Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
It may seem like an ordinary scene: Children and adults playing on pink seesaws, carelessly laughing and chatting with each other
But this is a playground unlike any other. These custom-built seesaws have been placed on both sides of a slatted steel border fence that separates the United States and Mexico.
— CNN
The binational Teetertotter Wall intervention, connecting Sunland Park, New Mexico with Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, is the brainchild of Ronald Rael, a professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and Virginia San Fratello, an associate professor of design at San... View full entry
At the Universidad del Valle de Atemajac in Guadalajara, Sandra Pascoe has successfully used nopales to create biodegradable plastic. It was a series of trial and error for Pascoe, who first started by taking small pieces of dry nopal, which she would then pulverize and mix with other ingredients. But it was too slow a process and she found that the material oxidized too quickly. Eventually, she eventually starting using the liquid inside the prickly pear and found success. — Remezcla
Does the answer to the world’s plastic pollution problem lie in the thick, sticky sap of Mexican cactus fronds? Sandra Pascoe, a researcher at the Universidad del Valle de Atemajac in Guadalajara, Mexico, thinks so. Her team is busy finding ways to transform the syrup into solid... View full entry
Some barriers along the southwestern border, including in Nogales, have been painted white, a color which border officials say makes it easier for them to detect migrants compared to the typical brown color. — CBS News
Members of the United States military will be dispatched to border regions in California over the next month in order to apply new coats of paint to the existing US-Mexico border fence. The effort, according to an email sent to lawmakers by the Department of Homeland Security, is being... View full entry
A colourful mural of a 35m-tall tree in Mexico City is one of three environmentally friendly new public works made using Airlite paint, which purifies polluted air in a process similar to photosynthesis.
[...] the mural aims to increase oxygen levels in one of the western hemisphere’s most polluted cities, where ozone concentration levels remain high despite government regulations on fuel and cars.
— The Art Newspaper
Image courtesy of Boa Mistura."Airlite paint chemically reacts with pollutants in the air, turning them into inert compounds," reports The Art Newspaper. "The roughly 1,000 sq. m mural should neutralise the same amount of pollution created by around 60,000 vehicles a year."The artists responsible... View full entry
And the prototypes came tumbling down. [...]
They have been used most dramatically as a backdrop for a presidential visit last March and for protest art. [...]
On Wednesday, slabs from seven out of the eight prototypes fell in clouds of dust in under two hours, no match for a jackhammer. At the point of destruction, an owl fled from a steel tube atop one section.
— The Guardian
And just as quickly as they came, they're gone again: seven of the eight prototypes for a lofty 1,954-mile border wall project to Mexico were bulldozed and turned into piles of expensive rubble on Wednesday morning... View full entry
German-based photographer Candida Höfer has a long list of mesmerizing photographs and accolades. Her works primarily focus on capturing moments within empty social spaces and vacant public interiors. Through these projects, she focuses on exposing and highlighting "the social psychology of... View full entry
An actor from Tamaulipas has created a project that would give the state’s capital, Ciudad Victoria, the world’s tallest statue of Jesus Christ.
Eduardo Verástegui Córdoba explained that the 77-meter-high statue and a complex to be built around it will be known as The Christ of Peace.
He said that the purpose of the project is to leave a legacy of peace for the state in which he was born.
— Mexico News Daily
Besides the enormous statue of Jesus Christ, the ambitious project is also expected to provide a large plaza for 10,000 people, a church of course, a convention center as well as facilities for retail, dining, hospitality, shopping, entertainment, transportation, and housing. Mexican actor Eduardo... View full entry
Showcased during the Mextrópoli International Festival of Architecture, one of the largest festivals in Latin America with over 50,000 people in attendance, I-CONO dazzles the streets of Mexico City. Aimed at creating and sparking discussion around architecture and the city architects, students... View full entry
Some work continued on Thursday at a partly-built $13 billion Mexico City airport that the new president is scrapping, even after the government announced construction had been halted. [...]
The head of the government-run agency responsible for the project, Gerardo Ferrando, said the only construction still underway was to preserve what had already been built, such as drainage works, slabs of foundation and a partly-built tower.
— Reuters
NAICM aerial visualization. Rendering: Dbox.It's unclear what should happen now with the partly built new Mexico City International Airport which, some argue, was about one-third complete. "Construction work is officially suspended on that airport, and negotiations on the early termination of the... View full entry
Voters in Mexico have rejected completion of partly built new airport for Mexico City, opposing it by a 70 to 29 percent margin.
Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday he will respect the referendum, effectively ending the $13 billion project which is already about one-third built.
“The decision taken by the citizens is democratic, rational and efficient,” Lopez Obrador said. “The people decided.”
— The Washington Post
It's looking like the end of the runway for the partly built new Mexico City International Airport designed by a conglomerate comprising Foster + Partners, FR-EE (Fernando Romero Enterprise), and NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants). While the public vote clearly disapproved of the $... View full entry
In Tonantzintla the smart cities proposal became a lightning rod for those concerned about a development that seemed to favour outsiders rather than residents...“They are ashamed of their roots,” [local resident Mercedes] Tecuapetla Quechol says. “They saw something they liked in the United States or in Europe, so they want to put it here.” — The Guardian
The Mexican town of Santa Maria Tonantzintla is caught in the all-too-familiar situation of preserving its centuries-old customs as newer smart-city technologies are being introduced. While city officials and planners argued that implementing new technology intends to benefit the community... View full entry
Mexico and Sweden-based architectural practice MAIN OFFICE has recently completed CASA LT, an expansion and restoration of a residential complex located on the coast of Mexico. CASA LT by MAIN OFFICE, located in Sayulita, MX. © Rafael GamoCASA LT by MAIN OFFICE, located in Sayulita, MX. ©... View full entry
In Mexico City, a set of urban parks have been built on the city's outskirts to revitalize the neglected suburban neighborhoods in which they reside. Designed by Francisco Pardo Arquitecto, the Mexico City-based firm has replaced a once contaminated water stream and paved lots with basketball... View full entry
Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday he would let voters decide whether to continue construction of Mexico City’s new airport, throwing into doubt the country’s biggest public-works project and billions in investment and debt.
The airpot, designed in part by U.K. architect Norman Foster, is about one-third complete. About $5.2 billion has been spent on the infrastructure project, the biggest of the administration of current President Enrique Peña Nieto.
— wsj.com
After softening his original stance on cancelling the new Mexico City International Airport, president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has now opened up the project's fate to the public. The partially built infrastructure project by Foster + Partners and FR-EE now hangs in the balance of... View full entry
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s next president, is no longer seeking an immediate suspension of Mexico City’s new $13 billion airport, according to a member of his economic transition team.
Abel Hibert, who attended a planning meeting with Lopez Obrador and about 100 aides from the transition team on Tuesday evening, said it was clear that there’ll be no immediate demand to President Enrique Pena Nieto to suspend construction of the airport, at least until a review of the contracts.
— Bloomberg
Canceling the new Mexico City International Airport project due to alleged corruption and wasteful spending was one of the campaign promises of socialist (then) candidate, and now president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The tone appears to have softened now to not completely alienate... View full entry