Museo Jumex

Located on a triangular site within the Polanco area of Mexico City, this new museum building exhibits part of one of the largest private collections of contemporary art in Latin America – Colección Jumex – and is part of a wider urban redevelopment. Overlooked by large commercial buildings, the constrained site is delineated by the major street Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the Ferrocarril de Cuernavaca railway line and an adjacent property to the east.

The extremely individual quality of the neighbouring buildings overrides any attempt to integrate the new museum within this particular urban context and offers an opportunity to create a distinct building that simultaneously enhances its larger context. Heading the triangular park, the building can be described as a freestanding pavilion that corresponds to the eclectic nature of the neighbouring buildings, which include the Museo Soumaya and the underground Teatro Cervantes. The mass of the building responds to the non-orthogonal plan of the site, which it exploits to provide the maximum possible footprint while delivering the programme within the constraints of local planning requirements.

The Fundación Jumex’s main administration and operative headquarters, as well as the collection’s storage facilities and library remain at the original premises in Ecatepec. Located in Mexico City, the new building reaches a wider audience and provides an exhibition space for the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. The gallery spaces accommodate diverse display techniques to suit both in-house and guest curators with differing approaches.

The building also provides a platform for discussion and educational activities. Further events including lectures, talks, debates, conferences and film screenings are conducted in the gallery rooms rather than in separate purpose-designed spaces. The primary exhibition rooms are located on the two upper floors and optimise the use of daylight. An open-sided multifunctional loggia that sits between the upper galleries and the ground floor allows visitors to enjoy elevated views of the surrounding area and the urban life of the street.

The format of the floor plates and the position of the building cores provide large individual rooms that can be easily subdivided into two or more separate spaces. A distinctive saw-tooth roof creates a rhythmic geometry that defines the third-floor gallery. Consisting of a steel structure with west-facing roof lights and a horizontal diffuser layer, the roof distributes light evenly to illuminate the artworks and provide ambient light for the space. The light can be adjusted to meet specific curatorial requirements.

The entire buildings rests on fourteen columns and sits on a raised plinth, allowing the ground floor to merge with the public plaza. This concept of maximising publicly accessible space continues from the plaza into the loggia on the first floor of the building. The plinth, the columns, the ground and first floor cores and the soffits throughout are of exposed white concrete, while the façades, the roof and the floors from the plinth upwards are made of locally sourced travertine from Xalapa, Veracruz. All windows are full height with stainless steel frames. The continuity of the travertine coating lends the building a solid character reminiscent of indigenous sculptural traditions.