MUD: Mexico - Enclave of Inclusion by Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

Enclave of Inclusion

UD 742, Spring 2015 UD 742 Capstone Studio Assistant Professor McLain Clutter Spring 2015, Monday-Friday 1pm-5pm

Following Hernan Cortes’s 1521 conquest of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital on the current site of Mexico City’s Centro, the expedition produced a map of the city that bears striking similarities to prior representations of Thomas More’s Utopia. Drafted in 1524 and included in a letter from Cortes to his sovereign, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the drawing depicted Tenochtitlan as an enchanted urban island. Objectified by encompassing lakes, the city was severed from the surrounding landscape, offering itself as an object of projective imagination. Apparently, Tenochtitlan appeared both exotic and familiar to the invaders – recalling a European city in its gridiron organization, civic monuments and formal hierarchy, and yet sufficiently alteric to solicit imagination of alternate social and political practices within. The Cortes drawing soon found resonance in the European discourse on ideal cities during the late-renaissance. According to some accounts, the German artist Albrecht Durer drew upon the depiction of Tenochtitlan in his own representations of ideal cities in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Images and associations of Tenochtitlan were soon complexly intertwined with utopic urban imaginaries.

point, the studio will adopt the program and guidelines of the 16th annual international architecture competition sponsored by the Mexican journal Arquine in 2014. The competition stipulated that 25% of the site could be developed with residential and mixeduse program, along with a required mass transportation element, while the remainder would be designated for parkland and ecological purposes. Within this studio, the 25% of developable land must be set back by at least 800 feet from the surrounding city, ensuring that the development will constitute one, or several, object-like enclave(s) adrift amidst a sea of green. Following several prior theorists, we will not assume that utopia is a condition that requires the abandonment of present realities. Rather, we will assume that utopic projection can be approached through the provocative reorganization of existing conditions. In this way, the design of the interior of a new enclave in Mexico City might radically rethink its exterior – reverberating throughout the city at large. To this end, the studio will begin with our trip to Mexico City. In collaboration with your City Cultures Seminar, we will visit and analyze an array of enclaves throughout the city and its surroundings. Some enclaves we visit will be instances of idealized or utopian urban projection, while others will be the result of land speculation or premeditated social exclusion. We will venture to carefully understand the formal, spatial, aesthetic, social, and economic logics of these sites. We will observe and document their flows, cultures, exceptional characteristics, and the ways in which they are formative of their surroundings – all in order to assert designed subversions or exploitations of their logics at the site of the Benito Juarez International Airport.

Tenochtitlan and the Gulf of Mexico, in Hernan Cortes, Praeclara Ferdinandi Corttesii de nova maris Oceani Hyspania narratio..., Nuremberg, 1525. Newberry Library, Chicago

To be sure, this tale is an instance of colonial vision occupying and projecting narrative upon a culture about which they knew little. Also, to be sure, the utopic sentiments towards Tenochtitlan apparent in the Cortes drawing stands in stark contrast to the violence of the Spanish conquest that would ensue. And yet, these visions of Tenochtitlan have also recurred in Mexican culture. Diego Rivera’s 1945 mural at the Palacio Nacional de Mexico, The Marketplace Tlatelolco, is a powerful example. There, the Tenochtitlan is again depicted as an idealized city, objectified by surrounding lakes. Seeking to appropriate an idealized notion of Aztec culture for a socialist Mexican nationalism, the mural replaced the violence and hierarchical stratification often characteristic of Aztec society with a depiction of serene civic interaction within urban space. Today Mexico City is an urbanism of enclaves. From colonias constructed by individual developers in the 19th century, to contemporary gated communities within the Federal District and its periphery, the city is a patchwork of discrete formal organizations. Like urban enclaves around the world, Mexico City’s enclaves profoundly index social and economic exclusion. And yet, within the enclave we might recognize a fleeting glimpse of Mexico City’s history of utopic projection. Like the storied island of Tenochtitlan, the formal separation of the urban enclave from its surroundings prompts projective speculation about its interior. And like Thomas More’s Utopia, the exceptionalism of urban enclaves often sponsors alternative social and political structures. This studio will revisit Mexico City’s utopic capacity through designs for the current site of the Benito Juarez International Airport. With the imminent replacement of the airport with a new facility to the east of the D.F., the site of the Benito Juarez Airport will vacate a 746 hectare site. This massive site, an enormous void in the city’s urban fabric, begs radical urban projection. As a starting

The Island of Utopia, in Thomas More, Libellus vere aureus nec minus salutaris quam festivus de optimo reipublicae statu, deque nova insula Utopia, Lovain, 1516. Sir Paul Getty, KBE – Wormsley Library, Oxford

UD 742 – Enclave of Inclusion – Spring 2015 UD 742 – Enclave of Inclusion – Spring 2015

Plan of Mexico City, in Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, Civitates orbis terrarum, Cologne, 1597. Biblioteque Royal de Belgigue, Brussels, Réserve précieuse

Week 3

Week 6

May 18: Pin-up progress on Assignment 1 May 19: Desk Crits May 20: Assignment 1 due Assignments 2 and 3 issued: Learning from Enclaves 2, 3 Begin work on site model May 21: Desk Crits

June 8: June 9: June 10: June 11:

Week 4 May 25: May 26: May 27: May 28:

Memorial Day, no class Desk Crits Desk Crits Assignments 2,3 due, Pin-up Begin work on final project

Week 5 June 1: June 2: June 3: June 4:

Desk Crits Desk Crits Desk Crits Midterm Review

Desk Crits Desk Crits Desk Crits Pin-up

Week 7 June 15: June 16: June 17: June 18:

Desk Crits Desk Crits Desk Crits Pin-up

Week 8 June 22: June 23: June 24: June 25: June 26:

Desk Crits Desk Crits Desk Crits Desk Crits Final Review

Resources It is expected that the MUD class has amassed a library of general resources about Mexico City that will provide context for our work at the Benito Juarez International Airport. Additional materials, including a CAD background of the existing conditions and other materials distributed for the Arquine competition have been placed on CTools for use by the class.

Diego Rivera, The Marketplace Tlateloco, 1945

Schedule

Bibliography

Class will typically meet on Monday-Thursday, 1pm-5pm. Fridays at 1pm-5pm is also official class time. While we will not always meet on Fridays, students are required to keep this time free on their schedules in case a class meeting is necessary.

In addition to the texts for Professor Ortiz’s concurrent City Cultures Seminar, the following readings may be useful: On Utopia

Week 1 The first week of this studio will be conducted in close collaboration with Professor Ortiz’s City Cultures Seminar. The two classes will meet together, beginning on May 6. May 6: Studio brief issued Introduction Reading discussion (of City Cultures Seminar readings) May 8: Assignment 1 Issued: Learning from Enclaves 1

Antoine Picon, “Learning from Utopia,” Journal of Architectural Education, 67-1, 2013. (on C-Tools) Jean Franciois Lejeune, “Dreams of Order: Utopia, Cruelty and Modernity,” in Cruelty and Utopia: Cities and Landscaped of Latin America. Thomas More, Utopia, 1516. Ruth Eaton, Ideal Cities: Utopianism and the (Un)Built Environment, 2002. Martin Van Schaik and Otakar Macel (eds.), Exit Utopia: Architectural Provocations 1956-76, 2005.

Week 2 Travel to Mexico City, May 9-16 In collaboration with the City Cultures Seminar, our trip to Mexico City will include visits to various enclave developments throughout the city and its periphery. UD 742 – Enclave of Inclusion – Spring 2015

UD 742 – Enclave of Inclusion – Spring 2015

On Enclaves

Marc Auge, Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity, 1995. Hans Ibelings, Supermodernism: Architecture in the Age of Globalization, 1998. Michel Foucault, “Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias,” 1967. (on C-Tools) Giorgio Agamben, excerpts from Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, 1995. (on C-Tools) Keller Easterling, Enduring Innocence: Global Architecture and its Political Masquerades, 2007. Kambari Baxi and Reinhold Martin, excerpts from Multinational City: Architectural Itineraries, 2007. (on C-Tools) On Type Raphael Moneo, “On Typology,” Oppositions 13, 1978. (on C-Tools) Architectural Design vol. 81, Issue 1, “Typological Urbanism, “2011. Christopher Lee: http://thecityasaproject.org/2011/08/type/ Dana Cuff and Roger Sherman, introduction to Fast Forward Urbanism: Rethinking Architecture’s Engagement with the City, 2011. (on C-Tools)

Grading Taubman College follows the policies established by Rackham Graduate School. For detailed information on academic policies, academic integrity and related matters, please refer to: http://taubmancollege.umich.edu/students/academic_policies/ and http://www.rackham.umich.edu/policies/ Grades will be proportioned based on the following: Participation, general effort and design process throughout the semester 25% Quality and clarity of final project: 75% A - Exceptional work. Both the ideas and execution of the project are exceptionally well-crafted, and the project was presented well at the final review. Drawings and models are of the highest quality, and expertly comminicate the essential aspects of the project. The project has a viable real estate strategy, which has been communicated in drawings and the presentation.The student offered frequent and inspired insight during class discussion. Work was consistently completed throughout the semester, and showed improvement as the semester went on. B - Very good work. Both the ideas and execution of the project are well-crafted. Drawings and models are of high quality, and comminicate the essential aspects of the project. The project has some sense of a real estate strategy, which has been communicated in drawings and the presentation.The student was a valuable contributor to class discussion. Work was completed throughout the semester, and showed improvement as the semester went on. C - Average work. Both the ideas and execution of the project are clear, but merely adequate. Drawings and models show basic compentency, and begin to comminicate the essential aspects of the project. D - Poor work. The ideas and execution of the project are poorly resolved. Drawings and models show lack of basic competencies. F - Very poor work.

UD 742 – Enclave of Inclusion – Spring 2015

Learning From Enclaves 1: Typology You have each been assigned a group, and each group has been assigned two to three enclaves that we visited during our trip to Mexico City. This assignment asks you to draw from your photographs and sketches gathered on-site to produce a catalog of frequent and recurrent building types and urban elements observed in your assigned enclaves. The catalog may consist of housing types, civic or commercial buildings, street furniture, kiosks, or any other material element within the urban environment that is uniquely characteristic of your assigned enclaves. Your drawings should strip away unnecessary details to depict only the essential elements that are recurrent and common accross a wide sampling of similiar buildings. At the same time, you should be sure to depict any detail that is unique to the type, as well as any necessary information explaining the relationship between the type and its land parcel, the street edge, and so on. For each type, produce a single black and white line axonometric, and an abstracted plan of the building and its land parcel. Organize your drawings on a 24”x36” sheet, landscape orientation, within a 6”x6” grid. You must have at least 24 types to fill this grid (8-12 per enclave, depending on how many enclaves you have been assigned). Print the drawing on Strathmore.

Due: May 20, 1pm

UD 742 – Enclave of Inclusion – Spring 2015

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Learning From Enclaves 2: Scenography Using the elements from your typological catalog, assemble a 400’x400’ city block. Your block should not reproduce the organizational logics of the enclave you’ve studied. Rather, you should interrogate each element from your catalog for formal, spatial, material, or organizational cues that might prompt new spatial relationships between the constituent elements (new alignments, symmetries, densities, rhythms, compositional logics, etc). Create a perspective of your block from the ground level, choosing a vantage in which the elements have been placed in novel dispositions relative to one another. Render the perspective in the character of the Giorgio De Chirico painting you have been assigned. Print your drawing on a 24”x36” landscape sheet of Strathmore. Due: May 28, 1pm

UD 742 – Enclave of Inclusion – Spring 2015

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exercise 2 Shuya Xu

exercise 2 Pankti Sanganee

Enclave of Inclusion Mexico City, DF

McLain’s Hotel: NH Mexico City Centro Historico Palma 42, Col. Centro, Mexico City, DF Tel: 52 (55) 51301850, Fax: 52 (55) 51301876 McLain’s cell in Mexico: (55) 13751883 Arturo Ortiz: (55)14519258

Saturday 5/9 11:45am Arrive on flight Delta 557 Take taxis to: Downtown Beds Isabel la Catolica 30, Centro, Mexico D.F. T.+ 52(55) 51306830 / F.+52 (55) 51306850 Free afternoon after check-in. Sunday 5/10 10am

2pm Monday 5/11 10am 3pm Tuesday 5/12 10am 11-12:30 4pm Wednesday 5/13 10am 11am 4pm

Meet in Zocalo in front of Cathedral Walking tour of Centro, Parque Alameda Central, Monument a la Revolucion, Tower Latino America Free afternoon

Meet in lobby of Downtown Beds Transit to Colonia Santa Maria La Ribera, walking tour Board taxis to Colonia Doctores, walking tour

Enclave of Inclusion: Final Project Working in your teams, design a new enclave for the site of Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International Airport. Each team will be responsible for a quarter of the 746-hectare site. The exact location of each team’s design will be negotiated with the other teams, as the projects must spatially and conceptually coexist within the site. The studio will use the program of the 17th Annual Arquine International Architecture Competition, which requires that 25% of the site be designed as a mixed-use office, residential and commercial development, while 75% of the site must be designed as a park or ecological reserve. Each team must design one quarter of the total stipulated mixed-use development and one quarter of the required park or ecological space. We will build a single, immense, group model of all of the projects and the germane context. Your previous exercises have uncovered new spatial, formal, aesthetic, economic, and cultural conditions that might emerge from the creative recombination of typological parts from diverse enclaves across Mexico City. Your final designs should build on these exercises. Through the invention of new typological conglomerations, your projects should uncover the possibility for utopic or heterotopic developments that might erode, critique or re-project the sharp socio-economic exclusion that is enforced by Mexico City’s present enclave development patterns. Final Review: June 26

Meet in lobby of Downtown Beds Take car/bus west to Santa Fe Walking tour of Santa Fe (Arturo Out) Meet with Arturo in Condessa for drinks

Meet in lobby of Downtown Beds Walk to Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico Awards reception and exhibition opening for Arquine Concurso 17. Transit to UNAM and Pedregal, walking tour

Thursday 5/14 (Arturo Out) 10am Meet in lobby of Downtown Beds Transit to Museo Jumex, Museo Soumaya 2pm Walking tour, Polanco Friday 5/15 10am

Saturday 5/16 10am 1:45pm 6:49pm

Meet in lobby of Downtown Beds Day-long bus tour (east past the airport, lake, informal settlements, Ciudad Mesa, etc.) Evening Group dinner in Colonia Roma

Meet in lobby of Downtown Beds Taxis to airport Board Delta 512 Arrive in DTW

UD 742 – Enclave of Inclusion – Spring 2015

final project Pankti Sanganee, Mingchuan Yang

Reverse City

Walled City

Yiwei Huang Shreejit Modak Shuya Xu

Inspired by the walled city in Medieval times, our proposal turns the city inside out, which constitutes of the theme of walling the adjoining enclaves, creating the inverse city type and imbibing the landscape on the city level. Redevelopment of the Benito Juarez Airport gives the city of Mexico an opportunity to cultivate a huge mass of land into a new center of advancement. Thinking on a city level, this chuck of undeveloped mass now gives an opening to create a hub for commercial development and its supportive communes. We see the opportunity to establish different nodes within this enclave and connect them through transit stations. The commercial activities will mainly happen along the east – west connector (road) which links the two major highways in Mexico City, and later on will become the main chuck of the commercial center that we initiate. The two “walls” adjoining the other enclaves’ acts like edges. The aggregation of building types selected makes them porous and solid at the same time. These two separators emerge from the landscape and at moments become the part of greens. This enclave creates an opportunity in bringing and linking the two main large eco-parks next to the site, and this creates a larger system of connected landscapes making the city follow the sustainable culture which then ends at Lake Texcoco. The design of the Reverse City constitutes of 2 major vehicular connectors with the ring road which goes all around other enclaves. It gets divided into tiers according to the density designated to every function. This helps in making the internal circulation of the Reverse City completely pedestrian. The landscape designed becomes the part of the architecture and sometimes emphasizes the language of architecture types used into the design. Taking the sustainable move from linking of greens, the retention ponds and the mounts designed help in water purification and directing the flow towards Lake Texcoco.

UD 742 – Enclave of Inclusion – Spring 2015

Sierra de Guadalupe

Depósito de Evaporación Solar "El Caracol"

Reverse-Walled City

+ Laguna Casa Colorada

Texcoco

Lago Nabor Carrillo

Walled City Centro Histórico

Chimalhuacán

Chapultepec

Nezahualcóyotl

Reverse-Walled City

Water Area Open Space Green Space Public Transportation Station Mountain Site (Airport)

final project Yiwei Huang, Shreejit Modak, Shuya Xu

Catalog of Types

final project Yiwei Huang, Shreejit Modak, Shuya Xu

Recombined Types

final project Yiwei Huang, Shreejit Modak, Shuya Xu