Construction work has officially started on Zaha Hadid Architects' (ZHA) new residential tower in Mexico City, which will be the highest residential tower of Mexico City with its "tapered" form and fluid structure. Named Bora Residential Tower, the design was commissioned in 2015 by Nemesis Capital to promote the highest standards for the new communities, as it is located in the important business district in the west of Mexico City - which is a rapidly growing community that includes 3 universities and the regional offices of Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Roche and Amazon.

The Bora Residential Tower is a short walk from local schools, theatres, cafes and restaurants, as well as the new Santa Fe Transit Hub that will offer a 5-minute train journey into Observatorio Station, connecting with the city’s metro network when the Toluca commuter rail line opens next year.

Being adjacent to the 28 hectare parklands, lakes, sports fields, basketball and tennis courts of La Mexicana park, the largest new public space created in Mexico City for 50 years, the tower has been designed to provide excellent levels of natural light and ventilation, with the apartments optimising Santa Fe’s extremely comfortable environmental conditions of prevailing winds and mild annual temperatures.

The tower, reaching more than 50 floors, will incorporate over 220 apartments of one, two and three bedrooms. Each floor houses are arranged according to a variety of unit sizes to create an integrated and diverse community of families, first-time homeowners, professionals and retirees.

ZHA designs the layout of the apartments to maximise natural light and ensure privacy, while offering panoramic, double-aspect views from all units. All balconies provides residents outdoor living areas to enjoy Santa Fe’s mild, elevated subtropical climate.

"The distribution of varied apartments across each floor defines the formal composition of the tower. The six apartment layouts surround a central core and are extruded vertically, with the tower’s façade articulating the folds and pleats created from the juxtaposition of these six volumes," said ZHA.

"A sense of dynamism is introduced by the geometric configuration of the balconies which follow a harmonic variation that is optimised to ensure the best use of these outdoor living areas," added the firm. 

The tower tapers inwards at its base, but upper floors increase the areas for leisure, recreation and entertainment located beneath 'swirling' canopies that transfer the surrounding streetscape vertically, echoing the dynamism expressed throughout the façade. The studio designs public spaces with restaurants and shops at street level to enhance the growing Santa Fe community.

The tower’s structure will be designed according to Mexico's seismic conditions to provide optimum flexibility and ductility, with an overall reduction in its weigh. Ten-storey canopies are added to its base to provide additional lateral stability. The project is expected to open to the public in 2021.

The Bora Residential Tower is the third residential project of ZHA proposed for Mexico City. ZHA's other project for Mexico include the Esfera City Center, was proposed for a low-rise high-density residential building in Monterrey, Mexico in 2015. The other project - Alai residences was unveiled in May this year, which reflects Mayan’s local nature on the building's façade. 

Project facts

Client: Nemesis Capital
Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA)
Design: Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher (ZHA)
ZHA Project Director: Juan Ignacio Aranguren
ZHA Project Architects: Andrés Arias Madrid, Pierandrea Angius
ZHA Concept Design Team: Saman Saffarian (Design Lead), Johannes Elias, Julia Hyoun Hee Na, Lisa Kinnerud, Kate Revyakina

Structural Engineer (Concept): BAC – García Jarque Ingenieros
MEP Engineer (Concept): PGI Engineering
Façade Engineer (Concept): Front Inc.

All images © LabTop

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