The ten-thousand identical housing units of the Cañadas del Florido development contrast sharply with Tijuana’s vibrant culture of cross-border exchange: people, food, and notably, music. This project transforms Cañadas del Florido from an unrelenting monoculture of low-income housing to a music center for the city of Tijuana and neighboring areas. Municipal-scale intervention takes the form of three new public amphitheaters, which vary in size, play dual functions as performance spaces and needed public leisure space, and turn the site’s extreme topography into an asset. Connected by a central pedestrian way, the amphitheaters aim to give the neighborhood a sense of identity and draw people and business. Proposed public policy facilitates the purchase, consolidation, and transformation of abandoned housing units by existing residents, recognizing the creative and entrepreneurial spirit that already exists. Together, the three scales of intervention propose organic diversification and formation of identity as a solution to Mexico’s epidemic of abandonment among social housing.
Critic Tatiana Bilbao | Spring 2015
Collaboration with John Keeley
