Description

In this project, Michael Rojkind has moved away from the “exploded box“ approach seen in Casa F2 that he designed with Isaac Broid and Miguel Adria. As an independent practitioner, Rojkind has shown a predilection for angular forms made of metal and for the use of bright colours as a way to stand out rather than blend with the context.

His Nestle Chocolate Museum in Toluca, highlighting the pre-Hispanic food chocolate, is a clear example. The project is an annex to the existing Nestle warehouse, on the premises of Nestle chocolate production facilities. It addresses an audience of children, explaining the history and production processes of chocolate. It was designed and built in record time, i.e. only three months.

The building is conceived as an elongated hetero-morphous volume elevated on pilotis. The museum has a corporate facade towards the car park and the motorway but appears to be more informal on all its other sides. The bright red colour of the exterior contrasts dramatically with the pristine white of all interior surfaces (floors, walls and ceilings); only a green carpet in the main media room interrupts the otherwise all-white interior.

 

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Originally published in: Felipe Hernández, Beyond Modernist Masters. Contemporary Architecture in Latin America, Birkhäuser, 2009.