In 2016, as part of the global initiative 100 Resilient Cities sponsored by The Rockefeller Foundation, Mexico City ‘s CDMX Resilience Office released the first resilience strategy ever developed in Mexico. Based on a holistic approach, it defines the broad lines of action that will guide Mexico City’s long-term development plans and emphasizes the role of public space in responding to the ever more pressing conditions related to environmental and social risks. Built in a socially stratified area, the park La Mexicana is a manifesto of the dynamic and integrated approach proposed by the CDMX Resilience Office.
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The southwestern outskirts of Mexico City are barren, topographically complex territories scattered with abandoned mines, where two adjacent but antithetical social realities and urban forms coexist: The formal and informal settlements of the worker communities that had originally settled in the area and that, resisting building speculation, struggled to remain there; and Santa Fe, an expanding, affluent neighborhood of high-rise buildings, whose construction begun after the catastrophic earthquake of 1985 with the aim of creating a new business center for the capital on the site of the former landfill. That real estate development project was carried out with considerable private capital, and resulted in an ultra-modern urban structure in terms of the quality of its architecture. It lacked, however, basic infrastructure, services, and public open space. Designed by Mario Schjetnan and his firm Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU) together with VMA Victor Marquez & Asociados, La Mexicana is the only large park in Santa Fe.
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Mitigating the area’s social divide
Completed in 2017, the park unfolds along a pit formed by excavation activities on the eastern edge of the modern urban development. The transformation of a brownfield into a lush park through a complex operation of ecological remediation had two different intertwined dimensions. These were related to the improvement of urban living conditions in an extremely stratified area: a sustainable dimension, as the park provides a variety of ecosystem services ranging from heat mitigation to the improvement of the urban hydrological system; and a socio-cultural dimension, as it not only promotes physical activities and recreational practices within the gated communities of modern Santa Fe, but also aims at mitigating the area’s social divide, encouraging interaction between all the local residents.
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Shaping a complex topography
Covering an area of 29 hectares, La Mexicana appears as a green canyon that establishes a dialogue between the glittering skyscrapers of Santa Fe and the roughness of the rock walls of the former mine. The park exploits the uniqueness of the terrain by shaping a complex topography of gentle green undulations that conceal a large artificial basin. The newly constructed landscape is dotted with a variety of functional areas: an open-air theater, a sophisticated skateboard park, a dog park, richly programmed playgrounds and areas for sport activities, lawns, plazas and pavilions housing restaurants, cafes and various facilities. The park’s design concept is based on a juxtaposition of areas with different atmospheres and spatial qualities, producing a continuous sense of surprise. Higher elevations scattered with irregular groves alternate with gentle landforms with expansive lawns, placid water basins are disturbed by a cascade, and areas for active recreational activities alternate with areas for passive recreation and solitary contemplation.
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A onetime refugee settlement has now become a town: Ulyankulu in Western Tanzania aims to align urban structures in terms of public, environmental, and cultural use – no easy path to walk. Limited access to resources and high transportation and material costs have hampered development. Commissioned by the Wayair Foundation, which supports a local, democratic, theatre-based educational approach, the Polish architectural offices JEJU.studio and Arh+ Pracownia Architektoniczna designed the educational village. The aim: not only to support development through education but also – best-case scenario – to catalyze development of the whole area. We met Adam and Iwo of JEJU.studio and talked about their work and why we should make a donation at wayair.org.
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Adam, Iwo, you are currently working on a huge and important project, a school in Tanzania. As a young office that must be challenging. Are you afraid?
It’s exciting, not frightening. Both of us worked in ambitious offices, on big projects before. On top of that, we know that the sooner we face challenges, the sooner we will be used to and ready to tackle them. It’s a steep learning curve, and we are very happy about that. There are things we don’t know how to do, but as long as we know what we want to achieve, we are ready. It’s just a matter of finding the right tools and people to get it done.
How did that come about? The collaboration between you and the Wayair foundation?
Iwo is a graduate of Wayair school in Poland. After becoming a laureat of the Young Talent Architectural Award in 2016, we were contacted by the foundation for an informal meeting as consultants. Since then, our relationship transformed into a close cooperation.
What’s the status of the project? What kind of challenges do you face at the moment?
We are halfway there. The first out of two stages is almost done. Kids will start their classes soon. For now, school consists of two regular classrooms, the theatre classroom, administration block, patios, toilets, and technical area with a water tank. Built volumes make up half of the circumference of the big central courtyard. To complete it, we need to construct the remaining three classrooms. This will hopefully happen in the first half of 2020, but it all depends on funding.
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People can still contribute to the continuation of the project. Why should I make a donation?
Anyone can become a part of this project. Visit www.wayair.org for more informations on how you can help. Donations at the moment are going to help us produce beautiful ornamental window shutters and palm leaf ceilings woven by local women. So your money would help us build the school, but also employ and stimulate local craftsman. Asente sana!
You founded your architecture office in 2017, but you still work with your gmail addresses. What are the next big milestones?
Well, we’re just creatures of habit. You can also reach us at hello@jeju.studio. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, our design is what makes us professional. We’re currently excited to work on a significant project in Poznań, Poland. It’s a five-hectare redevelopment of a heritage slaughterhouse from 1900. Now it would be a great to get involved in a bigger international endeavour. Our next big milestone would be to get invited to a closed international competition. Let’s do it before the end of 2020. Small ones count as well!
The detailed project description of the school area in Ulyankulu can be found in topos 106.
Walter Hood will be hosting the topos op-ed column “From the Edges” for the next four issues. In his first article here, the landscape architect and iconic expert talks about how a socially deprived section of the population is directly linked to dangerous urban spaces. We talked with Walter about his article, why he thinks American landscape architecture lacks empathy and why he is less interested in the social factors of landscape architecture.
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Walter, you had this one project in New York City where you worked with G-Unit. What was the rapper 50 Cent’s opinion about landscape architecture?
Working on the project, the G-Unit Foundation was the working partner. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to meet 50, so I couldn’t ask him, but I will certainly give you an update if I get the chance.
Perfect. That might be the topic of your next op-ed column in topos. With topos 106, you have started your career as a topos contributor. You will write four articles for us. Why are you contributing to topos?
It’s a great platform to speak globally. I’m excited to bring a more diverse voice to topos, one where culture is highlighted. topos also provides a platform to speak globally about the more diverse concerns of landscape architecture and the communities that we want to empower and provide services to.
In your first “From the Edges” in our magazine you state that in our current political environment, the demonization of people through race and landscape is at its highest level. What did it used to be like? And, what has changed?
The demonization of race through landscape has always existed. It has only been through various lenses that we’ve been able to talk about the impact it has on communities throughout the world, beginning with colonization, continuing through civil rights, and currently through immigration policies worldwide. The backdrop has become ever more important, i.e. the landscape.
In your projects, you constantly deal with social issues. Is there a time (and place) when landscape architecture should not be political?
Landscape is political. It has always been. Landscapes are never neutral. I am less interested in social factors (the programming and maintenance of particular uses and activities). I am more interested in the cultural settings and the interrelationships and diverse patterns and practices that emanate from people living in a particular environment.
One of your five concepts of creating space is “empathy”. How empathetic is American landscape architecture at this moment?
Not very. At this moment there is more of an interest in solving global issues than dealing with the local ones. At the global level, people and place are seen as abstract, whereas at the local level, they are real. Issues around poverty, homelessness, marginality, and disinvestment pervade our urban landscapes.
You have worked in the field of landscape architecture for over 30 years. Is there still anything you just cannot understand?
I’ve had my own practice for 25 years now, and I’m still shocked at being the only black person in the room.
Where will you be in ten years?
I would love to be on a hilltop somewhere, painting.
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Walter Hood is the Creative Director and Founder of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, CA and professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. He lectures on professional and theoretical projects nationally and internationally. Hood Design Studio is a tripartite practice, working across art + fabrication, design + landscape, and research + urbanism.
Order topos 106 in order to read Walter Hood’s first topos article “Let’s go wild”.
The Greek photographer George Marazakis considers the Anthropozian as a concept and title for a series dealing with a new epoch caused by human greed and the urge to spread. His images are so powerful, so memorable, that we published one as the Big Picture in topos 106.
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The grass has withered, the soil is parched. Anything that still has a bit of life in it has to be protected behind glass, in another climate zone. Is there a flaming inferno at a distance, yet threatening to come closer?
In his mystical series A cure for Anthropocene, photographer George Marazakis looks at the link between civilization and nature, thus addressing the transformation of the landscape through human activity.
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He equates the earth with an organism that has been afflicted with a disease called “human beings” – the Anthropocene as an age of self-destruction. Marazakis takes photographs on his native Crete – during the winter, in the diffident, soft light. At first, his pictures tempt us to take pleasure in their apparent aesthetics. A second glance, however, leaves us somewhat contemplative, musing about the traces humans leave on the surface of the earth, on the landscape, hence changing them forever.
