Anapra

The Anapra neighborhood in the city of Juarez Mexico is a place with richness of textures and exposed materials, where the built environment visually portrays its people's creativity through their unique construction systems. We were commissioned the design of a low-cost commercial structure with an open floor plan that could be redistributed as needed. Given the brief, we opted for an exposed concrete that would resonate with the site. A solid mass material emerges from the ground and is carved by a continuous bold pattern resembling the outlines of hidden potentialities within settlers and their surroundings. The raw finishing of the tilt-up concrete panels, inherits the dynamic activities and informalities found in the neighborhood, ultimately creating an unprecedented structure which mirrors the qualities on site, and becomes the building’s skin. *All photographs by Rafael Gamo.