University Multipurpose Theatre

Inspired by the idea that art & culture create stronger societies, spatial integration between a private university (UDEM) and its adjacent marginal neighborhood (Jesús M. Garza) is achieved through a multipurpose theater complex. Its various iterations and program enhance blurring the boundaries that define private and community spaces.

The multipurpose theater complex is part of a greater system of urban and landscape interventions that work in different scales creating clear, accessible, and direct connections within the university’s campus, the neighborhood, and the overall Valle Poniente district. In the largest scale, the proposal consists of a series of strategies for the urban development of the area so that the community, the natural landscape, and conditions of the site are considered and integrated in future projects. Following that, a network of public, collective, and green areas connected by roads, crosswalks, bike, and foot paths is designed to improve the urban image and conditions of the neighborhood to further improve the connection with its context. Within the university's campus, the landscape is modified so that pedestrians are favored over vehicles and getting around becomes easy, accessible, and clear to users; allowing the campus to gradually open and become part of the city. The site was selected strategically due to its central location in the neighborhood and having the opportunity of becoming the university's new façade conveying a message of inclusivity towards the city. The architectural program includes commercial areas, a media library, two foyers, art galleries, public and civic plazas, a reconfigurable theatre for different event types and sizes, backstage and technical areas as well as multipurpose classrooms, workshops, and rehearsal studios. This being said, the project reinterprets the performing arts center into a multipurpose complex that allows a wide variety of cultural events, as well as areas designated to community programs and public areas that respond to the needs identified in the urban analysis, therefore linking the university with local community and the wider metropolitan area.