ROJKIND ARQUITECTOS Filarmonica di Boca del Río a Veracruz, Messico Boca del Río Philarmonic Orchestra, Veracruz, Mexico

An amalgamation between nature and artifice, the Foro Boca sits at the confluence between two natural systems: the estuary of the Jamapa River and the Boca del Río waterfront facing the Gulf of Mexico. The new home of the Philharmonic Orchestra, designed by the Mexican office Rojkind Arquitectos, was completed in 2017. At the urban level, the Foro represents the head of a coastal system structured by a three mile long boulevard. Its position, like its structure, emphasises its liminal character: an architecture along a margin and, even more, generated by it. Conceptually, the Foro Boca is an attempt to rationalise the maritime landscape through the appropriation of the infrastructural language of quays, wharves and dams. It is an assertive architecture that is both solid and unstable in its form and fragmented in its juxtaposition of volumes. It resembles a block of stone or a cliff. This character is accentuated by the use of exposed concrete as the only finishing material, which gives the envelope an age and favours the sedimentation of new layers.