Cultural Center at Sierra Gorda

The Center is born because of the need to unite in one site all the different cultural activities taking place in the city of Jalpan, and together with the Museum of the Sierra Gorda conform the most important cultural and turistic magnet in the region. Inside the museum, the sixteenth century building known as El Fortin, served as a precedent for the conceptual generation of the Cultural Center.

The two main buildings inside the Cultural Center, the auditorium and the library, try to counterbalance the visual weight of the Fortin, and were conceived as two linear halls divided by a central circulation, in response to the disposition presented by the sixteenth century building. Great attention has been placed to the dialogue among the buildings on the perimeter and the Unesco World Heritage context where the Cultural Center is placed.

Another concept that informed the project was the fact of working the complex as a city in itself, with its own streets, squares, open and closed, public and private spaces, which generate a previously inexistent richness to the pedestrian trips inside the city.

The Melchor Ocampo Cultural Center will consolidate the presence of the city of Jalpan in a regional level and will promote the diffusion of the varied cultural local scene.