ArCaRa
Torre de Especialidades, Hospital Manuel Gea González
- Location
- Mexico City,Mexico
- Design firm
- Elegant Embellishments
- Typology
- Healthcare
- Years
- 2011–2013
- Status
- Complete
Facade facts
- Facade summary
- A photocatalytic double-skin screen composed of modular white thermoformed tiles arranged in a non-periodic,quasi-crystalline grid.
- Documented intention
- The designers intended to build an active architectural element that physically reduces urban pollution,provides solar protection, and creates a visual emblem of environmental healing suited to a healthcare campus.
- Street relationship
- The screen directly faces the congested highway, responding directly to the environmental conditions of the immediate public realm.
- Climate relationship
- Mexico City's high solar radiation levels provide ample UV light to activate the photocatalytic reaction,maximizing the facade's technical performance.
- Window pattern
- Regularly spaced rectangular window openings set in the primary wall behind the secondary screen facade.
- Depth
- The offset from the inner wall creates a notable structural cavity depth. The tiles themselves have deep,three-dimensional curves.
- Rhythm
- Non-periodic, quasi-crystalline rhythm designed to avoid linear repetition.
- Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF)
- Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) — Screen modules — Thermoformed,smooth matte
- Titanium Dioxide (TiO2)
- Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) — External surface coating of screen modules — Micro-crystalline coating
- Structural Steel
- Structural Steel — Support frame behind screen — Powder-coated
- Double-skin Screen
- An outer modular screen offset from the building's main structural envelope,creating an interstitial ventilation cavity.
Tags
- 2010s
- 2011–2020
- Active Facades
- Allison Dring
- CNC parametric fabrication
- Cwb
- Dense institutional highway corridor
- Double-glazed standard institutional glazing
- Double-skin facade
- Elegant Embellishments
- Healthcare
- Hospital Tower
- Mexico
- Mexico City
- Modular screen
- PVDF
- Photocatalytic cladding
- Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF)
- Structural Steel
- Thermoforming
- Titanium Dioxide
- Titanium Dioxide (TiO2)
- Tlalpan
- creating an interstitial ventilation cavity.
- maximizing the facade's technical performance.
- non-periodic
- provides solar protection
- quasi-crystalline grid.
- smooth matte
- steel
- three-dimensional curves.
Description
The facade covers 2,500 square meters of the south-west elevations of the hospital's clinical tower. It is constructed from Elegant Embellishments' proSolve370e modular system. These decorative, organic-looking tiles are made of thermoformed PVDF with a superfine titanium dioxide (TiO2) photocatalytic coating. When activated by UV light, the TiO2 coating converts nitrogen oxides (NOx), VOCs, and sulfur oxides into harmless organic salts. The tile shapes are based on a Penrose tiling pattern, creating a complex non-periodic grid that maximizes physical surface area, ambient air interaction, and UV light exposure. The modules are suspended from a secondary steel substructure off the primary concrete building envelope, acting as an active solar and thermal buffer.
Visual analysis
Visually, the screen mimics an organic sponge, coral network, or cellular tissue wrapped around the building. This organic form contrasts sharply with the rigid, rectangular institutional architecture behind it.
Gallery
Sources
- proSolve370e: Manuel Gea González Hospital · Elegant Embellishments