Architectural Portfolio

MIXED USE Location / Centrito Valle, San Pedro Garza Garcia N.L., Mexico Lot Size / 8,740 m2 Course / Cátedra Bioconstrucción Semester Team Project My university offers a series of courses sponsored by external companies.

During my last semester I enrolled in a course backed by Bioconstruction and Alternative Energy, a consulting agency in green building and LEED certification. In collaboration with three other classmates, we were to elaborate a mixed use development in a small commercial district of the municipality of San Pedro Garza Garcia in the Monterrey metropolitan area.

This municipality has one of the highest Human Development Indexes (HDI) in the country at 0.89(2000), with a per capita income of 26,540 USD (2000). Nevertheless, these numbers contrast with other municipalities in the metropolitan area like Garcia with a per capita income of 5,492USD (2000) and 0.77 HDI (2000). San Pedro’s growth was originally mostly horizontal, imitating American suburbs. However the first decade of this century has ushered in a new tendency towards vertical multistory developments. Given its urban scale is based on the automobile, buildings are designed as separate objects to respond to corporate or commercial identities rather than creating a cohesive context.