Design Concept

Winning Entry Mock Firms 2010
“Barrio de Los Paracaidistas”
A prototypical tower for the people of Mexico City

Mexico City’s culture is a mosaic-like collection of many different cultures. The heritage and histories are diverse, mixed and marked by constant evolution and change. On a smaller scale, the heart of Mexico City’s identity is community, which is most strongly influenced by and born from the barrios and streets.

The essence of Mexico’s identity defined by its urban spaces and its ability to change.

Preserving the character Mexico City; specifically its propensity for change, the mosaic nature of its urban character and the traditional barrio, this tower is a frame-work for a new vertical city. Containing roadways, open plazas and parks; the nature and function of the ‘tower’ is to provide unlimited potential for new urban and vertical environments. By respecting the communal aspects of the city while allowing growth, this new vertical urban frame-work challenges the frozen and static quality of current tower typology.

The Architecture within the tower is built over time, creating a dynamic composition of Mexico’s cultures. Furthermore, the proposed tower allows sub-public and private spaces to evolve naturally, creating complex urban spaces similar to those of historic Mexico.

The tower is zoned like a city; proper ratios of built, to open, to green space are preserved and individual residences are designed within the larger context of the vertical urban being. With this, the social and cultural identities of Mexico City are not reinvented or just preserved, but given a new context on which to thrive upon. It becomes an extension of the living city; a maturing tower that is defined by the complexity and richness of its existing surrounding context and, more importantly, whatever Mexico City may become in the future.

-Metous Studio

Presentation to Cal Poly Architecture Department

Boards

Drawings

Branding

Via ARCILOOK

S1 Video