Mexico City: Between Geometry and Geography

(Hardback)

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Unique in scope, scale, and civic aspiration, Mexico City is the ideal laboratory to test the capacity of urban design to construct a spatial synthesis from the geometric and organizational complexity of the citys layered urban scenarios. Between Geometry and Geography: Mexico City examinesthrough photography, archival material, and analytical drawingsthe urbanistic evolution of Mexico City. The volume focuses specifically on the relationship between major public works projects and the urban fragments they have created in order to construct a visual analysis of the most dominant urban morphologies at play in the city. Organized in seven topical chapters From Lake to City, From City to Metropolis, Mobility Networks, Logistical Footprints, Housing Stock, Hydrological Landscapes, and Urban Visions the book tests the ability of design to confront and break down the perceived immensity of Mexico City by singling out and analyzing key urban projects that have shaped the city for over 600 years. Furthermore, central to this volume is an exploration of how the methodological diversity of urban design can help rethink ongoing mobility projects in the city as the backbone for much more ambitious and integral urban projects of diverse scope and ambition.

The volume also includes a collection of writings by Loreta Castro Reguera, Pablo Landa, Louise Noelle, Peter G. Rowe, and Mario Schjetnan along with photo spreads from Archivo Fundacin ICA and from Iwan Baan. The pieces introduce a more diverse set of views on the exceptional urban richness of Mexico Citythe largest metropolis of the Spanish-speaking world.

Published in both Spanish and English

Reviews

..."Between Geometry and Geography: Mexico City is an ambitious portrait of Mexico City that avoids reading the city through the singularities of its monuments. They have produced instead a stunning graphic biography of the metropolis, focusing on the infrastructures that have shaped the city and make it function today and speculating on opportunities for future multifunctional infrastructures....This book is a triumph of applied research at its best and should be brandished as an example of how design disciplines can produce extraordinary research."--Juan Miro "ArchDaily"

Author Bio

Felipe Correa is Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Design and Director of the Urban Design Degree Program at Harvard University. A New York-based architect and urbanist, his most recent research focuses on resource extraction models within the South American continent and the diverse models of urbanisation these have enabled.