Falguera Padel Club

César Belio

• Architects

A new vision for recycling privately owned historic buildings in the city reimagines the use of these spaces through new programs and services that are open to the public for their enjoyment.
Casa Falguera is located along Paseo de la Presa in Guanajuato—a promenade dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, made up of Porfirian-era infrastructure and, for the most part, old stately country homes with Art Nouveau and Neoclassical architecture, once owned by legendary mining entrepreneurs of the city.

With the La Bufa mountain range as a backdrop, nature, art, and wellness are now part of a new atmosphere that brings together various services. The program consisted of designing and constructing two padel courts and a recreational area with a bar. The project posed a challenge, both due to the effort of introducing this sport into the heart of the city and because of the site’s steep mountainous topography.

Although the house sits on a large piece of land, the most suitable location was found at the rear of the property: a residual adjacent space nestled in a ravine that borders an old silted-up dam. Despite the steep slopes and the difficulty of creating a level surface, the decision was made to place the padel club in this area due to its direct connection with the city’s natural heritage.

Based on this, the strategy focused on enhancing the connection between the natural heritage and the club through specific design interventions: opening a large opening in the perimeter wall to expand the views; connecting spaces through stone stairways that bridge the elevation changes; adapting a service area; and constructing a roof to cover the bar area.

An intensive excavation of the rocky bed was carried out during construction. Its hardness allowed it to be left exposed, adding value and character to the player’s experience on the courts. The extracted materials were reused in the rest of the construction, achieving simplicity and harmony with the surroundings.

In the bar area, a cast-in-place concrete counter was built using aggregate from the excavated rock. Additionally, a new roof was designed using filaments of rebar in an effort to reduce costs: by understanding the potential of thinner steel elements, which when joined and interwoven could generate a surface equivalent to more expensive structural profiles. This resulted in a very slender yet strong structural system. Only the upper part of the roof was painted to blend in with the surrounding vegetation, while the columns were left exposed so that the passage of time would become visible on them.

Understanding the importance of landscape and heritage as defining features of Guanajuato allowed us to create a quiet and meaningful architecture—one that invites us to continue enjoying our city.