Pilgrims Architecture

During Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Easter more than 2000 believers meet in the Jalisco region in the East of Mexico to follow the pigrim's way from Ameca to Talpa de Allende.
In order to create centres along the way where the pilgrims can rest and pray the municipalities involved have commissioned eleven artists and architects to develop architectural solutions for this out-of-the-ordinary context. An especially successful project is that by the Swiss architects at HHF Architects.

The HHF Lookout Point is conceived as a supplementary and integrated viewing platform along the pilgrim's way. The winding entrance and exit give visitors the possibility of experiencing the architecture as a journey with the viewing platform as its high point, and not as a closed and separate building. Asymmetrical openings provide access to a hall below the platform. The interior walls are a formal, slightly out-of-alignment repetition of the outer facade, and the layout shows clearly that it has been designed on the basis of four tangential circles, between which the two stairways are located.

The almost exclusive use of exposed concrete and the repetitive, stylised archways give the building something archaic and in this way create a formal link to its pilgrimage context, which is rich in tradition and ritual.

Other participating artists and architects are Ai Weiwei, Luis Aldrete, Christ & Gantenbein, Dellekamp Arquitectos, Elemental, Alejandro Aravena, Godoylab, Omar Orlaineta, Periférica, Tatiana Bilbao | mxa, Toa taller.