The Project consists on the restoration and enlargement of an existing house in the old part of the city of Acapulco, Mexico. In the 50’s and 60’s, Acapulco was a Hollywood Town, full of glamour and money, where all the rich and famous— from John Wayne to John F Kennedy and Maria Felix—would meet, where good taste and modern architecture blended with the beautiful landscape of the bay and the cliffs. This has changed over the last decades: the city grew old, and no new infrastructure emerged, except in the classic area, to preserve its former contemporary city atmosphere.
Can architecture salvage the broken link of a city that has been fractured and is forever growing apart? Can it make it regain its lost glamour and reposition it on the world map where it once stood as focal point but has been fading ever since?
BNKR Arquitectura’s first religious commission was a wedding chapel conceived to celebrate the first day of a couple’s new life. Our second religious commission had a diametrically opposite purpose: to mourn the passing of loved ones. This premise was the main driving force behind the design, the two had to be complete opposites, they were natural antagonists. While the former praised life, the latter grieved death. Through this game of contrasts all the decisions were made: Glass vs. Concrete, Transparency vs. Solidity, Ethereal vs. Heavy, Classical Proportions vs. Apparent Chaos, Vulnerable vs. Indestructible, Ephemeral vs. Lasting…
Sunset Chapel - Photograph by Esteban Suárez
Design: BNKR Arquitectura
Partners: Esteban Suárez (Founding Partner) y Sebastián Suárez
Project Leaders: Mario Gottfried, Javier González & Roberto Ampudia
Project Team: Mario Gottfried, Rodrigo Gil, Roberto Ampudia, Javier González, Óscar Flores, David Sánchez, Diego Eumir, Guillermo Bastian & Adrian Aguilar
Collaborators: Jorge Arteaga & Zaida Montañana
Structural Engineers: Juan Felipe Heredia & José Ignacio Báez
MEP: SEI
Lighting: Noriega Iluminadores – Ricardo Noriega
Construction: Factor Eficiencia – Fermín Espinosa & Francisco Villeda
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