An impressive bold intervention that complements TOA’s masterplan and Herzog de Modern and Contemporary Art Museum. This slender concrete slab shoots out into thin air for the visitor’s enjoyment of a completely unobstructed view and a breathtaking experience.

‘This is a neutral architectonic intervention that complements TOA’s (Taller de Operaciones Ambientales) landscaping masterplan and Herzog de Meuron’s Museo de Arte Moderno y Contemporαneo (Modern and Contemporary Art Museum) located in the Parque Mirador Independencia of Guadalajara, Jalisco. The Look-out point and coffee-restaurant rivet the natural disemboguement of Av. Independencia but unobtrusively align to the sliding gesture of the landscape. Both facilities were achieved through a single architectonic maneuver that consisted of an excavation and displacement of the look-out ground onto a jutting platform.

At ground level, only a slender slab projected over the gorge is visible. In prima facie, a visitor would have the impression of stepping onto a floating sheet of concrete. The true depth of the observation deck is concealed by the diagonal slant of its corbel underbelly and the overall structure is securely fastened by a parallel bridge devised in similar fashion.

The coffee-restaurant, located in an underground pit preceding the observation platform, is totally invisible at ground level. The excavated grotto adds to the ‘floating deck’ effect of the look-out point. Both amenities are the result, as it were, of sliding a matchbox open. The service area is also located underground and may be doubly accessed through the coffee‐restaurant and an independent lateral stairway. Also, the coffee lounge lying below the look-out enjoys large window panes gazing over the gorge and connects directly to a stairway leading to TOA’s open amphitheater down in the ravine.

The main virtue of this direct and simple intervention is that both facilities are inconspicuous to sight and their interrelation subtly emulates the landscape gesture of the ravine.’

ARCHITECT: Dellekamp Arquitectos, México DF, México. DESIGN: Dellekamp Arquitectos / Derek Dellekamp. LOCATION: Parque Mirador Independiencia, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. DESCRIPTION: Look-outpoint and cafeteria. STATUS: Ongoing. MUSEUM OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART: Herzog&de Meuron. PROJECT LEADER: Jachen Schleich. PROJECT TEAM: Armando Bussey. MASTERPLAN LANDSCAPE AND ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY: TOA. DATE: 2011. No part of this web site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of Morfae and the copyright owner.