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Architects: Reims 502
- Area: 610 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Ariadna Polo
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Manufacturers: AutoDesk, Adobe, Corticentro, Diversas, Ferremex, Interceramic, Microsoft, Novaceramic, Robert McNeel & Associates, Trimble
Text description provided by the architects. The industrial corridor which embraced the city of Queretaro in the eighties, throughout time and the accelerated growth of the city, left vacant industrial buildings as a product of the rearrangement of new industrial centers in the outskirts of the city. A few meters away from the symbolic Aqueduct, the restaurant Banal inhabits one of these recycled structures, whose previous owners used to be a wine and a flower shop.
The clients, for whom we were building a new house at the moment, required us to create a space which would take maximum advantage of the pre-existing building, be built in only three months’ time, serve to establish the identity of their new culinary project, and also adjust to a tight budget.
The approach initiated with a simple idea: expand the existing warehouse by duplicating its interior capacity for diners, without altering the original modulation or structure. Based on these premises, a sequence of bays was opened between the expansion and the pre-existing in order to link them, as well as another symmetrical sequence to integrate both areas with an exterior green buffer operating as an intermediary between the busy avenue and the restaurant.
A peculiar detail of the construction was the implementation of a hanging hollow block latticework: an essential element to mitigate sun exposure, moderate the view from the interior towards street traffic, and ventilate the inner smoking area in the terrace. Collectively, the use of simple low maintenance exposed materials, the advantage of natural lighting and ventilation, and the practicality of the open floor plan were also complementary strategies for the fulfillment of this project.
