IFAL Theater

Photograph by Rafael Gamo, courtesy of bgp arquitectura.

Project details

• Project Name: IFAL Theater
• Client: French Embassy-IFAL
• Project Type: Remodeling
  
• Principal Designer/s: Bernardo Gomez-Pimienta, Luis Enrique Mendoza Aguilar, Ramon H. Alvarez Sierra
• Design Team: Hugo Sanchez, Mario Rojas Toledo, Rafael Gamo, JN Morones Esquivel
• Contractor/s: bgp arquitectura
• Date of commencement of project: 2004
• Date of completion of project: 2005
• Location of site: Mexico City, Mexico
• Site Area: 487 m2
• Built-up Area: 260 m2
• Cost of Construction/Execution: 1000000 DLS

Photograph by Rafael Gamo, courtesy of bgp arquitectura.

Words from the Architect

This is the main theater at the IFAL (French Institute in Latin America) that was built some 60 years ago and was in need of an urgent intervention.

The remodeling consisted of updating equipment, seats, all finishes and accessories to recover functionality and versatility to new programs. The new proposal recovered all floor, ceiling and walls in wood, forming two boxes that play with each other. One at the bottom, covers the floor area and bottom of walls. The criteria called for all surfaces to have different angles and not allowing parallel walls for acoustic reasons. The rear of the theater was covered with lines of acoustic panels with the same type of fabric that the employed in the seating in varying colors used randomly, forming a polychromatic mosaic.

Photograph by Rafael Gamo, courtesy of bgp arquitectura.

Photograph by Rafael Gamo, courtesy of bgp arquitectura.

Photograph by Rafael Gamo, courtesy of bgp arquitectura.

Photograph by Rafael Gamo, courtesy of bgp arquitectura.

Photograph by Rafael Gamo, courtesy of bgp arquitectura.

Credits

• Text: bgp arquitectura
• Photographs: Rafael Gamo