The birth of La Hacienda shows that even the most sprawling ambitions call for flexibility. What began in 2016 as a selection process among architecture firms based in Guadalajara, Mexico, to design a large-scale, holistic complex for distillation, ceramic production, and an experience centre for Clase Azul México tequila in the country's Jalisco state, took a markedly different turn. 'You don't have a competition - you have a team,' architect Alejandro Guerrero of Atelier ARS recalls stating to Clase Azul founder and CEO Arturo Lomelí.
What followed was anything but simple, but the process of engaging five prominent local firms to each create a part of the campus on a previously undeveloped, nearly 22-hectare site in the area known as Los Altos de Jalisco yielded a distinctive yet cohesive result that was recently opened to the public by reservation. Simultaneously ancient and contemporary, La Hacienda introduces a new chapter in Mexican modernism and spirits hospitality.
Discover the architecture at La Hacienda by Clase Azul
'We had total freedom on the part of the client, because he knew that we as architects shared the vision,' Guerrero adds. Certain common values and themes emerged to lay the groundwork for the technically demanding effort, composed of multiple buildings that function independently yet are part of a whole. Immersive tequila adventures aren't unfamiliar to the brand; in February, Clase Azul opened Casa de Los Leones in Mexico City's Polanco neighbourhood with an art- and design-centric focus and a bespoke experience for tequila enthusiasts and collectors. But La Hacienda, where construction began in 2017, became a testing ground, as well as what Andrea Soto of Atelier ARS calls 'a learning experience for everyone.'
Each firm took on an assignment that, for all the designers engaging with it, presented fresh challenges in terra incognita. The welcome pavilion, bottling plant and nave, and landscape architecture are by Atelier ARS; the visitors' centre is by Elías Rizo Arquitectos; the distillery and ceramic production spaces are by Estudio Macías Peredo; the dining areas, including OYA restaurant, are by Tacher Arquitectos; and the technical and production system facilities are by Huber Design Studio.
La Hacienda's master plan and subsequent steps began with a fundamental respect for the land and traditions. Guerrero explains that 'the whole idea was to have the architecture transmit this artisanal knowledge' of all elements - from the process of construction itself to Clase Azul's signature handmade ceramic bottles, which the company largely relocated from Puebla, Mexico, to the new headquarters. 'The materials that we wanted to use had to be linked and feel anchored to the region, but also to artisanal craftsmanship,' Guerrero says.
Instead of a set of fixed guidelines and rules, the site itself was a grounding, orienting element that established a shared material vocabulary and functioned as a collaborator. The newly formed de facto design collective then embarked upon what architect Diego Quirarte of Estudio Macías Peredo describes as 'a reading of the place. We realised at the beginning stages that it would be very complicated having an architectural form or language for all the different components, so the material became the line that would stitch together all the projects,' he notes.
The structures integrate old and new in startling ways. Estudio Macías Peredo's distillery and ceramic production areas are composed of a network of hexagons, 'almost like a honeycomb,' Quirarte says, to contain and then link the multiple functions. Using a concrete mix incorporating reddish-hued elements from the site itself, the lower exterior walls transition from earth to building, emphasising its connection to place. Volcanic stone makes appearances throughout La Hacienda, too (meanwhile Estudio Macías Peredo's working materials related to the project have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York).
The tequila factory integrates the terrain's slope to accommodate massive tanks at lower levels, with elevated walkways that are at grade with adjoining parts of the property. Soaring interior spaces with clerestory windows positioned above the walls to mitigate extreme temperatures create a cathedral-like atmosphere, while operable windows and doors in other areas provide access to courtyards and passages inspired by traditional Mexican town plazas and passageways. 'The important part was trying to create a space that is meant not just for machinery, but for human beings,' Quirarte elaborates.
The result is a highly technically capable exercise in compelling dualities. 'There is a tension between two architectural languages,' observes architect Salvador Macías of Estudio Macías Peredo. 'That is like a link between ancestral and industrial, between the mass and lightness, and I think that this is the energy of this project.' Meanwhile, on a smaller scale, the welcoming pavilion by Atelier ARS relies on a subtle show-don't-tell approach. 'We wanted to provide certain experiences through the objects,' Andrea Soto of Atelier ARS says. Instead of relying on extensive wall text, sensitive presentation in an already rich context 'communicates that these objects belong to this architecture. It is a feeling.'
The surrounding coarse, diverse ecology is equally significant and informative for La Hacienda at both macro and micro levels. 'The landscape unifies everything,' Soto says. 'We wanted to expose people wandering all over the place to understand how this landscape is, and why you can find a certain kind of architecture in this place that you can't really find in other places.' Habitat restoration, where boulders are left undisturbed and young native plants are added, was another objective - not resort-like perfection.
Soto shares how a project horticulturalist, Juan Montaño, whom the team came to call the 'maestro,' describes the particular dynamics of respecting nature's timeline. 'The magic will be to see it change and evolve through time.'
Approximately four-and-a-half and seven-hour La Hacienda experiences can be booked online