La Molina-Lima
Montefiori
1,000 m2
2022
On a prototypical property measuring 25×65 meters, with its front facing Separadora Industrial Avenue and its opposite sidewalk lining up the city’s edge as well as the use, we undertook the task of designing a physical rehabilitation clinic. This project, in response to the client’s demand, whose main building is just a few blocks away, posed the challenge of proposing a transformation of uses that, as a continuity of a healthcare corridor, would positively impact the devaluation and underutilization that this area adjacent to health services had experienced over the last decades for several reasons. Understanding certain underlying concepts of land use and city limits, yet also leveraging the buffering effect provided by the central green space, and acknowledging fading residential uses due to obvious commercial arguments, the only possible development alternative for these lots seemed to be informal industry and impoverished commerce. This contradicts the natural optimism of a vibrant community that aspires progress. Contrarily, by expanding healthcare use, so scarce and almost non-existent among municipal authorities, also made more evident due to the pandemic, emerges as a valid and necessary alternative. The program is distributed across 2 levels and occupies 1,000 square meters, with the building utilizing only 50% of the total surface area in anticipation of a future second phase.