The Ethnobotanic Garden and Research Center, OLIVA, was designed as an approach to health and life opposite to the one of Guadalajara's Civil Hospital, in front of which it lays. It is clear to OLIVA's agenda that the occidental hegemonic approach to pharmacology –portrayed here by the Civil Hospital– is in the core of the Drug & Power situation currently seizing Mexico and the Americas.
In the late eighteenth century, during the last days of the spanish inquisition and colonial Mexico, the spanish bishop Antonio Alcalde (key figure of Guadalajara's urban development) founded the city's Civil Hospital. Eloquently, it was built as a panopticon; a panopticon for well-being. OLIVA, named after the notable mexican pharmacologist Leonardo Oliva, is a place for ethnobotanic experimentation; designed as a programmed atrium, it houses a wide range of activities: recreational, commercial, educational, academic, cultural, healing. There's an herbarium where plants used by both the region's ethnic and urban groups are kept and studied; the herbarium's catalog is to be displayed on the exhibition modules; the pharmacological effects of the plants are discussed in the workshops open to the public; chefs and botany and pharmacology scholars collaboratively prepare dishes, beverages and other in the séance/café, where the citizens may submit themselves for the study of the recipes' reactions; the most successful ingredients, dishes and combinations produced in the café are available for purchase at the shop; there's an auditorium for public lectures on the subjects currently addressed by the residing scholars; all knowledge produced in the research center is prone to be applied in the hospital.
In the late eighteenth century, during the last days of the spanish inquisition and colonial Mexico, the spanish bishop Antonio Alcalde (key figure of Guadalajara's urban development) founded the city's Civil Hospital. Eloquently, it was built as a panopticon; a panopticon for well-being. OLIVA, named after the notable mexican pharmacologist Leonardo Oliva, is a place for ethnobotanic experimentation; designed as a programmed atrium, it houses a wide range of activities: recreational, commercial, educational, academic, cultural, healing. There's an herbarium where plants used by both the region's ethnic and urban groups are kept and studied; the herbarium's catalog is to be displayed on the exhibition modules; the pharmacological effects of the plants are discussed in the workshops open to the public; chefs and botany and pharmacology scholars collaboratively prepare dishes, beverages and other in the séance/café, where the citizens may submit themselves for the study of the recipes' reactions; the most successful ingredients, dishes and combinations produced in the café are available for purchase at the shop; there's an auditorium for public lectures on the subjects currently addressed by the residing scholars; all knowledge produced in the research center is prone to be applied in the hospital.
Current situation
An atrium, urban weaving and three patios.
Moiré
