The Flower and Garden Festival FYJA is an event held in Mexico City that brings together landscape architects, architects, artists, designers, artisans, gardeners, and students. In each edition, participants create a route featuring various activities and exhibitions, offering everyone—from experts and enthusiasts to the curious—the chance to engage with horticulture and experience the benefits of plants.
Through sculpture and drawing, Ivan Kurov (Mexico City, 1982) explores nature and transformation in their broadest definitions. While the former allows him to study the chemical properties of materials and the physics of objects, his paintings frame the confrontation between the organic landscape and the intervention of human architecture. For Kurov, art in its fullest sense is achieved outside of discursive intention, occurring when the hand works the material without the mediation of a concept. Consequently, his pieces emerge from the autonomy of processes and from matter in the freedom of its essence. The result is spontaneous and fluid, much like the artist's own conversation.
In recent years, architectural production in Mexico has faced a series of extraordinary challenges. Some of these stem from natural disasters that severely shook at least nine states, leaving several areas gravely affected across Mexico City, Puebla, Morelos, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Tlaxcala, Guerrero, and the State of Mexico. However, these events also served as a catalyst, prompting the architectural community to increase its focus—and active involvement—on housing and infrastructure for the most vulnerable sectors of the population.
'Soy de Azteca' is a photographic project by Zaickz Moz that seeks to rethink expressions of community and identity in the periphery of Mexico City, which is becoming increasingly diffuse and spilling beyond its geographical boundaries. The project aims to re-examine how community and identity are expressed by the residents of Ciudad Azteca (State of Mexico) within private, public, and urban spaces. Through a photographic series, it addresses themes such as the appropriation and modification of living spaces, urban development, and the sense of community in the Ciudad Azteca neighborhood.
Around the world, both architects and designers are speculating on post-COVID spaces, offering diverse proposals championed by the utopia of advanced technology and Wi-Fi for all, alongside genuine concerns: How can we design spaces that require no physical contact? Will this mean the end of coliving or coworking spaces? How do we design for isolation? But what is happening in Mexico, considering that more than 56% of the population works in the informal economy and there is a digital divide leaving over 40% of residents without an internet connection?
Today, August 13, commemorates two pivotal events in Mexico's history: the approximate founding of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Mexica civilization, around 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico; and the fall of this empire in 1521 to the Spanish army led by the conquistador Hernán Cortés.
These are just a few of the many events that shape today's Mexico City, making it nearly impossible to summarize them all. Nonetheless, revisiting some of these milestones helps us understand the very ground we stand on and, above all, reflect on the future of our actions as architecture professionals: from the pre-Hispanic period, colonization, Independence, and the Revolution, to the foreign influences of the Modern Movement and the diverse interpretations that culminate in what we recognize today as contemporary architecture.
Climate change is an issue that has gained increasing traction in public and professional discourse over recent years, driven by a clear urgency to research, document, and mitigate environmental damage through multidisciplinary strategies that raise awareness of our current reality. Organizations such as the UN have issued a global call to action to adopt measures that end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
Periferia: Ecatepec de Morelos is a project by emerging photographer Zaickz Moz created to document the transformation of Mexico City's edges, while drawing attention to the aesthetics emerging in areas like Chalco, Nezahualcóyotl, and Naucalpan. Projects such as Soy de Azteca have focused on these forgotten territories, seeking to redefine the expressions of community and identity within Mexico City's periphery—a region that is increasingly blurred and constantly spilling over its geographic boundaries.
This article on housing in Mexico aims to understand the city we have experienced. The guidance of specialists was crucial to grasping some of its complexity. Special thanks to Josefina McGregor, Andrés Sañudo, and Rosalba Loyde for sharing their knowledge for the realization of this article.
When lockdown reached Mexico in March due to COVID-19, the hashtag #YoMeQuedoEnCasa became more relevant than ever. Yet, as the days passed, the slogan was replaced by #ParaQuedarseEnCasaHayQueTenerUna after several media outlets and citizen collectives denounced the attempted eviction of an elderly person from their apartment in the Trevi Building in the middle of quarantine. These evictions have occurred gradually, such as that of reporter Carlos Acuña in August 2019.
Various authors such as Michel Foucault, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and contemporary thinkers Marina Garcés and Judith Butler have brought the body to the forefront of global philosophical discussions. This has gradually permeated different disciplines where the body is the focus of study, and even some where this relationship seems less obvious.
“Where the city ends should not be the question,” Alejandro Aravena has repeatedly stated in various lectures, “where it begins is the question we should try to understand.” In many Latin American countries, the concentration of wealth in urban environments has led to the explosion of cities and “metropolitan areas,” giving rise to complex challenges.
On June 17, Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) issued a landmark ruling ordering the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) to generate disaggregated statistical data on populations in informal or precarious settlements across the country. This resolution brings to the forefront the discussion on the role that judges can and should play when making decisions that directly impact urban planning, land management, our cities, and our housing.
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As the philosopher Byung-Chul Han states: every age has its signature afflictions. These illnesses have represented some of the most significant challenges in human history, bringing drastic changes not only to the healthcare sector but also to economic and political spheres, revealing humanity as a complex network negotiating its daily existence through actions that have reshaped our ways of living and relating to one another.
The “Xico-Parque Sur 23” project by the Mexican firm All Arquitectura grew out of the success of “Cancha La Doce,” which was developed in collaboration with love.fútbol and sponsored by the Pincus Family Foundation. Drawing on insights gained from previous projects on-site, the design and research process built upon an existing understanding of local needs and opportunities.
In Latin America, the concept of emergency architecture refers to spaces that serve as temporary shelter in the face of adverse circumstances, such as earthquakes, floods, and migration. Various countries, including Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Panama, have faced events that required redefining emergency housing according to each nation's specific needs.
In a year defined by physical distancing, social media has taken on an even greater role in how we connect and stay informed. Our Instagram accounts have broken reach records, bringing our audience the very best of our website's content: projects, articles, interviews, and news from the architectural world, inspiring new ideas and tools for a better future for our cities.
Servidor Local is a connection point, a forum where dialogue takes place; it is, in essence, a sanctuary for ideas, diversity, and exchange. As a platform, it drives cultural, art, and design projects that champion narratives with a social impact, aiming to benefit the immediate environment and spread along the paths of its visitors.
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