Los Chocolates Community Development Center

Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro

LOS CHOCOLATES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CENTER

Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha + Gabriela Carrillo

AREA
18977 ft²

LOCATION
Cuernavaca, Mexico

CATEGORY
Community Center

CLIENTS
Ministerio de Cultura del Estado de Morelos, México

YEAR
2018

DESIGN TEAM
Juan Carlos Montiel, Giordana Rojas, Alma Caballero, Andrés Burguete, Karim Gómez, Arturo Ojeda, Lilia Salgado

JOINERY
Taller | Mauricio Rocha + Gabriela Carrillo |

LIGHTING
Eléctrica Polux S.A. de C.V.

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Ingeniería Estructural Sismoresistente S.A. de C.V.

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING CONSULTANT
Secretaría de Obras Públicas del Estado de Morelos - Victor Escobar

MODEL
Francisco Ortiz

SANITATION FACILITIES
Taller 2M Arq

BUILDER
Carser

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Mauricio Rocha, Gabriela Carrillo

Text description provided by architect.

The building concept responds to the needs and opportunities offered by the old neighborhood La Carolina in Cuernavaca’s downtown heart.

Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Rafael Gamo

A traditional neighborhood embedded in Cuernavaca sinuous topography with a high urban density and just a few places for recreation.

The important research done by the Ministry of Culture of the state found that in that neighborhood and its surroundings there were over 25 orchestras with more than 25 members each, various soccer teams, many children and young people interested in silk-screen printing.

Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro

And photography as well the need for a common space where culture, recreation and sport would be a source of energy for their daily life, thus correcting social disruption among the neighborhoods as part of the historic site.

That’s how we imagine a great void, as a forum to host any diversity of activities, from an informal soccer match to theatrical performances or concert rehearsals.

Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Rafael Gamo

Thinking in Cuernavaca’s marvelous climate and imaging a building that would allow the user to break the boundaries between interior and exterior.

Flexible transits to have outdoor terraces and multiple circulations that allow diverse access to different working areas and those terraces.

Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro

We thought in a “pergola” building that would allow good height and cast shadow over the ground floor and for the workshops to multiply its size by opening big windows to the north and shouting down completely its south facades achieving a right illumination and avoiding sun exposure.

We design a wall that compensates level differences outdoors and housed administrative areas and the library that also visually connects to the second void in the project: the oasis.

Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Rafael Gamo
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro

This second phase was conceived as and opposite for the “hard void” in the first patio, a large garden where the trees cast shadows and where the surrounding walls will be use as movie screens during the night or to have recreational and ludic activities for the children.

The program is completed with a large portico in the ground floor and a larger workshop in the first floor with the opportunity to look out to the garden in Cuernavaca’s urban heart.

Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Rafael Gamo
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro

The building was conceived in apparent concrete and chocolate-brown “tepetate” because of the plot’s old nickname given since the plot used to lodge “chocolate” buses and because those are low maintenance materials and provides acoustic and thermic properties for the indoor spaces without the need for air conditioner system.

Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro

Designing a space that closes to its surroundings but has an opening in its corner to a void for the neighborhood to be fulfill with activities, workshops and participative-events is fundamental to us in an age where social media had distanced human relationships between families and neighbors.

Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Jaime Navarro

The conception of a space with multiple uses, flexible and especially versatile for any thing to happen; respecting the memory but above all recognizing the local needs, as well its climate and urban scape were the key sources to imagine some “Chocolates” in La Carolina.

Los Chocolates Community Development Center
© Rafael Gamo


Los Chocolates Community Development Center
Longitudinal section
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
Longitudinal section 01
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
Longitudinal section 03
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
Longitudinal section 04


Los Chocolates Community Development Center
Cross section 03
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
Cross section 04


Los Chocolates Community Development Center
South elevation
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
East elevation


Los Chocolates Community Development Center
Site plan
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
Ground floor plan
Los Chocolates Community Development Center
1st floor plan

Los Chocolates Community Development Center
Facade detail