El Museo del Acero Horno by Surfacedesign Inc.
Landscape Architect: Surfacedesign Inc. + Harari Landscape Architecture
Architecture: Nicholas Grimshaw
Location: Monterey, Mexico
Year of Completion: 2009
Text: Surfacedesign
Photos:
Paul Riveria / Archphoto
Abigail Guzman Tamex /Grafix
James Lord

 [page]

 

 In 1986, the city of Monterrey, Mexico reclaimed an expansive 1.5 hectare brownfield site of a
former steel production facility. Eleven years later, the site?s decommissioned blast furnace
emerged as the Museo Del Acero Horno3, or the Museum of Steel, which serves as a new focal
point for the region. Located at the center of the modern Parque Fundidora, which receives more
than two million visitors per year, the Museo Del Acero Horno3 narrates the story of steel
production both to the generations who remember the history of the site and to younger visitors
who may be unaware of the region?s legacy.

 

The landscape, designed by Surfacedesign Inc. + Harari Landscape Architecture,, expresses the
spirit of the site?s former industrial glory and celebrates its position within the surrounding
dramatic landscape. The overall landscape design emphasizes the physical profile of the 70-
meter furnace structure while complementing the modern design of the new structures. The
history of steel is an important narrative element throughout the site, and thus steel, much of it
reclaimed from the site (such as the ore-embedded steel rails used to define the outdoor exhibit
spaces) is used extensively to help define public plazas and delineate fountains and landscaped
terraces. Large, free-formed steel objects and machinery unearthed during excavation were
incorporated as stepping stones and other features. The design approach melds industrial site
reclamation  and the adaptive re-use of on-site materials  with ecological restoration through the
use of green technologies.

 

All of the storm water runoff within the site?s boundaries is treated in a series of on-site treatment
runnels. These surround the exhibition areas and reinterpret the former industrial canals that
once moved steel production by-products within the site. Aquatic plants and wetland macrophytes
bio-remediate and treat storm water before it enters an underground cistern where it is stored for
dry season irrigation.

 

Two water features are integral to the narrative of the project, while helping to define and locate
the public space adjacent to the museum. In the main esplanade, the steel plates that formerly
clad the exterior of the main hall were repurposed into a stepped canal over which water
cascades. The 200-meter-long feature alludes to the tracks used daily to train in the thousands
of tons of raw materials that were off-loaded in this location, and serves as a visual connection to
the rain garden in the landscape beyond. At the museums entrance, the stepped canal
culminates in the misting fountain, a grid of rocks visibly embedded with ore. This trompe loeil
evokes the caustic heating process once used to extract ore, but instead of steam it generates a
cooling mist that blows over the plaza  a pleasant surprise for visitors in Monterreys hot and arid
climate.

 

The use of green roofs (extensive and intensive) over the museum- which comprises the largest
such roof system in Latin America  helps to reduce the visual impact of the new buildings. The
existing furnace rises from this newly created ground plane. On the higher roof, a variety of
drought-tolerant sedums have been arranged according to the structural roof patterns of the new
architecture, and are contained by what appears to be a floating steel disk. A circular viewing
deck allows visitors to take in the expanse of surrounding regional landscape, including the
distant Sierra Madres, which are echoed in the roofs mounded shape. Below, Alfombra verde
(green blanket) a less constrained meadow of tall grasses an abstraction of the native landscape
creates a connection to the landscape?s pre-industrial context both functioning as a
bioremediation for degraded soil and increasing thermal benefits for the new structure.

[page]
  

 1986年，這里還是墨西哥蒙特雷市前鋼鐵廠的1.5公頃擴(kuò)建之地，11年后，鋼鐵廠退役變身為鋼鐵
博物館，并成為當(dāng)?shù)氐慕裹c(diǎn)，每天接待超過(guò)200萬(wàn)的游客。不知道下一代及年輕的游客們能不能記得
知道這里的歷史。

 

景觀師接手項(xiàng)目后期望在用地上表達(dá)出場(chǎng)地的精神，體現(xiàn)出前工業(yè)的輝煌，營(yíng)造出戲劇性的景觀。
70米的高爐結(jié)構(gòu)被保留并被強(qiáng)調(diào)，在周邊補(bǔ)充系列新的現(xiàn)代景觀。場(chǎng)地關(guān)于鋼的歷史是一項(xiàng)重要的
敘事元素。用到的鋼材也是就地回收利用，廣泛用于公共空間的定義，劃分噴泉及臺(tái)階。土方工程
產(chǎn)生的基石等材料也以綠色生態(tài)的方式進(jìn)行了再利用。

 

整合現(xiàn)場(chǎng)雨水徑流，將雨水導(dǎo)入地下蓄水池，在旱季可為水生植物和濕地植物提供灌溉。

 

兩個(gè)水景屬于主要景觀，并定義定位公共空間。主路旁利用了以前的鋼板做成200米長(zhǎng)的水道，并與
以前的運(yùn)輸軌道進(jìn)行視覺(jué)化聯(lián)系。盡頭的一側(cè)設(shè)置了大塊巖石和噴霧噴泉，這在炎炎夏日給游客帶
了驚喜。

 

博物館的屋頂綠化堪稱(chēng)拉丁美洲最大屋頂綠化系統(tǒng)。屋頂綠化有效的降低建筑的視覺(jué)沖擊力。高爐
從新的地面上拔地而起，在一處安放了一個(gè)大圓屋頂，上面種滿(mǎn)各種耐旱植物，中間設(shè)置了一個(gè)好
像漂浮著的園觀景臺(tái)。這里可謂游客提供開(kāi)闊視野。下方綠植為中高草甸，形成一個(gè)連續(xù)生態(tài)的景
觀，并增加了建筑結(jié)構(gòu)的熱工性。

 [page] 

 

 [page]

 

 [page]

 MORE:Surfacedesign Inc.