Reforma Tower

Site: Reforma, Mexico City
Fall 2016 || Design Studio
Instructor: Margaret Griffin
Partners: Adilet Dairabayev & Will Wang

If there is one constituent element in today’s High Rise that best synthesizes the tension between the rising demand for high iconic impact and performance; expression and efficiency; formal quality and structural stability; that would be, without a doubt, the building envelope.

The notion of the envelope can have multiple roles. One of the most obvious uses of the envelope is reduced to two-dimensional usage, curtain walls that retain the private from the public. Once three-dimensionalized, this creates new opportunities to explore how a High Rise can make use of the open floor plan, maximizing square footage while allowing the facade to express a sense of massing.

By treating the facade as the primary expression for massing, this allowed the project to explore to incorporate multiple programs and to maximize efficiency.











suh