spanish healthcare facility with a custom ceramic facade design
19 Mar 2023 News
Forgas Arquitectes bring a friendly image to a Spanish healthcare facility with a custom ceramic facade design

Located northwest of Terrassa, Spain, CAP Can Roca by Forgas Arquitectes is a new healthcare facilit... More

25 best architecture firms in Rome
17 Mar 2023 News
25 best architecture firms in Rome

The origins of European architecture and urbanism are always traced to Rome. Roman building continue... More

Team with KCAP presents master plan for Keflavík Airport Area
17 Mar 2023 News
Team with KCAP presents master plan for Keflavík Airport Area

The K64 Keflavík Airport Area Master Plan, developed by a multidisciplinary team led by KCAP,... More

Luxembourg’s POST HQ building by Metaform Architects stands out for its monumental stone façade
17 Mar 2023 News
Luxembourg’s POST HQ building by Metaform Architects stands out for its monumental stone façade

Situated in the densest district of Luxembourg, opposite the city’s prime transport hub, the P... More