Title: Propuestas para una ciudad (in)sostenible
Description: The images that this catalog gathers would form part of an exhibition that began to be planned at the end of 2019. The initial idea was that a group of architects under 35 years of age and who work in and from Mexico City, would present their ideas on architecture and the city in the face of the climate crisis we are facing, accompanied by 20 images, each lasting 20 seconds. Together, the 20 images would form a mosaic of rectangular format that, printed in large size, would be exhibited along with the others in an exhibition to be inaugurated during the Mextrópoli festival, in March 2020. But the pandemic that stopped the exhibition appeared, the festival and to the whole world. Much has been said that the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is not an event unrelated to the climate crisis: the disappearance of natural environments due to the unrestrained exploitation of resources or urban growth have meant that the risk of infectious vectors from animal to human populations is increasing. The fact that more than 50% of the human population already lives in urban environments is frequently repeated without delving into the different conditions that these imply or the multiple effects, sometimes in opposite directions, that derive from these ways of occupying the I usually. In principle, this exhibition did not ask for answers or solutions from its participants, something impossible in this format given the dimensions of the problem or, rather, the problems that cause and result from the climate crisis. Rather, as the title announces, proposals were sought: ideas and positions taken from architecture, considering those factors that, in the process of designing, producing and occupying the built environment of our cities, affect the ecological and climatic balance to a greater extent. of the planet. These proposals sometimes refer to specific conditions of Mexico City, or generic conditions of large urban agglomerations; they critically point to a rereading of the discipline or of the work itself or ironically point out the different ways of ignoring the problem and washing our hands. Together, they present a panorama that shows how representatives of a generation of architects from Mexico City assume their responsibility in the face of the emergency and the urgency of thinking of an (un)sustainable city.
Subjects: Architecture, History, City planning, Urbanization, Modern Architecture
Places: Mexico, Mexico City
Time periods: 21st century