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Nestle Chocolate Museum
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2007-08-29 21:36:27
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The Nestlé Chocolate factory
in Mexico City's Paseo Tollocan near Toluca has never been a site
anyone went to see for its beauty. It is what is inside that has always
interested chocolate-lovers.
That changed earlier this year when
Michel Rojkind, the 38-year-old principal of Rojkind Arquitectos,
decided that he was not satisfied with the original idea of just
revamping the factory's viewing gallery.
He put together a team
that came up with an entire museum, with a shop, a theatre, and direct
access to the factory as well. The 300-meter-wide scarlet building
cannot go unnoticed by anyone driving the entrance freeway to Toluca.
This
is by far not the first chocolate museum in Mexico, the ancient home of
chocolate. Neither is it the first sweet museum for the
Switzerland-headquartered consumer-product behemoth Nestlé.
However,
it is probably the first chocolate museum ever to be called both a
piece of origami and a shipping container. The corrugated metal look
gives it an air of impermanence and industrial clunk while the bright
color and crazy shape evoke play and fun. What any of this has to do
with chocolate, we are not exactly sure, but we almost managed to fold
a KitKat wrapper to a similar shape. By Tuija Seipell
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HOTEL BASICO, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico (review)
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2006-11-29 11:50:43
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It's a brave concept for a hotel: modeling
the entire aesthetic on the industrial oil rigs of 1950's Mexico.
Especially for one that's "moored" at the hedonistic Caribbean
adventure playground that is Playa Del Carmen. But Hotel Basico - the chic offering from boutique hoteliers Grupo Habita pulls it off with unapologetic conviction.
The
gist is as follow. The building, perched on Playa del Carmen's
exclusive Fifth Avenue shopping and restaurant strip, references
Mexico's rustic petroleum industry, with the rooms looking out onto a
central mess hall-like restaurant area (note: best fish tacos in the
'hood). Above is a rooftop cocktail bar that features luxurious cabanas
made from the back of old trucks with inbuilt mattresses and
white-as-white cushions, two concrete petroleum tanks that serve as
swimming pools (note: from the pool you can sip old-school margaritas
and look down on the crowds below and out to the Caribbean, one block
away). Breezy house music and handsome hotel staff waft throughout the
building all day. Effortlessly surreal.
Now, I
personally go by the theory that if you're going to work with a
gimmick, be sure to go the full distance. Basico's architect, Hectar
Galvan, seemingly agreed with the sentiment when he put this project
together.
In the rooms, no detail is left un-themed. Exposed
pipes with fire hydrant-style taps run along the walls. An
industrial-strength bath and the king-sized, multi-purpose bed (perched
on an elevated palate) sit in the middle of the room. Everything is
exposed and raw; the toilet is the only thing in the room concealed.
There are rubber curtains on the floor-to-ceiling window and pulley
chain detailing throughout. The signage around the hotel references the
typography of Mexican taxis from the 1950s. Superbly
construction-worker chic!
The effect is softened, however, with
what one of the managers referred to as "nana touches". Continuing with
the retro feel, mosaic planter pots are smattered throughout and the
recycled floor tiles are straight from "a Mexican grandmother's patio".
Or so said the manager. The freight lift that takes you from the
open-air reception to the rooms and restaurant above is decorated with
succulents in red pots.
Some adventures in
life are about the journey. And some holidays are about a wild hotel
room experience. A sojourn at Basico taps into this ideal. This isn't
the romantic experience for honeymooners wanting to hide in their own
Caribbean cocoon. No, it's all about the exhibitionist couple who get
into the flirtatiousness of the concept, who want to be part of the
party that goes on up at the rooftop bar every night until 1am. And who
are open to "having lots of sex", as suggested in the hotel
introductory manual that's chained to the bed. It doesn't have to be
alone.
PS. Be sure to borrow the hotel snorkeling gear and visit the
surrounding cenotes (underwater caverns teaming with colorful fish).
PPS. While in Mexico check out the other offerings in the Grupo Habita
chain: Deseo in Playa Del Carmen and Condesa in Mexico City.. by Sarah Wilson
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