Mexican architectural group Colectivo C733 has signed a project to restore an 18th-century customs building in Nayarit, on Mexico’s East coast, and create a cultural center and museum around it.The municipality of San Blas commissioned Colectivo C733 to preserve and recover what remains of the old port customs house, consolidating the surviving parts in adobe (the mixture of clay, sand, and shade-dried straw used by many peoples in all eras to make bricks) and protecting the historic masonry portion. The Port of San Blas was founded in New Galicia in 1768, and the first floor of the original building is still standing. A corridor has been adapted as an exhibition space, while around the area are small workshops and fragments of the original structure, built with handmade adobe bricks.
Around the historic building at the center of the complex, the team built a red steel walkway flanked by terra cotta tile screens that rises to the roof, allowing visitors an elevated path through the structure. New adobe architectural bodies were then constructed to house public spaces and workshops.
On the northwest side is a linear community building with a library, dance studio, classroom, and study room, all open to the outside through large sliding windows protected by canopies. A brick wall separates the workshops from the rest of the courtyard, but the bridge restores the architectural dialog by providing access to the roof. On the northeastern edge of the site, offices have been built in a wedge-shaped structure protected by an additional terracotta screen. In the southeastern sector is the new museum building, a rectangular volume framed on three sides by an arched portico with columns made of salvaged materials. The white of the building contrasts with the earth tones of the rest of the complex. Colectivo C733 is made up of architects Gabriela Carrillo, Carlos Facio and Jose Amozurrutia, along with researchers Erik Valdez and Israel Espin.
Photo © Rafael Gamo
