Architects and creative people: everybody in Mexico City

The New York Times described it as the “coolest” capital of the moment. It is a “new Berlin” for young people. In 2018 Mexico City showed the world how it had changed face and certainly made a real impact on the international community of architects and creative people as the global capital of design. This honour is bestowed on a selected city every two years as a reward for making design the driving force behind its economic, social and cultural growth. In 2008 Turin was the first “showcase” chosen by the World Design Organisation that has recently elected the French city of Lille as the 2020 global capital of design.

Despite all its great contradictions, Mexico City is now one of the liveliest and most innovative hubs of international architecture. The capital of Mexico has regained its status as a magnet for design and creative people from all over the world and is becoming an incubator for a new type of design worth exploring. It is a city that manages to combine the legacy of its past with innovations in the present. Many people have emphasised the richness of Mexico’s modern-day architecture that really comes from its complexity; a real weave of styles and trends. Today more than ever, at a time of extraordinary vivacity, many parts of the city are managing to mix together art, fashion and design. Where for example? The Roma district of Mexico City with its combination of art galleries and fashion houses. A neighbourhood that came to fame thanks to the film “Roma” by the Mexican film director Alfonso Cuarón, who won the Golden Lion’at the last Venice Film Festival. Shot in black-and-white, the film was inspired by the film director’s own life growing up in the Roma neighbourhood in the 1970s.

But it is not just style and design, the whole of Mexican architecture is bubbling. This particularly applies to its capital city, a gigantic megalopolis, whose population has risen from 3 million in 1952 to 21.5 million in 2018, an incredible figure if you consider that the overall population of Mexico is 131.4 million in 2018 according to the World Population Review. The boom in the metropolitan area has developed alongside various urbanisation processes. An often dishevelled and chaotic explosion that is now being counteracted by greater attention to sustainability.

The city’s sheer numbers call for strategic decision-making from an urbanistic viewpoint. Major works currently underway, such as the upgrade and extension of the city airport and the completion of the México-Toluca interurban railway line that connects the Toluca valley with the western zone of Mexico City, representing a great solution for millions of people who move daily from the capital city to the State of Mexico, spending around 4 hours in transportation. The interurban train will provide transportation for 230,000 passengers a day: only 39 minutes for 58 km between 2 terminals with 4 intermediate stations.

Major works, a booming construction industry and the conservation of old buildings are all catching the eye and attracting foreign investment to Mexico.

The country is growing all the time. After closing 2017 with a 2.1% increase in its GDP, the trend is expected to continue this year and is estimated to rise by 2.5% in 2019. Mexico’s economic potential has been pointed out by many people and, if it manages to solve issues related to internal safety and security, there is no reason why its GDP should not rise by between 3 and 5 % in the medium and long term.

The country is expanding around its capital. Everybody remembers the “milagro Mexicano” (“Mexican miracle”), which contributed to urbanisation on an unprecedented scale between the early 1950s and end of the 1960s. This produced a number of landmarks in terms of architecture and major works, like the UNAM campus (National Autonomous University of Mexico) with its Central Library and spectacular mural designed by Juan O’Gorman or the Azteca Stadium by the architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez.

MAPEI IN MEXICO

The Mapei Group is betting on this Northern American nation’s future prospects, providing innovative solutions and Italian technology: it is extending its portfolio of products available in Mexico, increasing investment and boosting its manufacturing output in this country. The aim is to become a leading player on the local market and further afield.

The Mapei Group is currently involved in the most important projects in Mexico City. First and foremost, the airport expansion where Mapei know-how ranges from solutions for bonding ceramic tiles and products for the installation of marble coverings in buildings or coatings for the service areas and decorative cementitious floors. As for the interurban Mexico-Toluca train line, Mapei has provided admixtures for concrete, foaming agents, and technology for the construction of the bi-tunnel. As well as looking to the future, the company is also helping restore the city’s cultural heritage. Like, for example, refurbishment works on the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where Mapei products helped bring these landmark buildings back to their former glory. Not forgetting the restoration of El Sol Bípedo and La Torre de Los Vientos monumental sculptures along the Ruta de la Amistad (Friendship road) or the UNAM Water Mirror project along with the UNAM High School and Campus with Mapei supplying its products and technical assistance for carrying out the work.