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2,500m2 iconic building to promote the largest private collection of contemporary art in Latin America.
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Includes a distinctive saw tooth roof designed by David Chipperfield.
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Our specialist advice helped to incorporate a flexible lighting arrangement.
Opened in 2013, Museo Jumex is an internationally ranking centre for contemporary art, located in an iconic building designed by British architect David Chipperfield.
The museum seeks a leading role in Mexico City’s cultural heart and is the main showcase of Colección Jumex; the largest private collection of contemporary and international art in Latin America.
Strategic engineering performance
We designed the structural, mechanical, electrical and public health engineering systems throughout the scheme design stage providing the architect with strategic engineering advice that also included a detailed assessment of the imposed art loading, local wind and seismic criteria.
We also led the design team towards a more sustainable approach, exploiting the possibilities for natural ventilation and providing with lighting systems that do not distract the visitor’s attention from the exhibits, either visually or aurally.
A distinctive shape
The museum’s defining feature is a distinctive asymmetric roof, which incorporates industrial saw tooth roof lights. This distinctive shape is derived from a synthesis of engineering performance, artistic requirements and urban setting.
The saw-tooth roof offers a tall, flexible, daylight exhibition space that controls indirect sunlight and helps to reduce energy requirements. When daylight levels fall, electric lighting is provided by fluorescents lights mounted within the skylight. The results of this work can also be seen in the façade openings, which exploit the natural daylight experienced on each level of the museum and bring a number of benefits to how the art is showcased.
The structure also includes a wide terrace that exploits the benign Mexican climate and, by diffusing the boundary between the outside and inside, this provides an anchor point of engagement with its neighbourhood.
The lighting approach
The orientation of this site made it necessary to position the new building and its skylights with an unconventional east-west orientation.
The daylight solution places glazing in the westerly inclined face and deploys a system of filters to moderate the effects of direct sunlight.
This simple innovation implemented is the museum’s ‘tuneable’ daylight system which works like “changing filters on a camera”. The museum can easily adapt the viewing environment of an exhibition by using a simple manual system. The average daylight levels can then be adjusted from the interior to meet the specific requirement, while its dynamic nature is maintained. This results in a highly distinctive environment for the gallery visitor who experiences a dynamic relationship with the sun moving across the sky.