Productora: a public roof in Mexico City

This article was originally published on the supplement Ecoworld, Domus 1058, june 2021.

 Contemporary sustainability wears many hats. The didactic beret drapes its buildings in lush vegetation. The high-tech top hat heroically activates efficiency devices in the name of energy savings. Then there is the smart yet humble bonnet whose sustainable character is found in economy of conservation. The latter approach, where complete overhaul is considered wasteful, offers new possibilities for crumbling real estate whose efficiency is below par because of obsolete and deteriorated technology. This type of barely-there renewal is sustainable for the simple fact that it does not require the fundamental act of demolition. Proyecto Público Prim is a location for public and private events in downtown Mexico City. Built in the early 20th century, the palazzo was given new life by covering its three inner courts with a new canopy against rain while limiting renovation work to a bare minimum of functionality and safety. The shabby-chic “left-as-found” setting aspires to attract a refined and cultured clientele. In substance, the complex shows an alternative to demolition and substitution, “gut rehab” and period-restoration. 

The most visible new element is a light-weight polycarbonate roof designed by Productora. The addition was needed by the property’s owner to prevent bad weather from intruding on organised events. The solution contributes to inserting the building in a broader debate on sustainability. A pitched canopy made of corrugated polycarbonate panels covers the building’s rooftop terrace over its entire length (over 50 metres), which includes three inner courts. It is held up by more than 100 thin steel columns stretching down from 45 light-weight metal trusses, each 1.2 metres apart to divide the weight of the new structure evenly over new concrete frames that were built on top of the weight-bearing walls of the existing patios. The roof, a seemingly simple object composed of two suspended surfaces, reveals unexpected virtues regarding climatic comfort.

Being elevated, the pitched panels allow air to circulate naturally, cooling the spaces below. The alternation between translucent and transparent plastic panels, plus the strategic positioning of textile screens protect the terrace from excessive heat in the summer while allowing the sun to give tepid warmth in winter. The designers at Productora defend the long-term sustainability of their dry-mounted scaffolding-type roof structure, describing its potential circular existence, “Steel and plastic might not be the first materials that come to mind when you think of environment-friendly architecture, but once steel is produced it can be used forever, and polycarbonate can be fully recycled.” Their reasonable approach is devoid of preconceptions, determined as it was by budget constrictions and the weight-bearing capacity of the century-old building. Productora designed the roof in 2019 as an elegant, unassuming solution with simplified aesthetics that communicate an industrial, reversible feel. It contrasts with the rough solidity of the underlying building – replete with peeling plaster, traces of old paint, worn floors in natural stone, terracotta and wood, Catalanvaulted ceilings and wrought-iron railings. The plastic canopy is the ethereal crown of an ancient ruin, preserved in its consistency and imperfections and repopulated by a contemporary community of artists and urban flâneurs.

Productora “loves the idea that the shells of architectural structures are built to last and that they can be used and reused. So we see ourselves and our client as one of the many inhabitants the building will have during its lifespan.” This manifesto-like sentence shifts the focus from the novelty of the roof as an up-to-date addition with its own qualities, to the long duration of architecture that is considered a permanent inheritance from the past, projected into the future as is.