By Helen Berg
Wallpaper, May 15, 2015
Growing plants using hydroponics has been around for centuries, and this unique method of looking after crops using nutrient-enriched water, without any soil, is still very much in use in modern agriculture. An extensive new facility for such an enterprise has just been completed in rural Guanajuato, near León in central Mexico, and features at its heart a modern office designed by local firm C.C Arquitectos.
(Image: Office views are concentrated towards the surrounding greenhouses, where lettuces are cultured using a nutrient enriched solution. Photo: Rafael Gamo, courtesy of Wallpaper)
Arranged in a way that promotes interaction between different departments, the offices also provide direct sightlines from employees’ desks into the surrounding five hectares of greenhouses, which contain row upon row of leafy lettuces, produced for international export by Next Vegetales. Visual connections between the office workers and the production processes were highly important, says C.C Arquitectos’ Manuel Cervantes. This is a development that aims to create ‘a collective experience of working together with a shared purpose’. Read more…