Vertical Park / Jorge Hernandez de la Garza

Architects: Jorge Hernandez de la Garza
Location: Coyoacan, Mexico
Design Team: Rodrigo Ambriz, Michael Smith, Erik Cosio
Project Year: 2009
Images: Jorge Hernandez de la Garza

Mexico City is a metropolis where zones are meshed as commerce and life often converge to create dynamic spaces of interaction and interconnectivity. Unfortunately, these zones are being pushed to the periphery as modern development increases delineation to create islands of program disconnected from the pulse of the city. With all its potential for profit, this march of capitalism poses a threat on the cultural and sustainable potential of the city; as zones separate, so do our lives as significant time and energy is spent in transit. Meanwhile, green space is increasingly devoured by steel and concrete.

In response with these demands, we have designed a module, highly structural and flexible in order to provide horizontal and vertical stacking along with diverse insertions to create a mesh not unlike that seen in the periphery. Located in Coyoacan, Mexico City, the project is to revive the calcification of modernity. The module affords not only spaces for living and working but for urban farming, water reclamation, and solar energy collection. As the modules rise vertically to create a high-rise structure, they also spread horizontally in order to create canopies for street level commerce. To provide a more sustainable response to the potential demands of the city, these modules can be rearranged, relocated, and remodeled throughout Mexico City and potentially throughout the world.

Although some may argue that such massive replication would destroy the aims of the project by increasing visual and spatial homogeneity, the flexibility of the project allows the structure of the model to be configured with such diversity that new programs, skins and layouts can be applied in order to adapt to the given region.