Clase Azul Warehouse and Offices

The tequila company’s facility lies within the volcanic belt that shapes the region’s landscape and gave rise to the agave and its spirits. The Mexican design team set out to recover this cultural landscape, using materials of fire, volcanic stone and fired clay, while protecting native habitats.

Despite its size, the building was meant to recede into the land and keep the atmosphere of the original site. Part of it is buried in a large excavation, a land art gesture that produced a broad platform for the building. From the east it reads as a ceramic horizon: its roof, clad in traditional clay pieces, ties it to the earth and blurs the line between architecture and terrain.

Locally made ceramics run through the building, in roofs, screens and walls, alongside brick and volcanic stone, framing courts and offices within the warehouse.