The site assigned for the center was occupied by an old movie theater: an enclosed gray concrete structure, detached from the context and with its back to the river, next to a half-empty plaza and quiet streets. The answer to these conditions was a hybrid scheme including a plaza, leisure areas, floodable dock, development center, and viewing platform. The project’s objective was to reconnect the town with the water, letting the plaza adapt to the variations in the river’s water level, so that it could be seen from a high point.

Inspired by local elements, such as the Casa de Gobierno – a mud building with pitched roof – and the Venetian porticoes that flood occasionally, a pedestrian plaza blurs the boundaries between the open and the built. A floodable strip visually and physically connects the plaza with the portico under the building, integrating play, labyrinths, slides, exercise areas, and a shaded garden.

A ramp leads from level -1 to an elevated palapa, offering views of the landscape. The cinema’s original structure of concrete frames is preserved, now stepped and protected by a light roof housing different programs: cafeteria, auditorium, multipurpose hall, outdoor workshops, and administration offices...[+]