Scenic Garden offers architectural pavilions and a new green lung for Mexico City
Scenic Garden, designed by Michan Architecture and a team of collaborators, adds green infrastructure to Mexico City's bustling urban experience
Scenic Garden's hint is in its name. The new, verdant section in Mexico City's Chapultepec Park has been designed by Michan Architecture, Parabase, and landscape architects Entorno Taller de Paisaje to offer respite from the bustling capital through greenery and architectural delights, making for a picturesque backdrop to everyday life. The Mexico City-based firm, headed by founder Isaac Michan Daniel, just completed this fresh urban green space, which has just been inaugurated as Mexico City's newest architectural garden.
Tour Scenic Garden by Michan Architecture
The architecture practice talks about the project as 'part architecture, part landscape, and part infrastructure', and it feels like an apt description. The scheme not only consisted of crafting the flora and landscaping in the appointed section of the park, but also the construction of three pavilions to cater to various needs of visitors.
The aim was to make the project sustainable as well as open to as many people as possible. The architects explain: ‘Located on Avenue Reforma, next to the Auditorio Nacional in the first section of the park, the largest pavilion is dedicated to performance [and is] a large flexible auditorium with doors that open to the surrounding park and neighbouring pavilions, for rehearsal and a cafeteria. Collectively, the pavilions will host guests to see theatre, music, performing arts, and other events.'
Michan Architecture collaborated on the project with the two loal firms, Switzerland-based Parabase and locals Taller de Paisaje Entorno, and managed a team of 11 consulting firms in this complex scheme. Michan Daniel describes the resulting design as 'an exercise in embedding contemporary architecture, landscape and culture as one'.
Boasting organic curves, low concrete forms and swathes of glazing to make sure the interiors always feel connected to the outdoors, the architectural pavilions within the Scenic Garden were conceived to blend seamlessly with the park’s network of winding paths and promenades.
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
New Louis Poulsen book explores the Danish lighting company's illuminating world
Louis Poulsen: First House of Light, published by Phaidon, is a new design book delving into the Danish company's world of radiant lighting
By Jens H Jensen Published
-
Dot.ateliers | Ogbojo is an 'oasis' for writers and curators in Ghana
Dot.ateliers | Ogbojo in Accra, Ghana was designed by emerging studio DeRoché Strohmayer Architecture for artist Amoako Boafo as a writer’s and curator’s residency space for the country's creatives
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Aman Residences Tokyo float high above the Japanese capital
Aman Residences Tokyo, Aman Group’s first standalone branded residences, feature dramatic yet serene interiors by Yabu Pushelberg
By Dan Howarth Published
-
Lucha Libre and modernist architecture meet in Mexican short film ‘El Luchador’
‘El Luchador’ blends Lucha Libre and architecture, in a Mexican short film set in Agustín Hernández Navarro's modernist home Casa Praxis in Mexico City
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Mexico’s Amelia Tulum is where ‘the architecture becomes part of the jungle’
Amelia Tulum by Sordo Madaleno combines a human-centred approach and lots of greenery to craft a Mexican residential community like no other
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A Cancun retreat by Mexico’s Vieyra Estudio takes inspiration ‘from the ocean’
Casa Nube, a new Cancun retreat by Vieyra Estudio, merges sea, style and sustainability in a private residence defined by a series of pools and terraces
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
Antonio Solá offers a residential haven of calm in Mexico City
Antonio Solá, a new housing project by architecture studio Módica Ledezma, is a complex of four townhouses that offer serenity in the bustle of Mexico City
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A Mexican artist’s studio makes the most of light and volume in San Miguel Chapultepec
A Mexican artist's studio and home, designed by JJRR in the heart of Mexico City, makes the most of volume and light for its owner, Stefan Brüggemann
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Pabellón de la Reserva and its sustainable architecture nod to its natural setting
Pabellón de la Reserva by architecture studio Hemaa offers an idyllic countryside getaway, a stone's throw from Mexico City
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated
-
Orchid Pavilion channels Japanese philosophy for blossoming flowers in Puerto Escondido
Orchid Pavilion by CCA Centro de Colaboración Arquitectónica provides fitting shelter for flower conservation in Mexico's Casa Wabi
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Residential development The Village on the Yucatán Peninsula frames its verdant environment
The Village by Sordo Madaleno is a meticulously composed apartment building, built on a strict grid with an emphasis on outside space and connection to site
By Jonathan Bell Published