Polis Reform. Architectural Thesis

POLIS

REFORM

[[ A A RR C CH H II TT EE C C TT UU RR A A LL TT H H EE SS II SS ]]

Photograph of the Tijuana River. Joseph I. Ruiz Tapia 2012

IV

M M AA NN II FF EE SS TT O O POLIS REFORM

The territories we inhabit have become less democratic as the world and the local institutions that govern them continue worsening a broken system that has been corrupting their economies, their ecologies, the cities, and their societies. These territories, their geography, the ideologies that develop around and rule them, and even the way cities are planned and architecture is executed, fail to provide new stands and theories towards the discipline and at the same time fail to make any reference to the existing world presedents. In various places, more specifically in Mexico either bad or what they consider “good” architecture has become a tool to disguise failed administrations. Although this condition is not restricted to Mexico’s architectural exercises, or for that matter the present practices of architecture, it is only logical to use such terrains as ground for investigation and experimentation with a greater theory of architecture.

There are different kinds of CATASTROPHES that destroy territories. Natural and man-caused disasters though, share several characteristics that define them. Several times, they are a result of a long career of misunderstandings of the biologics and the human nature. Once they have reach a point of critical potential damage neither of them can be avoided. There is where architecture intervenes but not as a savior before those catastrophes but as CURATOR of the destroyed territories. Investigating the conditions of Cities in Mexico and the corrupted system that governs them a problem is then created as a catalyzer to the necessity to comply with an avoidable reestablishment of the system.

The continuous erosion of the territories will eventually lead them to a state of emergency where architecture will regain a position as a vital medium in the restructuring of cities and societies. This discipline along ideologic practices that will expand over the decayed territories have to rely on new methods of DEMOCRATIZATION that have to be more successful in responding/reacting to the existing, but also the new tendencies of the reformed cities and the NEW CITIZENS. This process of democratization though cannot fallback in the domains of powers and institutions; instead, the emerging architecture should be subjected to the needs of societies but at the same time should provide new guidelines for the reformation of such societies.

Time has come to redefine the position of the different components that constitute the city. The IREGULAR CITIZEN PRACTICES that have been regularized by the institutions and from there become banalities of tradition and culture should become detonators of new city and space planning, but in doing so, they should demark themselves from any political or institutional medium. That way, these practices will regain a CULTURAL IDENTITY and will create a new vocabulary towards the re-definition of the POLIS.

Photo composition of a project in Mexico City. Emergencia 2012.

Joseph I. Ruiz Tapia.

Photograph of ‘Plaza de la Constitucion’ (Zocalo). Mexico City. MX.

V

C C ONTENTS

I.

Project Manifesto

1.

Introduction

IV - V

Project Statement

1

The City as a Project [history of typology]

2

Typology Case Studies [the public space] The New Typology [the museum]

4 10

2 . Site Investigations The city of Tijuana

12

Area of Investigation

14

Rio Tijuana [the tijuana river]

16

Site Data

20

Site Documentation

26

3 . Precedents Architecture of Energy [Lebbeus Wo ods]

30

Ville Spatiale [Yona Friedman]

36

The Plaza [Barcelona, Berlin, and Mexito City]

42

4 . Program & Tectonics Programs [square meters, public and private]

48

Public and Private [Activities]

50

Study Models [Program distribution]

54

Preliminary Drawings

58

Space Complexion

60

Conclusion

66

Photo Composition, ‘The Ruin of the City’. Joseph I. Ruiz Tapia 2012

Itroduction 01

II NN TT RR O O DD UU C C TT II O O NN Project Statement

Cities of the present have come to be an accumulation of planned and improvised elements of development, for this that any new attempt of urban intervention cannot be subjected entirely to the set of norms that were once governors of city making in the old world. A new catalog or vocabulary has to be generated from the investigation of the very pragmatic characters of the development but also of the ideological and cultural facets of such territory.

This project aims to redefine the concept of urban node as it simultaneously attempts to address the current issues of the city of Tijuana, its water conditions, lack of public/democratic space and a series of decentralized urban nodes. From the most basic principles of city planning, elements that have somehow been left out of the architectural exercise of the present, the written principles that once emerged from the construction of Roman cities, the project is born and expands throughout a territory in need of a comprehensive urban and architectural intervention.

Given the circumstances in which such project arises, the political and socio-economic conditions of the nation in general, this intervention becomes an action to provide the city with a new concept of democratization. In the process of achieving such goal though, it will become vital to revalue the irregular citizen practices as the new detonators of space planning instead of being dammed by the regular citizen, and romanticized by the artist. To avoid a generic conception of the project and the different elements that will conform it given the magnitude of the intervention, a comprehensive envision, more than being a response to the realities of this territory, will have to embrace the most basic cultural traditions and natural tendencies of the citizens of the reformed city.

Photograph of Pasaje Gomez. Downtown Tijuana, MX. 2012.

Joseph I. Ruiz Tapia.

Photograph of Irregular settlement.Tijuana, MX. 2012. Joseph I. Ruiz

02 Introduction

Type and Typology

On “The City as A Project” Marina Lathouri

In analyzing the processes of city generation and emergence from its architectural character, amongst other specificities, it is crucial to understand the conception of the word type, and understand such term in its various articulations throughout history, time, culture, and the context in which such term unravels. In order to be able to redefine such conceptualizations and apply them to new architectural practices, it becomes elemental to understand the meaning of the word in such domains. “ It seems that the question of type and typology could become extremely effective . . . the question cannot be framed simply in relation to formal or methodological issues, but within a scheme that redefines the aesthetic co ordinates of the community through implementing the connections between spatial and formal practices, forms of life, conceptions of thought and figures of the community. ” ---- Marina Lathouri 29

As a principle, this project intends to dissect the envision of the city by a comprehensive classification of the types and typologies that govern the territory in which such project will be executed, more specifically, the proximities of the site that attribute such as fertile ground to land the genesis of new city and space making norms. To start, an objective and very abstract comprehension of ‘type’, one that recognizes such term as a “critical role in the confrontation between architecture and the city” (Lathouri 24) is vital.

Itroduction 03

Looking at the very first acknowledge of the word typos as a law or principle by Quatremère de Quincy gives us a notion of type as a definer of ‘characteristic form’ or ‘particular physiognomy’ (Lathouri 24). To extend on this, type in the 18th century is conceived as a domain that catalogs specific characteristics of an architectural intervention. This then bridges architecture, society, and history to envision the architect as a ‘social redeemer (Lathouri 25). On the other hand Walter Gropius over defines type to support his theory of mass production and standardization of the design elements and the wholeness of modern architecture; Gropius defines type as a set of standards that are not only preconditions but restricting guidelines that make possible the production of a perfectioned architecture based on laws of economy and mass production.

Another level of articulation of type and typology, one that supports the abstract of my hypothesis is delineated by the aims of the new modern city research done in the 1950s. In this articulation of the term, a new and more codependent envision of the relation between architecture, history, and place is set as the result of contrasting elements of cultural continuity, rationality, and essence of the architectural exercise.

Master Hauses, Walter Gropius, Deceau DE. Sketch by Joseph I. Ruiz Tapia.

04 Introduction

Politics of the City

On “ The Possibilities of an Absolut Architecture ”, Pier Vittorio Aureli

In order to comprehend the nature of the public character of a territory it is important to analyze and identify the components that sum up to form the politics of a city. From the economic and social agenda of its governances to the congenital nature of human co-existence, the controlled/intended and the uncontrolled/conflicting effects of the political state of the city are components that only in conjunction materialize the urban fabric of the city. In this manner, architectural form is exposed as “one of the most extreme and radical manifestations” (Aureli 32) before the political conflict of emerging cities.

The Church as a Governance

The inherited infrastructural and topological realities of medieval Rome made of this city a very conflicting territory to urbanize.

From Giovanni Battista Piranesi characterization of Rome as a field of many possible interventions within its decayed ancient monuments, to his contrasting contemporary Giovanni Battista Nolli, who envision urban Rome as a tabula rasa operation, the city’s fabric was weaved by a set of periodical interventions and different approaches from the governances of such territory. The infinite possibilities within such field aroused interests on the different political forces, more specifically the church, which became the principal institution to govern its urban operations.

Itroduction 05

Instauratio Urbis Making of Polis

Via Giulia, Rome 1508: The authority of the church over the urban

interventions in Renaissance Rome became an act transcendence. The creation of new streets that traversed different parts of the city were very drastic moves intended by the pope to leave his mark on the city’s urban form. But in executing such operations the intervened territory acquired a completely new notion of public and private. The long Via Giulia defined more rigorously the public character of the street and in consequence the set of buildings running along that axis emphasized their condition as private entities. While the concept of circulation laid over such intervention acquired an ambivalent function as processional display and urban containment, the private component became interdependent of the public as the access to and control of such component could only be possible by the existence of the public linear void.

Via Giulia, Rome. 1508

06 Introduction

Instauratio Urbis Making of Polis

The Plan of Pope Sixtus V, 16th Century: Under the papacy of

Sixtus V Rome went through a prosper period of planification and restoration. As the old fabric of the monumental city expanded all over the territory, the tactic of the church was to take advantage of the already erected pedestals and obelisks profaned from Egyptian temples, and place them outside the new religious structures creating open plazas outside such entities. These towers then served as guides for the incoming pilgrims to direct them to the churches. In this manner the city starts being dissected and acquiring an urban order by straight lines that connect the erected towers between each other, envisioning such network as a web laid over the city as a tabula rasa.

Map of Rome, 1588. Antonio Bordino

Itroduction 07

Fabric of Economies Making of Polis

The Place Royale, Paris 1605: In contrasts, Place Royale is an example

a more socio economical conception of public and private. It consists of a void square carved within the fabric of the city and surrounded by a set of residential complexes that feature a portico on its ground level thus permitting the creation a set of autonomous economic entities controlled by the inhabitants of the same living units. This configuration then creates a transitional procession between what is considered the most public space to the most private space. From the street, to the square, to the shops on the ground level to the living units on the top, there is an almost responsive relation between these adjacencies that provide such project with a new notion of publicness, one that comprehends the urban fabric not as a centralized weave of powers controlled by its governances but as a distributed web of social and economic sectors capable of being more

Place Royale, Paris. 1605. MusÊe national du château de Pau / Jean-Yves Chermeux

08 Introduction

The Square & The Institution Making of Polis

Piazza San Pietro, Vatican City 1656: The typology of the open

square becomes a precondition in the establishment of the church in Rome.

The majority of these institutions display a large open piazza in front of it, in several cases, characterized by a central monument or obelisk that serves to guide foreign missionaries to all the religious entities of the city. Basilica di San Pietro, as it was established as the mother of all churches, features a very large open piazza in front of it to house a very large number of pilgrims that come to such institution every year since its edification. The purpose of the piazza was to provide enough space for large amounts of pilgrims to congregate there and commemorate all the religious festivities.

As the main character of such space is its public access, a new typology emerges from the demands of a particular institution as it is the church, an institution that cannot function without the people. The notion of public space flexibility acquire another level of articulation as they becomes the precursors of an otherwise established system of norms.

Piazza San Pietro, Vatican City 1656. Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Itroduction 09

The Square & The Institution Making of Polis

Plaza de la Constitucion (Zócalo), Mexico City 1523: In under-

standing the synergies that attribute a public space as such it is crucial to analyze the historic, cultural, and communal realities the unveil in such territory and how they evolve along with people, the most essential component of the public space. El Zócalo has gone through different configurations as periods of governance change. From the colonial agenda of establishing the capital of La Nueva España, to the flexible character that the square has been acquiring over time, this project reveals the truly dynamic aspect of the city. Being a massive open concrete square surrounded by institutional buildings such as the national palace, the cathedral, and various commercial and cultural entities, this plaza becomes an ideal scenario for any kind of manifestation. From concerts and political meetings, to temporary vendors and manifestations, el Zócalo provides a frame for the execution of any type of activity. This level of articulation of the public domain though is not only bound to its openness and capacity but it is the accumulation of infrastructure, program, and its location that define the publicness of such project.

Plaza de la Constitución (Zócalo), Mexico City MX.

10 Introduction

Unraveling the Public Conclusion of Case Studies

A critical conception of the public space is vital in the re-definition of the typology of the project. The information presented before, conforms a comprehensive understanding of the different articulations of the elements that generate cities, amongst others, streets, buildings, monuments, networks, institutions and plazas, and the manner in which these elements are governed by historical, cultural, and local components thus extracting the particularities of the projects that provide such with a type or typology. The understanding of the term type as perpetuator of models subjected to the interpretation of particularities of site, geography, economics, but most importantly the cultural character of the user, generates a mindset that intends to analyze the preconditions of the exposed projects but also the situation in which such unravel. The axial dissection of 16th century Rome and the perforated fabric of 16th century Paris and Mexico expose the notions of public and private because it actually confronts them before each other thus creating a responsive and interdependent relationship between them.

12 Introduction

The New Archetype

The Museum

The conception of the plaza as a ‘more’ democratic entity than the physical and the representative institutions that govern the city is what I intend to explore and use as catalyzer to attribute the conventional conception of the museum almost as a sacred whole, the capacity of absorbing its material and ideological realities and immerse itself in a projective process of transition from the private to the public, from the permanent to the temporary, and from the material to the conceptual. In this sense, the church being one of the earliest generators of public space –although a somewhat contradictory operation to the parable of Jesus Christ cleansing the temple from all the vendors and mercenaries- is to be taken as the analogy to the articulation of the museum as the temple of ideas, visions, and sensibilities. “ In the modern art pieces the sense disappears with the luminance of the being. The act of seeing is transformed into an intellectual operation that is also a magic rite: to see is to understand and to understand is to commune. Next to divinity and its believers, the theologies, the art critiques …” ---- Octavio Paz 134

If the work of art, as stated by Octavio Paz in his essay on Use and Contemplation, is an allusion to a sacred figure, the museum can then be understood as the estate of adoration of such element. It is the abstract holiness of such typology that I intend to address and unveil for the good of a truly democratic context. I will explode its vernacular qualities as well as confront it with a universal articulation of flexibility and intensification to provide the territory with a set of configurations that recognize the user as the most quintessential perpetuator of the creation of the city and not as profanators of typology.

Itroduction 13

Cleansing the Temple. Photographic Collage.

Joseph I. Ruiz Tapia.

14 Case Studies

Photograph of vectors place in a part of the city of Viena. Lebbeus Woods, 2009.

Case Studies 15

AA RR C C HH II TT EE C C TT UU RR EE O O FF EE NN EE RR G G YY Lebbeus Wo ods, 2009

Visualization of human movement in terms of vectors. Lebbeus Woods.

The museum gallery as the repository of the vector rods between interventions in the city.

Drawing of Energy Release in Terms of Vectors, Lebbeus Woods.

“ The future of the city need not depend for creative imput on the development of building projects requiring large capital investments and institutional approval, but rather on the redistribution of energy at the human scale of the street and the ro om. � --- Lebbeus Wo ods The city is composed and is the result of a series of energy reactions produced by economic, technological, cultural, and social aspects. From the coexistence of the materials that form a building, to the public manifestations expressed out and inside of such building are all processes of energy release that in conjunction create a chain reaction of energy emittance that give the city a purpose and meaning. Without a constant release of energy, architecture and the different urban components become useless while such energy accumulates waiting to explode in the form of wars and revolutions. This happens when institutions that intend to contain such energy do not respect the relevance that the public represent in the process of making and re-making the city. For Lebbeus Woods, citizens themselves are the principal providers of new energies. This project is from one side a representation of energy releases through vectors, but more than that, it is the result of the dynamic collaboration and actual energy emittance of various participants that placed those vectors in different parts of the city of Vienna. In conjunction, these individual components are the ones defining the space in the city and giving it a purpose.

This project accentuates the importance of the user participation in the events of city planning.

In a project that intends to lead with the different socioeconomic realities of a nation corruptibly controlled by institutions it is important to comprehend this idea of energy release and accumulation to anticipate programmatic demands and provide guidelines of how to treat the intervened territory on the basis of human scale. To create a method of aggregation will become vital to envision a greater master plan as the purpose of my project is to provide the citizens with new spaces for different kinds of manifestation and in consequence constant release of energy.

16 Case Studies

The Dynamic of the City

For the Project a group of collaborators went out in the city placing meter pipes that represented vectors and energy. Although these components were to express accumulation and radiation of energy over different buildings, spaces, and the city in general, the labor that went into this dynamic is actually a process of energy emittance by the individuals that participated. This elements then are projections of energy in the present and possible future but at the same time they embody energy themselves.

Case Studies 17

Buildings, Spaces, & The City

Every aspect of the city is compounded of energy and a series of interaction between different systems. From the amount of energy needed to produce the materials that would go into a building, to how its different components coexist to create a space quality, understanding how the existence of these elements is possible and what they signify to a larger realm of urbanities is essential as it always reads back to the human nature. If we conceive a building, a space or the city as bodies of energy, according to Lebbeus Woods, then they can be understood as a conjunction of vectors that express the different energy reactions that provide their existence.

18 Case Studies

Humans and Prevailance

If buildings, spaces, and cities are bodies of energy, how do they continue to produce energy to prevail?. There is where humans come back again as the essence of the architecture. Recognizing the human as a provider of energy for the simple act of existing and being in a determined space should be a priority when creating architecture and the city. Serving a specific purpose is how a building prevails and becomes relevant before the user. These purposes then will always be related to human manifestations and natural tendencies. For this, the user becomes the mane activator and facilitator of energy into a piece of architecture, without him, the building becomes useless and therefore its existence becomes useless too.

Case Studies 19

Institutions and Revolutions

It has taken hundreds of years to establish a merely fair set of rights for humans. These rights though are usually filtered through the institutions that govern the territory in which these rights expand. According to Lebbeus Woods, the ideal future would be one in which the middleman (in this case the institutions) disappears for a direct application of human energies. This desire of becoming independent from the governing institutions is the result of the constant restriction of human natural tendencies and rights to benefit only a certain social group or status. The constant containment in the part of the institutions results in a large accumulation of energy that eventually has to explode in the form of wars and revolutions.

20 Case Studies

Photo Collage of Ville Spatiale. Yona Friedman, 1960.

Case Studies 21

VV II LL LL EE SS PP AA TT II AA LL EE Yona Friedman . 1960

Sketch Elevation of a Configuration of the Spatial City Model.

Yonna Friedman 1960.

Sketch Axonometric of a Configuration of the Spatial City Model.

Yonna Friedman 1960.

Sketch Axonometric of a Configuration of the Spatial City Model.

“ Architecture should only provide a framework, in which the inhabitants might construct their homes according to their needs and ideas, free from any paternalism by a master builder . � --- Yona Friedman Even though this project is a perfect example of the modern, brutalist, mega-structure works produced in the sixties it embodies a number of ideas that have become constantly present in the contemporary architectural discourse.

Friedman’s conceptualization of societies and architecture at the time he created this model is one that fails to remotely addressed by most of the author architecture. This happens precisely because of that ambition of creating signature products, while the spatial city proposal gives that sense of control and authorship to the user so the spaces created for such user accommodates to his needs and desires.

As one of the first instances of flexibility in space planning, although it might be considered the larger visualization of the modernist free floor plan layout, this project intends to define the entire social and spatial realm by proposing new methods of development that redefine and transform components of such realms. From one side this new method of densification demands a great level of user participation, on the other side it creates new possibilities of how the user lives and transforms the set of activities he performs.

The public character of my project demands a rigorous understanding of how much will actually be subjected to the public. It is important to define the amount of control that the user will exert over the project. Looking at this project is necessary as it addresses terms of flexibility and public participation. Architecture as a provider of framework for a social intervention is an interesting concept but in order to achieve a comprehensive articulation of the social issues a specific physique and idea have to be the consolidators and starting points of a greater social megastructure. The building itself becomes the framework for the social development.

22 Case Studies

1. Pilotis to elevate structure off the ground.

1.

2.

3.

2. Space frame structure to accomodate program.

3. Horizontal surfaces to serve as floors for programatic modules.

4. Transportation/Circulat on pathways to communicate and have access program.

5. Wall surfaces and divisions to compa mentilize de space in and outside of the programatic modules.

6. In conjunction all these elements create a dynamic and flexible system that accom dates to the needs and wants of the users.

4.

5.

6.

Case Studies 23

The Components

The flexible character of this project relies on the standardization of its various components, the columns, the space frame structure, and the surfaces that create enclosed spaces. Such standardization at the same time creates a set of opportunities that can only become matter by the action of the user. The dynamic of such process changes then the way people live, move, and interact with each other; the activities performed by such users will also transform and acquire a different sense of dynamism and purpose.

24 Case Studies

Green Area

Plaza

Main Road

Government

Religious

Social

Mexico City , MX : Agglomeration

Although Mexico City contains several open plazas throughout its expansion, it is in the center where most where the public space becomes truly significant in defining the public character of the city. Plaza de la Constitucion or commonly known as El Zocalo concentrates most of the different programs that can happen in the city. Along a long wide pedestrian alley, restaurants, arts and crafts shops, museums, and other commerce is concentrated. The end of the ally is a huge open plaza where all kinds of manifestations happen every day. The typology gets reproduced, although in a much smaller scale, in several districts of the city where an agglomeration of commerce, parks, plazas, churches, and recreational spaces become the vital lung of such areas.

Case Studies 25

Drawings and Diagrams Exploring the Typology of the Public Space in Mexico City.

26 Case Studies

Green Area

Plaza

Main Road

Government

Religious

Social

Berlin , DE : Porosity

After the war, the city of Berlin was devastated drowned in ashes and ruble.

The reconstruction under the management of the Soviet Union on the east part of the city defined very clearly their perception of the public space and the position of the citizens in regards to its government. Housing and commercial developments created along Karl Marx Allee and Karl Liebknecht Stratze produced a very porous and not so dense urban fabric that leaves sufficient space to create parks, gardens and plazas. In actuality this mode of configuration provides the citizens with a lot of space for public interactions and manifestations but in its original plan formulated by the GDR (German Democratic Republic), this openness was intended to be beneficiary to maintain the city under surveillance thus eliminating alleys and narrow spaces were institutions could not have a clear view of what is happening.

Case Studies 27

Drawings and Diagrams Exploring the Typology of the Public Space in Berlin.

28 Case Studies

Green Area

Plaza

Main Road

Government

Religious

Social

Barrio de Gracia, Barcelona, ES: Urban Scenarios

The Neighborhood of Gracia, in Barcelona, is home for the revolutionary protests that are happening right now in the city. The citizens of Catalu単a gather in several plazas of the neighborhood to have debates and then they go on into the narrow streets and move from plaza to plaza protesting against the political situation of the country. The urban fabric of such neighborhood is perforated here and then with open squares that become scenarios for different kinds of manifestations and are connected via pedestrian alleys and narrow streets.

Case Studies 29

Drawings and Diagrams Exploring the Typology of the Public Space in Barrio de Gracia, Barcelona ES.

30 Site Investigation

Site Investigation 31

SS II TT EE II NN VV EE SS TT II G G AA TT II O O NN The Tijuana River

The projection of the river as a ruin of the city starts detonating the type of approaches that could be taken as methods of operation for this project. The ruins in Rome speak of the ancient character of the city and the transformational capacity of such territory first from the fallen empire and then to the renaissance interventions and to actuality, the Tijuana River on the other hand performs as pre-Boullèe conceptualization of the monument (Aureli 141). A Piranesian approach to the ruin of the river in the city of Tijuana unveils its spatial capacities as it can accommodate thousands of square footage along the main artery of the city. Following the concept of Campi Marti in Rome, the infrastructure of the river becomes the ruin to be restored and the space frame in which the new typological characterizations of the collective unravel to centralize the public domain of an otherwise territory of individual economies. An architectural intervention over this infrastructural centralized extension denotes infinite possibilities in regards to other infrastructural projects such as new modes of transportation, reconnecting various economic and residential sectors along its perimeter, allocation of new green areas, and re-use of the water that runs through channeled river. The River then should be conceived as a monument, a public entity housing a public service thus at the service of the people.

32 Site Investigation

Tijuana, Baja California, MX. ��°��’��.��” N ���°��’��.��” W Elev. �� ft

Area of Investigation

Site Investigation 33 Site Investigations

02

tional Border a rn te In x e M / .

A .

S U.

Presa Abelarto L. Rodriguez Zoom Out of the City of Tijuana, Aereal View.

34 Site Investigation

Zona Rio [Major Economic sector of Tijuana]

International Border Crossing

Zona Centro [Downtown Tijuana]

After analyzing different possible locations for the project, most of them along the Tijuana River, the different existing program located along the artery became the determiners when choosing site to work with. The government building, the cathedral, the mall, the museum, and the municipal sports center already start creating a node. The project will come as a consolidator of these components and should create a connection between them but at the same time these institutions should adjust to the guidelines of the new democratic space.

Tijuana River Tijuana/San Diego International Border Line.

Site Investigation 35

r ternational Borde U. S. A. / Mex In

Main Border Crossing Gate Zona Centro (Downtown Area)

Zona Rio (River Area)

Zoom into Area of Investigation in the Center of the City of Tijuana, Aereal View.

36 Site Investigation

Tijuana River

Presa Abelardo L. Rodgriguez

Tijuana Estuary

The Tijuana River is a 120 mile long river that flows into the Pacific Ocean on the United States side. The main affluent of the river is the Abelardo L. Rodriquez water dam located at the southern outskirts of the city and flows north through a concrete channel to the international border of Tijuana-San Diego, shifting west for 9 kilometers once it crosses the border and finally flowing into the Tijuana estuary. The rise of the water bed varies throughout the year being almost non-existing during the summer while capable of causing floods during the winter rain period.

For over the past decades the river has been a controversial issue since its conception as its concrete surface left no space for vegetation to grow along the river area causing contamination and floods. Over the years it has become a main bisector of the city. While on its west side delimits most of the principal economical areas along its perimeter, on the east side it features mostly lowermiddle class housing.

Site Investigation 37

The Tijuana River : The City’s Hidrology

Tijuana Estuary

Site

Tijuan River

United States

Abelardo L. Rodriguez Reservoir

of America

CJON. ANAIZ CJON. DE SERV

1

1

1

1

1

1

1 1 1

Ocean Pacific

9 l5

1 7

28

35

AI000252

BP-120-000

000-061

1

1

1

1

72

71

1 1 1 1

1

1

1

1

1

TENIS

BASQUET

1

1

1

1

1

1 1

FUTBOL

1

TENIS

1

1

1

2 km

Map of Tijuana Highlighting the River

38 Site Investigation

The area of the Tijuana River that I intend to use as the site of my project is characterized by its concentration of infrastructure, governing and social institutions, and commerce located along the river perimeter while surrounding this program there is a gradual transition from commercial to mainly housing as the terrain becomes more pronounced.

Green Space Undeveloped Space Commercial Industry Transportation Housing Institutional

Site Investigation 39

The Tijuana River : The City’s Hidrology

a

of Americ United States

L0-000

016

1 024

018 052

1 km

Map of Land Use in the River Area

022

019

40 Site Investigation

The topographic conditions of the city of Tijuana make it difficult for residential districts to have full access to bus routes and route cabs as these districts are mostly accommodated on the surrounding hills of the city. The area that surrounds the site is located on fairly flat ground making public transportation more accessible to people that work and move on this area. The site itself though, as it is elevated off the ground over the channelized river line, does not have direct access to the current types of public transportation. New lines of mass public transportation have been proposed by the municipal urban department of the city in the form of railways.

One running east to west along the whole perimeter of the river starting from the international border, and one other cross the city from north (from the airport and the manufacturing zones of the city) to south (to the city of Rosarito and various mass housing developments along its course), intersecting the other railway line.

Proposed Mass Public Transportation Routes [Metropolitan] Current Mass Public Transportation Routes [Bus]

Site Investigation 41

The Tijuana River : Public Transportation

United States

of America

L0-000

016

1 024

018 052

1 km

Map of Transportation Routes in Tijuana

022

019

42 Site Investigation

SIT

E

The site is an example of the lack or public and open space that the city of Tijuana features along its metropolitan area. While figure ground represents the density in which this part of the city (Zona Rio Tijuana) has grown. Altough it features seveal square meters of open ground, most of these spaces are dedicated exclusively to public parking. This demonstrates the public space character that has been used to plan the city.

Roads Figure Ground Parking Open Space

Site Investigation 43

The Tijuana River : Figure Ground

SIT

E

SIT

SIT

SIT

E

Maps of Ground

E

E

44 Site Investigation

1. SOCIAL HOUSING: The first social housing project

in the city of Tijuana subsidized by INFONAVIT (The National Fund Institute for Workers Housing). As many project of this kind it consists of various low-rise apartments with the first floor left for commercial use. It also features several open plazas and green space.

2. CATEDRAL DE NUESTRA SEﾃ前RA DE

GAUDALUDE: The new Cathedral of the city is a project that launched in 1976 but up until now only the big atrium in front of the actual church and the funeral niches under it have been built.

2.

3. MUNICIPAL PALACE: Built in 1986 moved from its

original location in the downtown area of Tijuana, this building has a courtyard typology, having all bureaucratic offices around a big esplanade illuminated by a skylight. In the morning and part of the afternoon, there is always a constant trafficking of people in and out of the building.

4. PLAZA RIO: One of the largest and oldest shopping

malls in the city. Over time it has become a very busy place during the day and at night. Having a long middle corridor that is also access to all the stores and a cinema at the end, this place becomes on of the few instances of the public (although private) spaces in Tijuana.

5. El CECUT (Tijuana Cultural Center): Is the main

cultural entity of the city. It comprehends a theatre, tow museums, botanical gardens, and an IMAX theatre. Along the year it is home for many cultural festivals and events where artists and speakers from all over the world are presented.

6. STATE GOVERNMENT BUILDING: This building

houses several offices for bureaucrats. It is located only a few meters from the municipal palace providing space for plazas and one of the largest green areas of the city. The building itself features a plaza in front of it and parking on the back and the side.

1.

Site Investigation 45

Site Documentation: Surrounding Buildings

3.

4.

6.

5.

Axonometric Drawing Showing Important Buildings Arround the Site.

SITE

46 Site Investigation

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Site Plan of Esistiing Site Conditions

Green Space

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Site Investigation 47

Site Documentation : Site Plan and Sections

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48 Program & Tectonics

Amphiteather & Teather

Collective Dancing

Dance Performances

Concert

Plays

Improvised Performances

Political Meetings

Watching Sports Games

Debates

Watching Movies

Sports Courts

Soccer

Basketball

Tennis

Plaza

Social Gatherings

Manifestations

Playground

Cultural Parades

Arts & Crafts Selling

Vendors

Eating

Temporary Exhibition

Exhibition Slots

Street Art

Local Artist Exhibition

Arts & Crafts Shops

Design Studios

Commerce

Shopping

Local Produce Market

Cultural Tianguis

Museum

Art Exhibitions

Sculpures Exhibitions

Artist Shops and Storage

Program and Tectonics 49

Amphiteather & Teather

Sports Courts

Plaza

Temporary Exhibition

Commerce

Museum

50 Program & Tectonics

Public & Private by Program

Public & Private by Activities

Amphiteather & Teather

Collective Dancing

Dance Performances

Concert

Plays

Improvised Performances

Amphiteather & Teather

Collective Dancing

Dance Performances

Concert

Plays

Improvised Performances

Political Meetings

Watching Sports Games

Debates

Watching Movies

Sports Courts

Soccer

Political Meetings

Watching Sports Games

Debates

Watching Movies

Sports Courts

Soccer

Basketball

Tennis

Plaza

Social Gatherings

Manifestations

Playground

Basketball

Tennis

Plaza

Social Gatherings

Manifestations

Playground

Cultural Parades

Arts & Crafts Selling

Vendors

Eating

Temporary Exhibition

Exhibition Slots

Cultural Parades

Arts & Crafts Selling

Vendors

Eating

Temporary Exhibition

Exhibition Slots

Street Art

Local Artist Exhibition

Arts & Crafts Shops

Design Studios

Commerce

Shopping

Street Art

Local Artist Exhibition

Arts & Crafts Shops

Design Studios

Commerce

Shopping

Local Produce Market

Cultural Tianguis

Museum

Art Exhibitions

Sculpures Exhibitions

Artist Shops and Storage

Local Produce Market

Cultural Tianguis

Museum

Art Exhibitions

Sculpures Exhibitions

Artist Shops and Storage

Most Public Public Semi Public/Private Private Most Private

Amphiteather & Plaza Sports Courts

Plaza

Temporary Exhibition Commerce

Museum

Most Public Public Semi Public/Private Private Most Private Most Public Public

Semi Public/Private Private Most Private

Most Public Public Semi Public/Private Private Most Private Most Public Public Semi Public/Private Private Most Private

Most Public Public Semi Public/Private Private Most Private Most Public Public Semi Public/Private Private Most Private

Program and Tectonics 51

Program & Activities

Permanent & Flexible

Profit

Amphiteather & Teather

Collective Dancing

Dance Performances

Concert

Plays

Improvised Performances

Amphiteather & Teather

Collective Dancing

Dance Performances

Concert

Plays

Improvised Performances

Political Meetings

Watching Sports Games

Debates

Watching Movies

Sports Courts

Soccer

Political Meetings

Watching Sports Games

Debates

Watching Movies

Sports Courts

Soccer

Basketball

Tennis

Plaza

Social Gatherings

Manifestations

Playground

Basketball

Tennis

Plaza

Social Gatherings

Manifestations

Playground

Cultural Parades

Arts & Crafts Selling

Vendors

Eating

Temporary Exhibition

Exhibition Slots

Cultural Parades

Arts & Crafts Selling

Vendors

Eating

Temporary Exhibition

Exhibition Slots

Street Art

Local Artist Exhibition

Arts & Crafts Shops

Design Studios

Commerce

Shopping

Street Art

Local Artist Exhibition

Arts & Crafts Shops

Design Studios

Commerce

Shopping

Local Produce Market

Cultural Tianguis

Museum

Art Exhibitions

Sculpures Exhibitions

Artist Shops and Storage

Local Produce Market

Cultural Tianguis

Museum

Art Exhibitions

Sculpures Exhibitions

Artist Shops and Storage

Permanent Semi-Permanent Semi-Flexible Flexible

Activities That Generate Profit Activities That Do Not Generate Profit

52 Program & Tectonics

Amphiteather and Indo or Teather

Sport s Courts

Plazas

Amphiteather: 1500 m² -Collective Dancing -Professional Dancers Performances -Rehersals -Plays -Improvised Theather -Opera -Lectures -Concerts

2 Soccer Court: 8100 m² 4 Basquetball Courts: 1500 m² 4 Tennis Courts: 1500 m²

Oper Plaza: 3000 m² -Collective Dancing -Gatherings -Political Meetings -Manifestations -Art Fairs -Eating -Cafes -Cultural Manifestations

Teather: 1000 m² -Watching Movies -Cultural Documentaries -Politacl Debates - Sports Events

Lower Plaza: 5000 m² -Ambulant Vendors -Gatherings -Political Meetings - Art Fairs -Yelling -Eating -Playing

Program and Tectonics 53

Activities by Sector

Temporary Exhibition Space

Permanent and Temporal Commercial Space

Gallery Spaces: 750 m² -Local Artist Exhibitions -Art Galleries S - treet Art Demonstrations -Art Studios -Design Studios -Arts & Crafts Classes

20 Commercial Units: 1000 m² -Local Art Stores -Local Clothing Stores -Local Crafts Stores -Art Galleries -Design Galleries Temporal Commercial Spaces: 400 m² -Hand/Custom Made Jewelry Vendors -Cultural Tianguis -Weekend Swap Meet - Local Produce Markets -Art Fairs

Museum 3 Flo ors: 9000 m² -Local Artist Exhibitions -Regional Art Exhibitions -International Art Exhibitions -Modern Art Exhibitions -Class Ro oms -Administrative Offices -Patios - Sculpturing Shops - Sculpture Exhibitions - Storage Space

54 Program & Tectonics Tectonics: Network of Couryards

Public Semi-Public Semi-Private Private

Program and Tectonics

55

Tectonics: Absorbing Mass

Public Semi-Public Semi-Private Private

56 Program & Tectonics

Tectonics: Horizontal Layering

Public Semi-Public Semi-Private Private

Program and Tectonics 57

Tectonics: Mounded Platform

Public Semi-Public Semi-Private Private

58 Program & Tectonics

Tectonics: Perforated Mass

Public Semi-Public Semi-Private Private

Program and Tectonics 59

Tectonics: Vertical Courtyard

Public Semi-Public Semi-Private Private

60 Envision

The Amphiteather

Envision 61

Sports Courts

62 Envision

The Plaza

Envision 63

The Flexible Exhibition Space

64 Envision

The Commercial Space

Envision 65

The Museum

66 Conclusion

Conclusion 67

PP RR O O JJ EE C C TT II O O NN Project Statement

The research, concepts, and intentions presented in this booklet have been compiled to form a catalogue that will precede the operations and further development of the concept of democratization of the collective space to formulate a cohesive approach to the social realities of the territory of intervention.

Through a comprehensive analysis of the history of type and the typologies that endorse the particularities of program and how are they situated in time, space, and the community the typology of the institutions can now be questioned and subjected to a new set of norms produced by the synergetic collision of the global but also the local subjects. The revalued museum emerges as the new urban catalyst, a former attribute of the institution of the church, as it develops a projective relation with its contextual intensities. These consist of a constant negotiation between private and public, permanent and temporal, materiality and philosophy.

Such negotiations will be mediated by the activator of the political space, the user.

The project will become a field of energy release and containment producing a character that will then set up the ‘state of exception’ for such project grounded in over the expansive ruin of the city thus delineating its proliferation.

68

Vocabulary

Bibliography

Catastrophe: a momentous tragic event ranging from extreme misfortune to utter overthrow or ruin.

Nover, Peter, and Kimberli Meyer. Urban Future

Culture: the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group.

Manifestos: Teddy Cruz, p.56-57.

Curator: a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material.

Klumpner, and Luis Efren Santana, p. 92-99.

Contemporaneity: Originating, existing, or happening during the same period of time.

Democratization: a process that must occur on both the electoral and liberal fronts and to progress along four stages, decay of authoritarian rule, transition, consolidation, and deepening and expansion.

Emerge: to rise from an obscure or inferior position or condition.

Informal: not according to the prescribed, official, or customary way or manner; irregular; unofficial.

Type: A category of elements that are conceived under the same particularities.

Monument: An erected presence venerated for its enduring historic significance or association with a notable past person or thing.

Ai Weiwei, p. 76-77.

Woods, Lebbeus. Pamphlet Architecture 15: War and Architecture. Trans. Aleksandra Wagner. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993.

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Case Studies: Manzanares River Park Development, 2005, p.

200 Los Angeles State Historic Park, 2006, p. 310 Pudong Cultural Centre and Park, 2004, p. 396

Reiser, Umemoto, and Nanako Umemoto. Atlas of Novel Tectonics. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

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Friedman, Yona. Yona Friedman Pro Domo.

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Koolhaas, Rem. Small, Medium, Large, New York: Monacelli Press, 1998.

Joseph I. Ruiz Tapia Wo odbury University Scho ol of Architecture 2012