Santander Work Lab Terrace | © Zaickz Moz

A 2,000 m² rooftop in Santa Fe, Mexico City, is converted into an athletics and social terrace, integrating a soccer pitch, two tennis courts, locker rooms, and distributed meeting and cooking stations within a lightweight structural and landscape framework that reconciles program, microclimate, and the building’s technical constraints.

Work Lab Terrace Technical Information

• Architects: CF taller de arquitectura
• **Location: **Santa Fe, Mexico City, Mexico
• **Gross Area: **2,000 m2 **| **21,528 Sq. Ft.
• **Project Year: **2023
• **Photographs: **© Zaickz Moz

We treated the roof as an expandable ground plane, pairing athletic infrastructure with social rooms while keeping the building’s services accessible and safe for long-term use.

– CF taller de arquitectura

© Zaickz Moz

© Zaickz Moz

© Zaickz Moz

© Zaickz Moz

© Zaickz Moz

© Zaickz Moz

© Zaickz Moz

© Zaickz Moz

© Zaickz Moz

© Zaickz Moz

© Zaickz Moz

Reclaiming the Roofscape as Programmatic Terrain

The project repurposes a service roof into a working landscape of sport and leisure. Existing mechanical equipment is relocated to perimeter bands, screened, and integrated into raised platforms that double as seating or court edges. This approach unlocks contiguous clear spans for a soccer pitch and two tennis courts while retaining maintenance access and ventilation for the building’s systems below.

The program is calibrated to support both high-intensity play and informal occupation. Locker rooms consolidate showers, changing areas, and storage to serve as a threshold between playing surfaces and social terraces. Grills and communal tables are distributed rather than concentrated, enabling small groups to occupy the roof without competing with the demands of active courts. The spatial mix encourages daylong use cycles, from early exercise to evening gatherings.

Rooftop-specific constraints drive many decisions. Ball containment nets and parapet extensions limit risk without creating visual bulk; acoustic buffers and resilient sport surfaces temper impact sounds to neighboring towers; and clear maintenance corridors preserve equipment service loops. Code-compliant egress routes remain legible during events, and fall-protection hardware is integrated into canopy and fence systems to reduce clutter. The result is a roof that functions as urban ground while meeting technical and safety requirements.

Spatial Organization and Circulation

Orientation aligns sports with environmental forces and views. Linear courts align on a north-south axis to reduce glare, while shaded edges face west and south to temper afternoon heat. Social pockets are placed at field corners and along leeward edges, maintaining visual connection to play without obstructing circulation. Openings in the shading frame selective vistas to the valley and district skyline, offering moments of prospect within an otherwise introverted sports enclosure.

Vertical circulation from the office floors arrives at a central spine that reads as a promenade across the roof. Locker rooms occupy a hinge position along this spine, separating clean athletic zones from cooking and gathering terraces. Service routes for deliveries, waste, and equipment bypass public areas and connect directly to back-of-house rooms and mechanical bays, minimizing cross-traffic and maintaining hygiene standards.

Construction is organized as a series of modular layers. Demountable canopy bays and bolt-together barriers sit on pedestal or standoff systems, protecting the waterproofing and allowing phased installation without taking the entire roof offline. Interlocking sport tiles and removable pavers simplify maintenance and make future reconfiguration straightforward if the program needs shift. The assembly strategy treats the roof as a reversible field condition rather than a fixed build-up.

Lightweight Structures and Material Systems

Industrial steel grating is repurposed as porous shading over courts and paths. Its open area moderates heat gain while preserving airflow and daylight, producing legible patterns that register time and season across the playing surfaces. The translucency maintains safe sightlines for ball tracking and security while filtering the high-altitude sun common to Mexico City.

Slender, bolted steel frames minimize roof loading and allow individual members to be replaced without disturbing adjacent assemblies. A consistent color strategy makes the framework legible for wayfinding and gives visual order to discrete programs scattered across the roof. Hardware, bracing, and connections are kept above the membrane plane and accessible for inspection, prioritizing long-term maintenance.

Warm, tactile elements counterbalance the industrial palette. Timber seating, handrails, and deck inserts provide comfortable touch points; gravel and mineral finishes protect the membrane and improve drainage through permeable layers. Where heavy planters occur, load is distributed with curb-like bases and protection boards, and surface transitions are detailed to avoid trip points at the interface of tiles, pavers, and turf.

Landscape, Microclimate, and Environmental Performance

Planting is deployed as infrastructure. Linear planters form windbreaks along exposed edges and act as buffers between courts and social areas, improving thermal comfort and reducing ball drift. Species selection emphasizes drought tolerance and seasonal resilience, with varied heights to create layered protection and incidental habitat, contributing modestly to urban biodiversity and heat-island mitigation.

Microclimate strategies operate in tandem. Porous shading and evapotranspiration from planting reduce mean radiant temperature, while high-albedo pavers and mineral aggregates limit heat storage. Substrate depths are calibrated to structural limits and water availability, supported by subsurface drip irrigation and moisture sensors to prevent runoff. Drainage is continuous under raised surfaces, with inspection points aligned to maintenance corridors.

Lighting extends use into the evening without over-illumination. Sports luminaires prioritize uniformity and glare control through asymmetric optics and cut-off shields, limiting spill to neighboring façades. Circulation lighting is low-level and continuous to define the promenade and exits, and controls allow scenes to shift between training, events, and after-hours cleaning while conserving energy and preserving rooftop darkness when not in use.

About CF taller de arquitectura

CF taller de arquitectura is an architectural studio based in Mexico City, founded in 2012. The firm emphasizes contemporary design approaches that explore material innovation, flexibility, and spatial adaptability to meet urban and environmental challenges. Their work often reinterprets industrial elements in unexpected contexts, seeking to merge architectural functionality with sustainable and human-centered experiences.

Credits and Additional Notes

1. Client: Santander
2. Construction company: M+M
3. Other contributors (Lighting designer): ILWT
4. Other contributors (Furniture): Herman Miller, Steelcase, DVO, Haworth by Essmed
5. Landscape designers: Aldaba
6. Other contributors (Supervision): Dipro + GNS
7. Photographs: Zaickz Moz