Hípico del Bosque
Situated at the highest part of the city of Cuernavaca and in the middle of a wooded area, the Hípico del Bosque horse club covers an area of 7,000m2 on land of almost 2 hectares. The majority of the club is a wood with pine trees on a downward slope extending to a federal zone. This defined the use of the rest of the area, the former use of which was agricultural, and which adjoins the route to the premises.
The architectural approach combines clients’ needs and natural scenery, while respecting and adapting to the conditions concerning topography, orientation and landscape. The project will therefore be developed on three levels that incorporate construction and topographical configuration.
At the highest part are the stables, storage rooms, harness rooms and administrative offices. Through retaining walls, ramps and stairs, these are linked to the track and social area with coffee shop, terraces, bathrooms and changing rooms. At the lower part of the project is the service and grooming area next to the paddock and stables for competitions.
The main purpose of this architectural plan is to highlight the purity of the elements that shape it, synthesizing their utility with the simplicity of the materials by using constructive techniques and a local workforce, conserving its natural aspect.
The materials used on the outside will be stone, concrete and wood recovered from the falsework needed during construction. All of the wood was converted into a protective wood, unifying different parts when covering up doors and windows. On the inside the coating on the walls was applied using mortar and paint made from earth from this area. The project also has rainwater harvesting, biological filters (in order to use clean and sewage water for the watering of green areas), lighting using LED lights, and solar cells.
