Architect: PPAALocation: Santiago de Querétaro, MexicoCompletion Date:2024Sometimes all it takes to deliver a successful project is a client who is willing to take a chance. When a past residential customer approached Pablo Pérez Palacios, principal of his eponymous firm, Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA), about an expansion of an office for the premium dairy company Lyncott in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, the architect suggested something unusual: a modular structure made entirely of cross-laminated timber (CLT). In Mexico, as Pérez Palacios explained to AN, concrete is considered the de facto building material. In fact, when the client asked for examples of similar wood construction in Mexico, there simply weren’t any. Adding to the complexity, the architect advocated to use a polycarbonate system by the manufacturer Danpal as the facade. Essentially, Pérez Palacios was proposing a never-used (in Mexico) structure clad in a translucent envelope that would obscure most views from the interior offices. In theory, it sounded crazy. The building’s exterior is clad entirely in Danpal, a polycarbonate system, and connected to a cross-laminated timber frame. (Fabian Martínez) Fortunately, the client, who had recently risen to the top spot in the family-owned company, engaged with Pérez Palacios. At first, the executive told him, “I’m sure you won’t take this project, because it’s in an industrial park with zero budget,” recalled the architect, a past AN Interior Top 50 honoree. “I told him I’d take the project, without telling him that in the back of my mind, I knew I was going to do it out of wood.” Pérez Palacios had to overcome two hurdles from the outset: how to keep costs down despite CLT being a more expensive material than concrete and finding workers who could deliver on the construction. Fortunately, Vigalam, a company that manufactures prefabricated wood structures was located in the same office park as Lyncott, virtually eliminating shipping costs and simplifying the contracting. The team enlisted representatives from Danpal to install the facade system. The company sent a team to place and attach the panels, an exacting process that involves a clip to which a frame is attached and which then receives the polycarbonate pieces. Inside, the framing systems of the CLT and Danpal meet. (Fabian Martínez) Pérez Palacios is either a sly salesman or an eccentric designer—or both—but he managed to pull off one of Mexico’s first all-CLT projects and one of the most striking industrial buildings in recent memory. PPAA connected the thin 10,900-square-foot office expansion to an existing structure. Here the light, efficient addition contrasts the heavy, inefficient existing conditions; Pérez Palacios explained that the original steel and concrete building operates 24 hours a day to support the dairy plant and relies on artificial light. As PPAA captioned an Instagram post about the project, “This new intervention addresses the challenge of balancing the industrial character of the context with a serene and conscious environment focused on connecting with nature.” The translucent facade allows light into the offices and exposes the wood frame from the exterior. (Fabian Martínez) One of the most intriguing aspects of the facade is its lack of transparent glass, though Pérez Palacios noted that there are windows along the side of the building facing the dairy plant. “When you’re in an office, you’re not looking at the view. You are looking at a screen,” he said. “To create an atmosphere with natural light, it’s super nice if you’re going to be sitting at a computer for eight hours a day.” Besides, he added: “There’s nothing to see outside. It’s an industrial park.” The offices are bathed in light via the translucent facade. (Fabian Martínez) PPAA has completed two translucent projects previously: a now-finished office building in China that employed fabric and a housing prototype for a 2022 exhibition at Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas. “It was our interpretation of an affordable housing project—and we used Danpal!” Pérez Palacios exclaimed. Still, the dairy building project is the first time he put his theories about Danpal into practice. “We created this translucent envelope that allows people to work in natural light all day long,” Pérez Palacios explained. “It has solar capacities; it blocks the sun rays. It requires zero maintenance and protects the interior structure.” PPAA used wood for the entire structure, including beams, columns, and ceilings. (Fabian Martínez) Efficiency was part of the selling point to Lyncott, whose leader worried about the building’s lightness. “I had to tell him, ‘Don’t worry, it won’t blow away,’” Pérez Palacios recalled with a laugh. He went on to connect the agricultural aspects of the client’s business to the sustainability of building with these methods. The wood reduces the structure’s carbon footprint, and an all-glass facade would have run up the air-conditioning bills. Instead, Lyncott’s new building redirects the sun, part of the reason it has become something of an attraction in Mexico. Pérez Palacios foresees bringing students for site visits, and Danpal has shown the site to potential clients. PPAA has even sold the idea of mass timber construction to a skeptical audience: Now the firm has two more wood projects in the pipeline. Project Specifications Architect: PPAA Structural engineering: Vigalam Electrical engineering: ROA Civil engineering: Consulta Urbana Lighting design: PPAA Facade system: Danpal Glass: Consulta Urbana Roofing: Aircrete Interior finishes: Alfombras de Mexico Fixtures: Biticino Lighting: Magg Furniture: PM Steele, Vipp