presentazione/introduction
Città del Messico abitare una conurbazione di 25.000.000 di abitanti text by Marco Casamonti

editoriale/editorial
la città caleidoscopica text by Marella Santangelo

saggi/essays
Dust in the Wind text by Alejandro Hernandez Galvez
Dalla città degli architetti agli architetti senza città text by Javier Barreiro Cavestany

intervista/interview
L'identità nella dimensione intervista a Felipe Leal
Mexico City: a city of outsides text by José Castillo
Architettura messicana contemporanea: diversità e identità text by Miquel Adrià

itinerario contemporaneo: Mexico City
Lucio Muniain/FC House
Perro Rojo/Casa Negra
Rojkind Arquitectos/Falcon Headquarters
GDU/Tecnoparque
JSa/Amsterdam Complex
at 103/Ave Fenix Fire Station
Pascal Arquitectos/Meditation House
Alberto Kalach/José Vasconcelos Public Library
Serrano Arquitectos y Asociados/Terminal 2
DMP Arquitectura/House of the Alley
Rojkind Arquitectos/Nestlé Chocolate Museum
Architects Collective + at 103/Ozuluama House
Tatiana Bilbao/Estudio Explanada
Teodoro Gonzáles de León/MUAC
LAR/Fernando Romero/Soumaya Museum

letture critiche/critical lectures
El Pedregal de San Angel text by Marella Santangelo
Narrare con l’architettura text by Paolo Giardiello

bibliographical journey

esiti concorsi/competitions

recensioni mostre e libri/exhibition and book reviews


Mexico City: what it’s like to live in a metropolis with 25 million inhabitants

area 108 | Mexico City

Luis Barragán, Satélite Towers, Mexico City, 1957 The capital of the Estados Unidos Mexicanos  (the country’s official name according to article 44 of its constitution) in addition to being the…

La città caleidoscopica

area 108 | Mexico City

Kaleidoscopic City When my dream finally came true and I was able to visit Mexico City for the first time, in August 2006, the city was in the hands of…

From a city of architects to architects without a city

area 108 | Mexico City

It is not a recent development that architects have stopped deciding the course of cities’ development. However until a few decades ago, not a few busied themselves in designing –…

Dust in the Wind

area 108 | Mexico City

Mexico City is a dusty city. Or, better, Mexico City is a windy and sometimes dry city and, therefore, a dusty city. Dust, in Mexico, is an index – in…

L‘identità nella dimensione

area 108 | Mexico City

Marella Santangelo: What town planning instruments are currently used in Mexico City, and what plans and programs do you adopt? Felipe Leal: A number of planning instruments are used, as…

Mexico City: a city of outsides

area 108 | Mexico City

For some time now Mexico City has existed in the global imaginary as one of the largest cities in the world; a paradigm of urbanization in the 20th century and…

Contemporary Mexican architecture: diversity and identity

area 108 | Mexico City

The richness of contemporary Mexican architecture derives from its diversity. Diversity as value, not as a poutpourri of characterless proposals, but as interaction between generations, styles and affinities. While the…

contemporary itinerary: Mexico City

area 108 | Mexico City

Casa Negra

area 108 | Mexico City

During the late 90´s the growth of suburbial areas of Mexico City was restricted as a part of Bando 2 program, which intended to slow down the spreading of the…

Falcon Headquarters

area 108 | Mexico City

The company, Corporativo Falcon, dedicated to instruments and medical equipment, required a new headquarters building in Mexico City. The premise, besides the need of greater area and a space designed…

Tecnoparque

area 108 | Mexico City

The intention of the project is to create a high-technology office campus to provide space for call centers, service centers and data centers; with world-class specifications. The campus will hold…

Ave Fenix Fire Station

area 108 | Mexico City

English writer Thomas Quincy talked in his classic (Confessions of an English opium-eater) of the pleasure that, after making sure all possible victims and risk were absent, a burning building…

Meditation House

area 108 | Mexico City

This is a project with very strong emotional implications. We had to understand the mood of the user, who at such this moment would not care very much for an…

José Vasconcelos Public Library

area 108 | Mexico City

The project integrates the public library with a botanical garden. A 250 meter steel, concrete and glass structure surrounded by greenery and water. The design is based in four fundamental…

Terminal 2

area 108 | Mexico City

In response to the increasing number of passengers in Terminal 1 of the Mexico City international Airport, the federal government set up a Metropolitan System of airports with the objective…

House of the Alley

area 108 | Mexico City

Finishing off a alley of a popular colony in the skirts of the Ajusco, the house of three plants tries to integrate itself to the context with a material of…

Nestlé Chocolate Museum

area 108 | Mexico City

While Nestlé’s chocolate Factory in Mexico City (located in Paseo Tollocan near Toluca) was in need of an inner pathway for visitors to witness the production of their favorite chocolates,…

Ozuluama House

area 108 | Mexico City

“La Condesa” a Trendy Mexico City neighborhood of engaging contrasts, has exploded remarkably in the last few years. Home not only to new restaurants, bars, galleries and cafes but also…

Estudio Explanada

area 108 | Mexico City

This artist’s studio is located in a residential area in the west corner of Mexico City, over a 20m x 40m site. The project has an underground parking space and…

University Museum for Contemporary Art – MUAC

area 108 | Mexico City

The Museum is located to one side of a new plaza which serves as an entrance to the Cultural Center of the University. Slanted at an angle of 45º, the…

Soumaya Museum

area 108 | Mexico City

Emerging from the ground; the Soumaya Museum will be a central attraction in a new development within metropolitan Mexico City. The 17,000 sqm building will have an exhibit area of…

El Pedregal de San Angel

area 108

Luis Barragan, House at Avenida de las Fuentes 12, Jardines del Pedregal, Mexico City, 1949-50. Photo Armando Salas Portugal © Barragan Foundation, Switzerland / ProLitteris / SIAE A sea of…

Narrare con l‘architettura. Le case di Diego Rivera e Frida Kahlo

area 108 | Mexico City

Telling a story with architecture. The houses of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Commenting on his work, Juan O‘Gorman, author of the house-atelier of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in…