Frexport Headquarters

Office wings and glazed façades frame a landscaped garden with stone paths and small fountains.
© CC Arquitectos

FREXPORT HEADQUARTERS

Manuel Cervantes Estudio
CC Arquitectos

ARCHITECTS
CC Arquitectos, Manuel Cervantes Estudio

AREA
6300.0 m2

LOCATION
Zamora, Michoacán, Mexico

YEAR
2007

CATEGORY
Institutional Buildings

A white office wall and projecting glazed upper floor stand beside a garden path and mature tree.
© CC Arquitectos
White office volumes and a glazed wing overlook a rocky planted courtyard with an exterior stair.
© CC Arquitectos

Text description provided by architect.

This project integrates 4 vital members, the first and most important, our client; who originated the concept and idea.

A paved path crosses the planted courtyard beneath a white bridge-like office volume.
© CC Arquitectos
A garden fountain rises among rocks and plants in front of the glazed office façade.
© CC Arquitectos

Having the architectonic program, we attempted to give form to the rhetoric of the promenades in the countryside, idea that had to be implicit in the building.

The gardens therefore became the soul of the project introducing the third member, the landscaper.

The green palette of vegetation and the force of natural stone were the elements that marked the design of this landscape, leaving in its steps all the crops that constitute the company's line of production.

Frexport Headquarters, designed by CC Arquitectos and Manuel Cervantes Estudio: a central stair overlooks the planted courtyard.
© CC Arquitectos
A dark open-riser stair descends beneath a skylit opening, facing a path through the rocky garden.
© CC Arquitectos

As a result of walking the passages, the user and the visitor , can experience direct contact with the plant life that gives form to the surroundings.

Leaving back the marketing of the building, translated to the contact with nature (the company's main products), the corporate offices were considered to be open, built taking down the dividing walls to become part of the contiguous gardens.

View from a glass-lined corridor across the landscaped courtyard to the office wings.
© CC Arquitectos
Interior corridor beside a glazed atrium, with stairs descending toward the planted courtyard.
© CC Arquitectos

Three stories were formed by lightweight concrete parallelepipeds that more than to contain, were conceived to absorb. And with different programs within them, were brought together by the landscaping project that surrounds them.

Two artists were invited to collaborate and give completion to the project, Luciano Matus gave life to the backbone of the building, the central stairs.

A tiled office corridor with diagonal structural braces beside a glazed courtyard atrium.
© CC Arquitectos
Frexport Headquarters at dusk, with illuminated glazed offices above a planted garden.
© CC Arquitectos

In a second intervention, abstracted the essence of nature and subtly placed water in the landscape's course. Paulina Lasa´s contribution was to outline the foliage of the landscape and register the form of the branches in a mural.


Architectural section drawing showing office spaces, a central stair, and connecting volumes.


Architectural floor plan showing office and meeting spaces arranged around a large central courtyard.
Architectural floor plan of office rooms and shared spaces arranged along a central courtyard.