Gualano + Gualano Arquitectos

Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex

Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal

RIVERA HOTEL AND CASINO COMPLEX

gualano + gualano: arquitectos

PROJECT ARCHITECTS
Marcelo Gualano / Martín Gualano

PHOTOGRAPHS
Marcos Mendizabal, José Pampín

AREA
13000.0 m2

YEAR
2011

LOCATION
Rivera Dept, Uruguay

CATEGORY
Hotel

Text description provided by architect.

THE SITE

The city of Rivera, 500km north of Montevideo, is located at the junction of the CuchillaNegra and the Cuchilla de Santa Ana.

It conurbates with the Brazilian city of Santana do Livramento while sharing a land border: only a street and a square, Plaza Internacional, separate the two.

Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal

In this city, the social integration between two countries that share no territorial limits is the prevailing aspect, as people are able to cross freely from one city to the other.

The projectThe project of the new Rivera Hotel and Casino complex proposes a three-tiered intervention:

- To reactivate the old building of the casino
-  To incorporate the Teatro Municipal (Municipal Theater) to the new complex
- To build a new four-star Hotel in the site located across Uruguay street.

Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© José Pampín

The building complex attempts to configure a new pole in the city of Rivera through an Entertainment Center, by repurposing the old casino and Municipal Theater.

In geographical terms, the site is located exactly over the borderline between Uruguay and Brazil, a strategic location in terms of both tourist and commercial appeal. 

In addition, standing at the height of Treinta y TresOrientales Avenue, next to Cerro del Marco, the building gains visibility from a distance.

Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© José Pampín
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal

In geographical terms, the site is located exactly over the borderline between Uruguay and Brazil, a strategic location in terms of both tourist and commercial appeal. 

Regarding the intervention on the building of the old casino - a well-crafted, early XXth-century building - the project proposes to protect and restore its value, to take hold of its “urban history”.

It is then that the building acquires new meaning and articulates with the Hotel, the latter much more contemporary in nature. The project alters its base, generating a new access platform. 

Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal

This resolves the two entrances to the Casino: the one on Uruguay Street gives access to the tables of the gaming hall. 

The other, on Treinta y TresOrientales Avenue, marks the old entrance under a large eave and constitutes the double access to the Casino and the Teatro Municipal, which refreshes its facade in order to articulate with the new complex, giving unity to the composition.

The building connects to the Hotel through a bridge which links the level of the VIP rooms (located on the last storey of the Casino building), with the level of the Duty Free Shop and Breakfast lounge/Pool, a connection which is light and transparent - a bond between two distinct types of architecture belonging to different times. 

Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal

From the Hotel we descend to the Casino through a system of escalators which lands us at the different stages of the old building.

The type of architecture of the Hotel building deals in contemporary codes which are more in tune with current hospitality trends. It is thus that the formal proposition generates two distinct points of view.

One is linked to a far-off perspective, represented by the high-rise block containing the rooms in the longitudinal east-west direction, generating a long facade with great visibility.

Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal

The other, a low insertion occupying the entire site, houses the remaining aspects of the program: lobby, convention center, restaurants, pool, etc.

The low-rise block is transparent, allowing the building to “open up” to the exterior, making public its less private spaces.

Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© José Pampín
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© José Pampín

The materials used throughout the project invite to two different interpretations: one which is harder while the other is lighter, softer, more permeable. 

On the one hand, the use of on-site pre-cast concrete and exposed concrete, as the material which structures the opacities and definitions of tectonic borders, of tense edges which give access to the different levels of both the hotel and the casino. 

Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal

On the other, lighter limits such as those provided by the use of glass and metal gratings, connect with the act of opening up and relating to the outside.

It was interesting to work on the different scales the building proposes; both the sun-shade system as well as the main curtain-wall (where the lobby/hotel restaurant are located), offer a homogeneous surface when looked upon from a distance, attempting to give scale to the entire facade and generating planes of material continuity.

Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal

Therefore, glass takes the form - from ground level up to the railing on the third level - of a single piece separated from the other plane of sun-shading by means of a dislocation of the facade which forms a joint at the scale of the facade. Two planes, one brown and metallic, another green and reflective.

Towards the side of the Casino, the exposed concrete gives way to the infiltrations of that new architecture which takes over the entrances and the extension of the service area facing Uruguay Street. All in all, the project proposes a change in scale for the studio, at every scale.

Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex


Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
© Marcos Mendizabal


Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
hotel plan 01
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
hotel plan 02
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
hotel plan 03
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
hotel plan 04
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
hotel plan 05
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
hotel plan 06
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
hotel plan 07
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
hotel plan 08


Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
hotel elevation
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
casino elevation
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
whole elevation


Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
hotel section


Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
casino plan 01
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
casino plan 02
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
casino plan 03


Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
model 01
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
model 02
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
model 03
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
model 04
Rivera Hotel And Casino Complex
model 05

Gualano + Gualano Arquitectos
T +598 2 7079074 M +598 96 134180
Gualano + Gualano Arquitectos
Manuel Haedo 2918, 11300 Montevideo, Departamento de Montevideo, Uruguay