SINKING: city

Expose the nature of the ground condition in Xochimilco. I want to address the sinking city, the manmade nature, and the ever-growing urban conditions that exist in Mexico City, and more specifically, Xochimilco. I hoped to illustrate these contradictory conditions by peeling up and inserting the buildings between the existing ground plane composed of either manmade conditions, or murky waterways. I hoped that the use of layers, and basic forms would not only have a more powerful and sublte effect, but also address some of the rich history of Mexican public works. The resulting spaces situated in separate sites, expose two main conditions: that of constructed nature, and construction sinking into nature.


by Donald Gonzales

Xochimilco Ecological Park

by Joze Zajc

MXDF

by Rosannah Harding

RECLAIMING landscape

By Jose Brunner

LAYERING: outside in

This is a manifesto of sorts. It proposes juxtaposing the high-tech with the low-tech, intertwining, weaving, stitching and carving the ideas and ethos of one cultural fabric onto another. A matrix created from combining and superimposing layers of cultural image. The vast canvas of landscape is the natural place to undertake this task. This project seeks to integrate multiple cultures and landscapes by layering from the outside in. This notion of layering, outside in, is also used as the primary methodology for this thesis. It is believed that the layering is the way in which we live now. This is unconscious to most but evidence for this strengthens with each passing day. Layering as a method allows independence, letting each layer work on its own and in concert with the others. It provides a mechanism for fluctuation in programmatic and formal inventions. In both plan and elevation, the layers are evident formally as facades, superimposing on each other within the whole. Programmatically, layering occurs between the boundaries of architecture, entertainment and information. On the landscape, layers are shaped to make space more useful and to provide provocation.

By Fernanda Vuilleumier

An architectural exhibit by California College of the Arts, Universidad Iberoamericana, University of California Berkeley

post card by Mick Khavari



Mónica E. Félix
Community & Cultural Affairs
Consulate General of Mexico
San Francisco, CA
Ph: (415) 354-172