Chedraui Santa Fe: process innovation enables cutting-edge design
Take one look at the Chedraui in Mexico City and it’s clear that this is not your average grocery store.
Chedraui is a prominent supermarket chain in Mexico. For this specific store location, the company expressed the desire to launch itself into a new direction offering something more than just groceries and goods. Instead, they wanted to position the brand in a more sustainable fashion in a way that offers a unique experience to its consumers while giving a public space back to the city.
In response, Rojkind Arquitectos proposes that folding the chain onto itself and bringing it into view could present an opportunity for interactive and educational programs, connection to local markets and a place for community.
Adjacent to the store they designed a rooftop-parking garage for 250 cars, which features a 3,128m2 orchard on the terrace level that customers can access directly from the store to learn about organic farming and select fresh produce. Nearby is an area where they hold a weekly farmer’s market, allowing locals to sell goods typically not found in the supermarket.
The Chadraui’s facade is a key aspect of what makes the store a true landmark. Rojkind sought the help of Studio NYL to provide facade consulting and specialty engineering services befitting of iconic project.
Visuals are universal
The building’s facade is composed of 531 glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC), glass curtain wall, and green living wall systems—giving the stories its distinct look that is in direct contrast to the more typical grocery store boxes. The complex forms of the project were digitally modeled in Rhino and documented in REVIT. The forms and support structure were exported for digital fabrication for the structural elements.
”It was from the GFRC panel that we needed to determine how to attach it back to the main structure. We were originally tasked with providing the tertiary level structural support (the support that picked up these panels and put it back to some secondary system),” said Julian Lineham. “When we sent this model to the engineers they asked us to design the secondary support system and our scope grew. In the end, we decided to make the secondary support system out of steel.”
Studio NYL designed primary structural supports between the main store’s columns. This was facilitated thanks to the team’s ease in working in three-dimensioning and modeling programs.
“We spent a lot of time exploring filters in three dimensions, using colors to differentiate systems and other factors. These diagrams now commonly play into our process because these visual details really help bridge the language gap when we can’t translate our drawings into Spanish,” said Lineham. “Visuals are universal.”
