MASTERPLAN AND LANDSCAPE FOR CLASE AZUL.

Plan maestro y paisaje para Clase Azul.

Tepatitlán, Jalisco, México. 2024-2026.

The site where we were commissioned to develop the master plan for a tequilacompany, is located in the territorial axis known as the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, which is the Neo volcanic arc that crosses the country from the Gulf of California to the Gulf of Mexico. The natural system is integrated by a sequence of important eminences such as Volcán de Colima, Popocatépetl, Itzaccíhuatl and Pico de Orizaba. Besides describing the topography of the Mexican landscape, this volcanic belt has contributed to the creation of the climate, flora and fauna we recognize as typical of our context, largely thanks to the depictions of great Mexican painters such as Gerardo Murillo “Dr. Atl” and José María Velasco, among others.The overall idea for the master plan is based on creating a visitor experience that will allow them to gain insight into this volcanic landscape through their encounter with the site. This “landscape of fire” that runs through our countryis the same whose geological and climatic characteristics have fostered the development of succulent species such as the agave, which has culturally led to the production of various ferments since pre-Hispanic times, tequila being the most characteristic of Mexican culture. Our proposal aims to recover a type of approach where the mineral substrate of the site and fire as a process become the material basis of the architectural and landscape project. Etymologically,Tepatitlán means “place of hard stone”, according to Nahuatl toponymy. Therefore, as a landscape strategy, excavated stone was used as the primary material, capable of connecting and unifying the different spaces and architectures that shape the project. Similarly,construction techniques that integrate the region’s artisanal craftsmanship with modern technology have been explored and proposed. The initial project decisions, made jointly with the other participating architectural firms, focused primarily on two aspects: the choice of the area for the larger buildings’placement -a strip with less and lower endemic vegetation closer to the highway- and the materiality of the buildings, which establishes a mineral/chromatic relationship with the local clay soil. On the other hand, the most relevant decisions of the zoning project had to dowith the protection of the endemic oak forest that characterizes the entire site and was understood as the most important habitat heritage of the site, and with the selection of the most unique oak tree found -because of its size and location- as the reason for developing the central plaza that organizes most of the buildings. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience the site through a promenade that begins in the parking lot located on the northern side of the campus and leads through the oak grove to the aforementioned central plaza.The plaza is defined by a trapezoidal stone pond surrounding the main oak tree. Stone and concrete walkways converge in it, communicating the different possibilities for the visitor. It articulates the company’s daily operations byconnecting the warehouse, the tequila and ceramics factories, the employee dining pavilion, and the visitor’s reception area. As part of the landscape proposal, a plant palette has been chosen that reflects the unique habitat of Los Altos de Jalisco, comprising trees such as oak, palo dulce, tepame, mesquite, palo verde, among others; endemic shrubs such as huizaches and jarillas; cacti such as nopales, cardones, garambullos, and agavaceae; as well as native annual and perennial flora. The landscape garden criteria is a wild planting that recovers a naturalized character rather than ornamental gardening, complementing species of herbs, grasses, and cacti acquired from local nurseries. All this combined with an intensive process of continuous reforestation and undergrowth regeneration to cyclically obtain species in situ, to be implemented in the proposed landscape.