Galería La Caja is a unique
project housed inside an old paint warehouse located in Tijuana, Baja
California, Mexico. At a glance, its architectural floor plan may look simple,
but it’s the versatility of the space that creates its essence: an open gallery
that on the evenings turns into a painting class and later a diner where a chef
can cook in view of all the attendees just by sliding, turning, moving walls. All
the resources used to refurbish and refurnish this building are 100% recycled
and unprocessed, where part of the project was to look almost by hand for the
materials which were waste or garbage from different sources around the city of
Tijuana and San Diego , exemplified with the floor, a portion made of used wood
formwork from the Culinary Art School in Tijuana, a project recently designed
and built by the studio, and another fraction from wood discarded by Camp
Pendleton; the ceilings, old freezer doors from a super market, leading to successfully
completing a project with reused goods, reaffirming the studio’s philosophy of
creating low-cost architecture, where design and innovation does not have to be
sacrificed.