Research on Mexico City's Urbanism

Instituto Tecnol贸gico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Campus Ciudad de M茅xico.

MEXICO

CITY

PROJECT Carlos Alberto Betancourt - A01123857 Ba. A. Claudio Sarmiento

March 18th, 1 2013 Urban Theory

CULTURE CHAOS HISTORY MUSIC ART TRADITION PEMEX POVERTY DOGMAS HOPE RELIGION POLITICS

PARADIGMS FOREIGNERS

DISEASE

UNEMPLOYMENT

INEQUALITY

DESPEAIR

ARCHITECTURE

PULLUTION

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Index: Introduction

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Chapter I: The City in its Early Beginings

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Chapter II: Evolution through the XIX and XX Centuries Chapter III: The City Now in 2013 Chapter IV: The City in the Future Chapter V: Final Thoughts upon the chanllenges this city is facing today.

References

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Introduction

This paper seeks to address from an academic perspective the evolution of the City of Mexico since pre-Hispanic origins to the present.

This analysis is divided into four thematic chapters which is synthesized from its historical development, while integrating key information about their social and cultural composition.

In the first part, chapters one and two are briefly developed an investigation into its early origins as well as its geography framing this is what largely determined its initial condition as lake city conceived as an archipelago of artificial islands in the center of a lake basin and storm. It is because of this peculiar situation in the early chapters also discuss the fight against Lagos of yore and the environmental problems it has caused.

Based on the above, in Chapter 3 has been addressed especially quantitative analysis on the current situation. The aim of this collection has been to build a kind of portrait of the contemporary city in which we live. To complement this section has been chosen to develop a test where as author searched anecdotal delve into the human scale perspective.

It is intended to describe empirically the experiences related to mobility, accessibility, public space and services available in some areas of the city. The purpose of these stories is the basis for asking: What next?

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Finally in Chapter 4 seeks to theorize about the future of the city from a rational perspective. Projecting current problems and posing some hypothetical solutions based schemes “Ideal City� discussed during the semester. Note that there will be a priority focus to environmental and energy problems currently facing a megalopolis such as Mexico City.

I chose Mexico City because it is the largest city in Latin America and also because it is the prototype of a new kind of city called Megalopolis. The concept of Megalopolis derives from a combination of characteristics that define modern metropolitan areas such as New York, Tokyo and also Mexico City. These cities have a massive size, a great density per square meter and also concentrate a large part of each nations’ gross development product.

Mexico City has always been a center for commerce and human interactions long before the Spaniards came to America. The city had its origins by the 12th century when the Aztecs came to the lake of Texcoco guided by their god Huitzilopochtli.

I will complete the introduction once I have ended the research for all the parts of the project.

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Chapter I: The City in its Early Beginings

“Mexico Tenochtitlán”. Dr. Atl. 1930

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Mexico City was founded circa 1325 in the center of the system of lakes of nowadays Valley of Mexico. It bordered to the north there were the salty lakes of Zumpango and Xaltocan, to the east with the lake of Texcoco, to the south with the lakes of Chalco and Xochimilco, and to the west with the mountains of Chapultepec and the mountain range of Ajusco.

Because of the social conditions of its inception, the city had to be built at the center of the lake of Texcoco to avoid the jurisdiction of the lord of Azcapozalco so that their founders the Aztecs could be free from his domain. After successive decades their power grew and changed their own name to “Mexica� the people of Mexico, such great trials are described in several codices. An important aspect of the selection of the site for building their city was based on their religious system and myths. One of such myths explains that it was by the instruction of their god Huitzilopochtli, the Aztecs left their mythical homeland in the north and traveled for several decades to the south meeting other cultures from whom they learned several arts like warfare, and architecture. Two places are mentioned in those travels one was Teotihuacan where they believed than the gods of the ancient times dwelled and the other was Tula where they mixed with the inhabitants and adopted part of their culture and the cult of Quetzalcoatl.

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After going from one place to another eventually found the lake of Texcoco, and the myth says that Huitzilopochtli appeared in a dream of an important chieftain and showed an image of an eagle eating a snake, by that symbol the Aztecs would know where to settle.

A little time later they did found such eagle devouring a snake and they resolved to settle in that place which at the time was governed by a powerful warlord, because they were weak and wanted to be free they decided to live inside the lake instead of settling in its borders in order to avoid vassalage and tributes to the warlords of that land. After several years of settling and by guidance of their war god, and consequently they overcame the natives and became the dominant power of the region.

By 1519, prior to the colonization of the Spaniards the Mexica’s empire encompassed almost all the central zone of modern Mexico and had strong commercial relations with other civilizations like the Mayas and even the Inca to the south. They subjugated other cultures like the Zapotecs, Mixtecs and Tlaxcaltecs among others.

Precolonial Era: After the foundation of the city the Mexicas drew two main axes from which they started developing their ceremonial and civic center and then their neighborhoods or calpulis.

The main axis contrary to popular belief ran from the east to the west and it was so because of the movement of the sun which had an important role in their religious system.

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Fragment “The great Tenochtitlan”.

Diego Rivera. 1945 So the main temples face the sunset in the west and the people who climbed such buildings faced the east (the rise of the sun in the back of their god). This was because Huitzilopochtli was at the same time the god of war and god of the sun. So by now it can be concluded that the ancient city was mainly determined by the religion rather than anything else. Because there was not a site to build the city (it was water and swamps), the Mexicas engineered a system to build artificial islands called “chinampas”. These small plots of lad were built by planting ahuejotes in the vertices or corners which worked as piles and then they placed stakes to conform the perimeter.

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The center was filled with rocks and earth an so a new piece of land was made. The second axis ran from south to the north and served mainly for trade and commerce purposes. In the south there was the town of Tlalpan and at the north the satellite city of Tlatelolco. Both main axes were conceived as driveways (“calzadas”) and were made in a similar fashion as the chinampas except that these were stronger and had a final finish of rock that bear the constant movement of people and goods. This city was almost an utopia because it was well organized with specific functions in each sector, it had driveways, and the channels connected all the plots of land. It’s important to mention that each chinampas was self-sustaining and that because of the constant irrigation of the lake all of them were awesomely fertile. Also the entire city was ordered in a regular grid and the main buildings were at the very center.

The religion and the governments shared similar status in their society and in their city.

Civic Center of Tenochtitlán Circa 1500.

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Map of Tenochtitlan. Hernán Cortés Circa 1519.

New Spain Era:

After the conquest, Mexico City remained close to the concept of the “Ideal City”. The rediscovered knowledge of the ancient Romans and Greeks combined with the Arab influence in the Spanish culture, became the basis for the models of the cities of the New World. Like other cities of the time, Mexico City was reconstructed under a regular grid with a large plaza at its center. Here in one side was built a Cathedral greatly influenced by the Baroque Movement which was at its peak in Spain, and in the other sides all the administrative buildings of the viceroyalty. So in a way, it could be said that almost nothing changed, except for the fact that chinampas were replaced with traditional plots of land and the channels were filled with the debris of the ancient temples, and so they were transformed in traditional streets and boulevards to the likeness of the European models.

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Evolution of The Lakes from 1521 until 1910:

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Images from the Book Ciudad Futura.

Kalach et.al.

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Chapter II: Evolution through the XIX and XX Centuries

The Cathedral an Zocalo Circa 1900.

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Late 19th, Century: The creation of Reforma Boulevard, and the first attempts to dry the lake. By the industrial era, between the tenures of Maximilian of Hapsburg the Reformist Movement and finally the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz, Mexico City enjoyed an unparalleled growth both in size and wealth that changed its physiognomy dramatically going from a colonial city almost rural to a achieve a layout comparable to Paris at that time. It was no coincidence for the “Scientists� (cabinet of President Diaz) were most of them educated in Europe, specifically in France.

These men tried to transform the old city into a more vibrant place for commerce in order to attract new investors from the United States, England and of course France.

The evolution of the city from a rural village to an industrial city can be perceived in the numerous paintings of Jose MarĂ­a Velasco who portrayed in his paintings the contrast between the mountains around the valley and the emerging city beneath it.

Interestingly the Lakes, which still existed during much of these century, were one of the most beautiful attractions the city had. In fact Alexander Von Humboldt, when he came to the Americas at the beginning of the 19th, century, to study its resources and landscaped was impressed by the surrounding environments around the city which by that time were still wild and had large quantities of flora and fauna species.

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Jose MarĂ­a Velasco. Valley of Mexico.

Circa 1850

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Jose MarĂ­a Velasco. Rail Road in Puebla.

Circa 1850

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Sprawl through the XX Century: Mexico City 1940:

Mexico City 1960:

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Mexico City 1950:

Mexico City 1970:

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That unplanned growth of the city brought with it several problems. The most important is the lack of order with in the city. Because the people who immigrated to the city were poor and didn`t have enough money as they started to settle they created slums around the perimeter of the city. So the city, which one used to have a lot of order, namely a grid and buildings with strict proportions and a close relationship between them, turned out to become a collection of concentric circles of poverty belts. This was very ironic since people came here to find opportunities, but in the end they not only did not, but instead created a problem.

An associated problem related to the sprawl is pollution. Luckily, but unfortunately Mexico City’s pollution is contained within the valley of Mexico.

It is a good thing because instead of escaping and contributing directly to the global warming, it remains isolated inside of the valley. The bad news however is that the effects of this layer of toxic gases is highly concentrated inside of the city and so it is the source of health problems.

Specifically respiratory diseases like asthma.

Another problem derived from this it the increase of heat with in the city and the reduction of precipitation which creates a vicious circle in which plants dry and because they dry there is less and less forest area with the capability to clean the air and so on.

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Eventually the ecosystem of the city might become desert because of this concentration of pollutants along with the lack of green space.

Polluted air above the city. Retrieved from google.

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Chapter III: The City Now in 2013

Angel of Independence. Circa 2010.

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Geography:

Total surface area of Federal District:

1485 km2 Total urbanized area : 3540 km2 Total green area: 93.89 km2 Total Length of the road network: 101 km

Map of Mexico Citiy’s Extension as of 2013.

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Topography Map of the Federal District.

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Map of Climate in the Federal District

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Water Resources: The city has several rivers, lakes, channels and dams that provide water and also control the floods and sewage system.

The main rivers inside the city are: • Mixcoac (tubed) • Agua de Lobo • Churubusco (tubed) • Los Remedios • La Piedad (tubed) • Tacubaya • Becerra • Consulado (tubed) • La Magdalena • San Buenaventura • El zorrillo • Oxaixtla The main channels are: • Chalco • Apatlaco • General • Nacional • Cuemanco The main dams are: • Anzaldo • Mixcoac The main lakes are: • Xochimilco • San Juan de Aragón • Chapultepec • Zumpango • Vaso Regulador Nabor Carrillo

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Hidrography of the Valley of Mexico with out dreinage system. Kalach et. al.

Current Hidrography Map of the Federal District.

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MObility:

Subway. Retrieved from google.

Periferico. Retrieved from google.

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Main Streets of Mexico City. Kalach, et. al.

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Subway Network. Mexico City Government.

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Eco bici Reach as of 2013. Mexico City Government.

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About the population:

Total inhabitants: 8,851,080 Percentage of people between 0 and 14 years old by 2010: 22.4% Percentage of people between 15 and 29 years old by 2010: 25.5% Percentage of people between 30 and 59 years old by 2010: 40.5 % Percentage of people between 60 and more years old by 2010: 11.6% Total men population: 4,233,783 Total women population: 4,617,297 Man-Women Retio by 2010: 91.7 Human Development Index: As of 2005 the metropolitan area of the Valley of Mexico was of 0.831103, being one of the highest of all Mexican territory.

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About housing: Inhabitants per square kilometer by 2010: 5,920.45 Total dwellings by 2010: 2,453,031 Average occupants per dwelling: 3.6 Average rooms per dwelling: 3 rooms, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen, 1 dinning room, 1 hall.

Apartment. Retrieved from Econstruye. SA de C.V

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Economy: Work force by 2009 : 4,741,328 people.

Gross Domestic Product by 2009: $2,655,361,794.00 MXN Economic Units by 2009: 729,246 Expenses as of 2011: $24,515,917.

Primary Activities: • Planted surface by 2010: 22,878 hectares.

• Harvested surface by 2010: 22,477 hectares.

• Wood production by 2010: 636 square meters.

Images retrieved from google.

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Secondary Activities: • Sales of electric energy (Mega watts per hour) by 2010: 13,287,272 • Value of the energy sales by 2010: $21,948,756.00 • Users of electric energy by 2010: 2,771,278 • Manufacture Economic Units by 2008: 30,934.

Tertiary Activities: • Tianguis by 2010: 1,415 • Public Markets by 2010: 318 • Hotels by 2010: 650 • Airports by 2010: 1 • Postal offices by 2010: 1,325 • Commercial Banking Branches by 2010: 1,767 • Development Banking Branches by 2010: 70

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Chapter IV: The City in the Future

Mexico City in 2020. Photomontage.

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Urban Development in the Future:

Based on México Ciudad Futura by Alberto Kalach et. Al. I believe the current city is in grave danger because of pollution. In fact right now that I’m writing this essay I can feel the unusual rise in the warmth of the environment. The current city is victim of a phenomenon called “urban heat island” which is caused by the lack of green space within the city.

As exposed in the first parts of the essay the sprawl of Mexico City has devoured all green areas that once surrounded the pluvial valley and now we have a semi-desert environment. I believe there are two sided of the coin that can be applied to the future Mexico City: On one side there is the optimistic hope of a green city pretty much similar to what is explained in the book mentioned above; but also there is a dark side of the story, it is quite possible things get worse instead of better because of our politician but also because most city dwellers ignore these problems.

Energy Efficiency: Right now one of the biggest challenges the city faces is getting renewable energy and stop relying on fossil fuels to supply the growing energy demand. However the public interest in renewable energies is growing fast.

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Ecological Improvements:

After extensive research I found that the current government is concerned with the ecological wellbeing of the city because it impacts the health of its citizens. In fact since the tenure of Marcelo Ebrad Casaubón the it was founded the Environmental Department of the Federal District (Secretaría del Medio Ambiente del D.F) with the purpose of overseeing environmental improvements as well as public policies regarding reforestation, water-reuse, among other initiatives.

Green Plan Mexico City: Right now the most recent approach to the environmental problems of the city is the socalled “Plan Verde Ciudad de México”, created since the government of Marcelo Ebrad and continued by Miguel Angel Mancera´s government. It consists in the integration of the following strategies :

Green Plan. Mexico City Government.

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1. Reforestation and maintenance of green areas through out the city and in its surrounding areas.

2. The reduction of waste through the separation of trash, recycling and reusing residues.

3. Encouraging people to use the bike to move from one place to another and reducing the reliance on cars.

4. Improving energy efficiency in the city by encouraging the generation through renewable resources and using saving light bulbs.

5. Improving the housing offer (quality of ife), and social aspects of the community.

Because of the drug-war, Mexico City has had suffered a lot in the social and even familiar levels of its inhabitants.

6. Encouraging the use of public transport.

Basically by amplifying the range of public transport networks. This includes the subway and metro bus systems, as well as RTP buses.

Since the middle of this month the fee for this services was raised from $5.00 to $6.00.

The pretext is a comparison to the fees for similar services in other countries. It is worth to mention that Mexico City’s public transport ranges among the cheapest and therefore one of the more accessible in the world.

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7. Saving water. Encouraging the tratment of water and re-using gray water for some activities like washing cars, and operating sanitary fixtures.

If things continue this way a believe that in about 10 years the city’s sprawl may be if not stopped at least slowed down drastically which could help reforest the surrounding mounts and valleys. I believe that another goal that can be achieved in within the next decade is the drastic densification of the boroughs in the center of the city, which could provide a solution for the growth of the city.

In fact Daniel Escotto, my former teacher of Seminar on Architecture and Theory, who used to be the head of Public Space Department during Ebrad’s tenure; once told us that his objective was to create such a city with not only one downtown but a collection of downtowns (centers) each with mixed-use buildings, improved sidewalks, a radical reduction of car lanes, to provide a better space for pedestrians and people on bikes and of course high density buildings with more than 6 floors.

So if the current government gives continuity to those policies in a matter of decades the city may evolve into the prototype global city we need.

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Renaissance of the Natural Environment: As mentioned before one of the current strategies is to improve green areas through out the city. So in a matter of no more than five years there could be a renaissance of green areas and public space. The foundations have already been laid; with the regeneration of “Plaza de la República” and the “Alameda Central”. My predictions studying those interventions and after reading the Plan for Mexico City is that green areas could duplicate during the government of Mancera.

Barrio Capital: A recent project that my revolutionize the landscape of the city is Barrio Capital by Eduardo Gorozpe consists in Barrio Capital.

The project is kid of a vertical garden that concentrates public space and arranges it in several floors thus creating a green skyscraper. As the name implies it is a vertical neighborhood where one can find a skate park, an arboretum or garden and other amenities.

The purpose of the project is to compensate the lack of public space and also the lack of green areas inside the city.

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As shown in the rendering the prototype is planned to be built in “Glorieta de los Insurgentes� about a block from Chapultepec Avenue and over Insurgentes Avenue. Although by now it is only an idea, the goal is not only to build one but several towers. The advantage is clear: There is not enough horizontal space to provide the green areas the city needs, but instead there is the possibility to go up. The only limitation perhaps is the structural engineering needed to create one of this skyscrapers; the bright side is it already exists, the bad news though is it a littlie expensive by now. But in a couple of years it could not only be a reality but a norm to have one of these in each delegation.

Here are some more images by Gorozpe and his team at Taller A-001: From left to right: The population density of each delegation. The current sprawl of the city.

Yellow areas represent the lack of green areas and the expansion of the urban settlement. The last image shows the proportion of current green space against the built area in each delegation.

Barrio Capital. Edoardo Gorozpe. 2012.

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These are some elevations of the tower showing the design strategies to provide a better place for the inhabitants of the neighborhood who would have access to the tower. Some benefits include a vertical garden and a continuous ramp that connects all the floors and provides a road to go on bike of just walk.

Also it provides parking spaces and amenities

Barrio Capital. Edoardo Gorozpe. 2012.

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Barrio Capital. Edoardo Gorozpe. 2012.

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Barrio Capital. Edoardo Gorozpe. 2012.

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Chapter V: Final Thoughts upon the chanllenges this city is facing today.

Reforma at Night. Circa 2012.

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Mexico City lies in a crossroads; it is a Megalopolis in a country that is on its way to development. Therefore it faces more than one challenge, and on top of that the climate change along with a vigorous and unpredictable economy everything is possible.

Of all the challenges that the city has to face towards the future I believe the biggest is the cultural challenge.

Because of the globalization, and an ever growing interconnection between this city and cities of other nations it is very likely that our culture and our society will change. So how is this cultural and social change affect the city? Is it going to change the paradigms around our inherited concept of city? Is it going to overthrow our traditions and costumes?

To answer these questions, I believe we as architects and urban designers have to rethink over the concept of city. As demonstrated through this essay, the city has suffered a lot of changes, but all of them because society changed. I mean as I learn more about this city my hypothesis on the fact that cities are manifestations of the societies that inhabit them becomes more and more clear. In fact the hypothesis is turning into a theory that can be verified with Mexico City’s evolution.

When the Mexicas founded the city, it was a balanced place with layout that accentuated the religious and political buildings at the center over all other typologies and it was because their cosmogony demanded that ideal city.

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It was the religion what determined the culture and it was the culture what guided the daily life of the pre-colonial society which translated in an orthogonal grid over the lake with the temples at the very center.

When the Spaniards came the same phenomenon occurred again with minor changes.

The political and religious centers where at the center and the rest of the buildings conformed the periphery of the city. Again it was the society what provided the base for the development of the city.

Interestingly the main change between the pre-colonial eras a New Spain era was the change of religious system, but the overall hierarchy was kept almost unchanged. So the new city retained a lot of its original features like the orthogonal grid, and the plaza at the very center.

However because the Europeans had a different understanding of nature, instead of perusing a balance as the Mexicas did, they opted to fight instead of preserve the lake. Therefore instead of relying on channels and rivers for transportation, they used the rubble from the temples to drain the channels and turn them into typical streets. Also it is known that the Europeans of that era had poor hygienic habits in comparison with the negatives and that to was reflected on the urban layout of the city. In the past there where aqueducts and an efficient sewers, but after the conquest these were destroyed and after some centuries we started to have the same problems as most European cities like London and Paris. It turned into a smelly, un healthy place to live.

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Finally from the 19th, century until now, the city has suffered its most dramatic transformation, from a green almost mythical valley into the humongous concrete stain we know today.

All traces of the lake almost vanished, and turned into large dusty plains, all the forest almost erased except for some small patches, yet this are also in danger fore it is known that there is illegal lumbering activities in some of these areas, and also we have endless housing developments in the north-east part of the city. In just 50 years the city were our parents and grandparents lived is gone.

An again as in the cases I have mentioned if has to do with the society that inhabits the city. Our society is more concerned about buying things fashion, appearing on TV and magazines, that aware and appreciate nature. In fact almost nobody takes climate change seriously, unlike hypocrites who believe that giving more likes on Facebook to a cause will fix that lingo in person to plant trees, or better yet, change your way of being. Worse still, people today simply do not take into account the real world, but are immersed in the virtual world, which oblige us to rethink many paradigms such as housing and the city itself.

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References: • Kalach, Alberto, et. al. (2010), México Ciudad Futura, México: Block.

• History of Tenochtitlan, Retrieved on March 18th, 2013 from http://archaeology. about.com/od/aztecarchaeology/a/aztec_origins.htm • Secretaría del Medio Ambiente. Retrieved on April 28th, 2013 from http://www. sma.df.gob.mx/sma/index.php • Plan verde de la Ciudad de México. Retrieved on April 28th 2013, from http://www. sma.df.gob.mx/planverde/ • México City Growth. Retrieved on April 29th, 2013 from http://www.eumed.net/rev/ tlatemoani/03/ovm.htm • Koolhass, Rem (1978). Delirious New York. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.

All supporting imaged retrieved from Google Images on May 10th, 2013.

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