Almost three decades after the former factory ceased operations and was abandoned thereafter, architecture studio JSa would resolve to make it their new home. Transforming the primitive structure into a manifesto of regenerative design where solar power, rain harvest, on-site water treatment, and vegetation, achieve a symbiotic reciprocity between the building, its landscape and their users.
As such, The Ice Factory operates as an off-grid, self-sufficient ecosystem. Offering a model for retrofitting sustainable solutions that eliminate the reliance on municipal water and energy supply. More than any other environmental element, saving, preserving and improving the quality of water has the potential to help mitigate the severe water crisis in Mexico City, and other similar contexts.
The preexisting structure called for a sensible intervention that would uphold its memory as part of a ‘historic present’. The program, and therefore the project, would be born on site; the result of an instinctive process of evaluating what could be preserved, resolving what had to be restored, and finding the potential for appended reforms. Often involving à la Matta Clark processes to reveal the coarse tectonics of the building.
The factory would then be divided into two areas: a dynamic ground floor for a public program, and a private upper floor for focused work. Both integrated as part of a cloister that completes the new program with a porticoed pavilion to the south of the property, and a garden of endemic vegetation that provides cohesion and serenity to the complex.
Since its completion, The Ice Factory has been, not only a place for the practice of architecture, but also a community site for its teaching and discussion. A vehicle willing to share itself as a case-study for a range of activities guided by its aspirations of sustainability and regenerative design. Conceivably, some of those activities will inspire other projects; some will merge into new collaborative ventures; and others will be realized, with a hope to transcend beyond the borders of the academic framework and the Factory itself.
Today, people meet in the kitchen while brewing coffee or flipping a quesadilla over the griddle. Some enjoy the melody of the birds while eating a snack from the orchard before resuming work. Others exchange ideas as they meet in between work stations, or while they run their fingers through the bushes in the gardens during a phone call. On the background, a guest group of students passionately works on a workshop galvanized by the features of the building. Everyday activities that now frame the lively ecosystem that so far has simultaneously intertwined practice with teaching, recreation and discourse.
Category:Green ArchitectureYear:2025Location: Mexico City, MexicoArchitects:JSa - Aisha Ballesteros, Benedikt Fahlbusch, Javier SánchezLandscape Architects:Genfor Landscaping + TepetlGeneral Contractor:Factor EficienciaDesign Team:Israel Silva, Isaías González, Juan Pedro López, Roberto Ledezma and Francisco MartínezSustainability:Isla Urbana, Tecnologías Integrales Medioambientales, CalizaLighting Design:LSBA StudioClient:JSaPhotographers:Rafael Gamo
