The Monterrey, Mexico Studio: “Engaging Voids”

Monterrey is the capital city of the North-Eastern State of Leon, Mexico’s second-largest city in population (circa 5.4 million), and its industrial, high-tech, and commercial powerhouse with the headquarters of many international corporations, and the highest per capita income in the country. The economic success is due in part to the proximity to the United States. The city is located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, providing a striking mountainous landscape, and topographic features which has defined its mobility corridors, spatial configuration, dominant land uses, and social patterns.

The studio offers participants the opportunity to explore retrofitting different categories of urban voids, which are considered major challenges of the city, which are opportunities derived from: a) The relocation of large industrial uses now embedded within dense urban areas, that sever the urban and social tissue and cause severe environmental and health problems, b) Retrofitting sections of the Santa Caterina River, addressing flooding, reconnecting adjacent urban areas, and providing a robust ecological and social framework, and c) Rethinking the urban periphery transforming the monofunctional and low -quality social housing projects into sustainable communities.