markets as Magnet - exchange as Catalyst
Master of Urban Design
Fall Term - University of Michigan
Location : La Viga Canal, Mexico City
Team : Shreejit Modak, Yiwei Huang, Sihao
The Proposal recovers the role of La Viga canal as cultural corridor, a spine that transverses a rich collection of neighborhoods with strong cultural traditions and a diverse social base. By carefully selecting a subset of public markets along the spine, and activating one at a time, the proposal reveals dormant relationships between these civic infrastructures and public life along the spine. The investments in these nodes of local activity is complemented by interventions in the public realm through programming and the incorporation of different landscape typologies along the line.
For the cultural observer, the legacy of the La Viga canal is still present in the urban landscapes along the Spine. The water landscapes that the Canal National carries in the south, churches and small monuments, commercial areas, street names and the rich tree canopy in some sections on the north, they all hint at former adjacencies and relationships today lost amidst the busy thoroughfare. The public markets along the spine are also a living memory of the system; for decades, LA Viga canal served as a conduit for the delivery of fresh produce from the fertile Chinampas of Xochimilco and Chalco.
La Viga canal, already rich in existing opportunities gave an insight into inscribing the betterment functions which enhances the publicness of the Spine. These co-relations would stand together as connectors in bringing the social and economic advancement along the Spine.
Connecting the whole Spine through activation of public markets and open spaces from Centro Historico to Xochimilco provides a larger connection of transit and bike paths along the Spine.
La Viga spine would again come aa a central spine of development through these strategies in the public realm of advancement.
