Xinatli in Mexico by Studio Viktor Sørless, Estudio Juiñi

Article source: Studio Viktor Sørless, Estudio Juiñi

Studio Viktor Sørless and Estudio Juoñi have been commissioned to design a building for a research museum in the Mexican jungle. The design involves a modified step pyramid structure and ecological construction methods using earth and timber.

Together with her non-profit organisation Fundación Raíz, the Mexican art collector Fernanda Raíz is planning to construct a research museum on the edge of the tropical rainforest in southern Mexico. With its focus on people, art and science, the museum’s aim is to explore how these can coexist in harmony in the 21st century.

Image Courtesy © Studio Viktor Sørless, Estudio Juiñi

• Architects: Studio Viktor Sørless, Estudio Juiñi
• Project: Xinatli
• Location: Mexico

Image Courtesy © Studio Viktor Sørless, Estudio Juiñi

The name of the research museum, Xinatli, builds on the word Xinachtli from the Nahua language and describes the moment when a seed germinates and opens out into life-giving form. The word symbolises the idea of creation and pays tribute to the potential for metamorphosis.

The site includes a main building covering several floors. These feature exhibition and art spaces as well as a scientist-led terrestrial institute.

All the facilities in this structure aim to investigate the area’s vital diversity and local community knowledge, and to advance these through art and research. According to the founder Fernanda Raíz, Xinatli rests on a conscious objective: “It now appears more urgent than ever to help create a climate change in people’s minds. Art, and with it a different kind of perception, an ecological way of building, a cultural engagement with ‘the between’, can help sustain continuity of life on our planet.”

Image Courtesy © Studio Viktor Sørless, Estudio Juiñi

The Mexican art collector Fernanda Raíz encapsulates this undertaking: “Until now, museums have usually been a space where power is put on display. A 21st century museum should not be a showcase for power but instead a place that advocates for greater equity: in ecology, in art and in society.”

The pyramid is an archetypal component of the majority of cultures in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. The step pyramid variation stems from Mesoamerican culture, through the Olmecs, Maya and Aztecs.

The path to a new society leads through a critique of the pyramid and the pyramid society – so wrote Mexican author Octavio Paz in “The Labyrinth of Solitude”. “It was important to us to reference the step pyramid, to reconfigure and reinterpret it”, explains Viktor Sørless. “The step pyramid is a symbol of a class society, the split between the rich at the top and the poor at the bottom. Our design deconstructs this hierarchy.”

Image Courtesy © Studio Viktor Sørless, Estudio Juiñi

Building with natural raw materials

Studio Viktor Sørless has spent many years exploring the use of earth in construction and sees it as the building material of the future. “I see earth as offering unbeatable benefits”, explains Viktor Sørless. “We have been using this building material ever since humans starting settling; it’s there at our feet, in the ground, as humus, in essence as a kind of cement for a more humane way of building. Earth can be reintroduced into the cycles of nature and makes ecological sense.”

Given the weather conditions in a tropical rainforest, it is necessary to enhance the strength and water resistance of the earth used in this construction. The result, a new earth mixture using sisal fibres and chukum resin, was developed with the help of local expertise. The building will be built using the rammed earth method. A so-called “organic gridwork”, made with sisal fibres and with a mesh size of one centimetre, is used to prevent any potential cracking. This kind of strengthening is similar to that used in reinforced concrete structures to allow walls to be subjected to heavier loads. Wood is used to construct the supporting framework.

The project is summed up by Viktor Sørless: “The building is a fusion of indigenous architecture and engineering expertise. Yet the plan is not to create a building that will last forever. It needs to be looked after, otherwise it will degrade. This element of transience acknowledges that life is a process of growing, perishing and becoming – and that we humans can make a conscious decision about how we treat our environment.”

Image Courtesy © Studio Viktor Sørless, Estudio Juiñi

Tags: Mexico

Category: Museum

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