Estudio MMX . Luis Campos . photos: © César Béjar
The CBG Campus (Campus Betterware Guadalajara) is the new warehouse, distribution and work center of an important international household products company. Located in the municipality of El Arenal, north of Guadalajara, Jalisco, the campus is immersed in a rural context, near the ecological reserve of the “La Primavera” forest, which gives the site a privileged landscape, composed mainly of oaks and pines.
An important aspect that determined the configuration of the campus, and that is imperative for the optimum functioning of an industrial building of this type, is the horizontality and continuity between operative spaces. To follow this principle and to gradually reconcile the differences in levels between accesses, interior roads, adjoining areas, parking lots and purely operational spaces, staggered reinforced concrete retaining walls were generated to which hanging gardens were incorporated.
The general scheme of the campus responds directly to the operational logic of a product distribution center: a maneuvering yard and a shipping warehouse where the products arrive, 7 warehouses and a large industrial unit that houses the automated towers with their respective lines of assortment and the administrative area of the company.
To achieve a direct spatial relationship between managers, operational and administrative staff was one of the design premises. Between buildings roofed circulations were generated to allow workers to cross the gardens.
The campus incorporates two main structural systems: low-rise buildings and retaining walls to reconcile differences in levels with concrete structures; and steel structures for warehouses that require clearing large clearings.
One of the most important characteristics of the campus is that it combines the operational and administrative areas of the company. Another very important premise in the design was to ensure that all users of the campus would have high-quality spaces and experiences, for which there were generated different relationships between interior and exterior spaces with an imposing landscape design that creates different microclimates adapted to the conditions of the site, including low-maintenance species that are found in the immediate surroundings of Huentitán and the ‘Primavera’ forest. Dry rivers were integrated into the landscape design in order to make better use of rainwater to irrigate the gardens themselves and allow water to infiltrate into the subsoil.
The campus has its own treatment plant and a rainwater harvesting system for irrigation and maintenance of outdoor areas, solar panels were incorporated to supply energy to the complex too. A team specialized in bioclimatic design analyzed the conditions of the site and the components of the campus and translated them into different architectural solutions to incorporate passive ventilation and natural lighting systems.
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Design: Estudio MMX and Luis Campos
Collaborators: Santiago Vázquez, Ana Nuño, Gerson Guizar, Lesly Noguerón, Gabriel González
