This building exhibits part of one of the largest private
collections of contemporary art in Latin America – Colección Jumex – and
is part of a wider urban redevelopment. Overlooked by large commercial
buildings, the constrained site is delineated by the major street Miguel
de Cervantes Saavedra, the Ferrocarril de Cuernavaca railway line and
an adjacent property to the east. The extremely individual quality of
the neighboring buildings overrides any attempt to integrate the new
museum within this particular urban context. The absence of a discernible streetscape or coherent aesthetic into
which the project could be comfortably inscribed therefore offered a
rare opportunity to create a distinct building that simultaneously
contributes to the larger context. Heading the triangular park, the
building can be described as a freestanding pavilion that corresponds to
the eclectic nature of the neighboring buildings, which include the
Museo Soumaya and the underground Teatro Cervantes. The mass of the
building responds to the non-orthogonal plan of the site, which it
exploits to provide the maximum footprint while delivering the program
within the constraints of local planning requirements.
