VERTEBRAL designed the El Terreno Community Garden and Educational Center as an outdoor teaching alternative in Mexico City, Mexico.

El Terreno is a community garden and educational center project that was initiated during the COVID-19 outbreak. The project is located on a hill of rich soil, minerals, and stones, providing the ingredients of an urban orchard for growing flowers, aromatic plants, and vegetables. The project was developed as a way of enabling youth in the community to remain connected to social stimulation, while simultaneously receiving an environmental education. Additionally, the project provides a closer connection to the cycles of food production and sustainable living.

To be consistent with the project, VERTEBRAL constructed a unique pavilion from recycled materials used in their previous constructions. It was important for the firm to successfully build a 100% recyclable building, but also a space built using materials, modules, and units uniquely thought out through new processes developed for this particular project.

The multipurpose pavilion is built into the hillside, allowing for a gradual aperture towards the garden. Sections of iron rods were bent and welded, and are contained in walls filled with stone acquired through excavation of the site. The roof is composed of wooden trusses that were once concrete formwork. Through only four different modules, all of the trusses were assembled by volunteers from the local community. For VERTEBRAL, it was important to create a flexible, multipurpose pavilion, which reflects the Mexico City-based firm’s vision of the future of architecture.

The founder of the project, Michelle Kalach, is deeply involved with self-sufficient communities that are off the grid. El Terreno has become a self-sustained garden through the economic stability of endemic plant and vegetable sales, cultivated through educational programs and then sold to local cafes and stores. Rainwater is captured through a system originating on the green roof of the pavilion, which then passes through pipes that also serve as structural columns. Finally, the rainwater descends into a cumulative body of water, from where it is pumped back into the orchard. Energy consumption is generated through solar panels, and waste from composting toilets is used as a natural fertilizer for the garden.

El Terreno is a space built as a model of how education, sustainability, and design can come together to harvest a bright future that perpetually responds to immediate needs.

Design: VERTEBRAL
Photography: Ricardo de la Concha