masa y vacío, color y pasión

Mexico CityMX

Mexico City is sinking. Six centimetres a year. Slowly. Of course, it was a bad idea to establish a city on a small island in the middle of a lake. It was an even worse idea to dry up the Texcoco lake and all of its rivers in order to ram its foundations in the mud.
Nevertheless, it is a city that keeps on moving. Even though it’s unclear in which direction. This is part of its contradictory nature: a city obsessed with its past, but open to anything new. With an architecture that again and again has been defined by its specific relation between mass and void, between monolithic monumentality and open space.

It is astounding how Mexico City as the only city in the portfolio of planopli is suited for a long term journey. Visits to twentieth century and contemporary projects consecute without effort. Simultaneously, the traveller can take the time to submerge into the culture and the passions of the ever-smiling Mexicans: colour, food and ‘fiesta’.

In fact, Mexico City is not sinking. The ciudad floats. Like a cork: no matter how hard you push her down in the water, she keeps popping back up to the surface. She transcends.

journeys

25 Oct 07 Nov 2024