Contest submission for Arquine No. 17 (2015)

To Build City from Park
The site presents itself as an opportunity for redefining urban systems. It works as a platform that promotes a new sustainable understanding of built space with the natural lacustrine environment. It's not about building a park in the city, but rather about building city with the park.
Distributed plazas and activity nodes pull one in for a walkthrough, reconnecting the citizen with a once forbidden space that still holds memory of its past.
Paths rise and intersect, offering different views as they set way for an artificial canyon that filters residual waters; a home for abundant species of flora and fauna. The canyon leads to a permanent lagoon, recalling ancient Tenochtitlan. Residential buildings permeate in from adjacent neighborhoods and adapt for coexistence with the natural environment.
The park is a lung that, through regeneration of air, water, and land, entices interaction between people, promoting neighborhood connectivity and dissolving barriers. It reinterprets the systems that make up the city so they can be replicated elsewhere.