Multi purpose Auditorium for the University of Queretaro

It is not common for a University to have the opportunity to have such a positive impact on an urban and architectural level as the University of Queretaro has with this multi-purpose Auditorium.

In the first place, the perimeter of the whole university campus is non porous at all. The university is perceived from the outside as a fortress which is not accessible but in highly localized points, that privilege mostly the driver. This lack of porosity of the university to its surroundings, generates an uneven development around it. The situation on the Hidalgo street front is totally different to the situation that we try to solve on the north face of the campus.

Another fact is that the campus lacks the minimum sense of unity because of the fragmentation that exists among the different schools. The buildings are little or not related at all and there is not an evident sense of order provided by a master plan.

Based in these points, we decided to link the auditorium to its surroundings, through corridors and plazas and by doing this, to put forward a solution to the problems previously exposed. The building has been placed at the end of a street that originates at the new Santa Cecilia Plaza, and this move creates a North Entrance to the campus which relates it directly to the city and promotes a stronger relation between the university and the greater community. This new entrance becomes as well the new main access for pedestrians. The building itself then becomes a circulation, with staircases and plazas, that lead us from the street to the pedestrian system of the university campus.