Meta Puebla. Towards a Territorial System Framework

TOWARDS A TERRITORIAL SYSTEM FRAMEWORK FOR URBAN MULTI-SITE REGIONS AND ARCHITECTURAL LOCAL OPERATIONS

Martin Quiroga Mora

METAPUEBLA Towards a territorial system framework for urban multi-site regions and architectural local operations.

Martin Quiroga Mora

ABSTRACT

During the early 21st Century, the urban expansion in most of Latin-American cities has reconfigured their natural, geophysical, economic, social, and political conditions, extending its structures beyond their pre-established borders. The city of Puebla, located 100km Southeast from Mexico City (Mexico) is not exception. After a fastpacing expansion during the 90s, in 2000s Puebla merged with other eight neighbouring municipalities in the State of Puebla, duplicating its size. Despite great landmarks and heritage sites, the lack of effective urban sustainable development programs and policies has produced the contrasting Metropolitan Area of Puebla. Its built-environment houses a physically fragmented territory whose inequalities threaten the living quality of more than three million Mexicans. However, this gives the opportunity to acknowledge, analyse, and diagnose the components of the urban sprawl, to propose practical solutions from an urbanarchitectonic perspective. My research recognises the city’s public space and the territory’s landscape as structures to build upon spatial strategies that counter-act urban sprawlfragmentation. This requires an integral vision that shifts from local to territorial scales, rural and urban, and vice versa. I reflect on various concepts –puff-pastry theory, urban knowledge economy, public space/landscape dialectics, cities as archipelagos, planetary urbanisation, landscape urbanism…-, and institutional programs’ –UN-Habitat’s Integral Urban Operations, SEDATU’s Urban Improvement Programme- to propose a methodology to address what I define as MetaPuebla. The first chapters explore the generalities and recent evolution of the Metropolitan Area of Puebla. Then, I present my proposal’s methodology, and concepts. In the 1st stage – the Puff-Pastry method- I deconstruct Puebla’s composing territorial systems –after an exhaustive data collection process-, later coded and arranged in a dynamic-relations matrix. The 2nd stage performs overlaying operations between them, using indexing methods. Strategical regions to implement integral urban projects are defined. The 3rd stage sets a method to assess the conditions of the sites located in these outlined areas. This sets a program of urban-architectonic elements for project proposals at local scale. As a conclusion, I present an ordnance zoning which rather than be final, it recognises the ever-changing complexity of the metropolis by illustrating the areas proposed to be intervened with the Metropolitan Area of Puebla’s public-space/landscape strategies: MultiPuebla. My framework aims to future research, practice and informed decisionmaking policies.

(left) Yekka’s flooring. Fragmented substrate: a concept on the MAoP as a broken metropoli. Photo: Author, 2018.

CONTENTS D *Lexicon

39 X Memory System Structure (deconstruct 0)

G *Thinking process map (or contents)

59 Natural System Structure (deconstruct 1)

01 Prolegomenon

71 Social System Structure (deconstruct 2)

07 Framing Zoom

117 Artificial System Structure (deconstruct 3)

11 MetaPuebla

137 Deconstructed matrix

13 Similarities: Manufactured Landscapes

141 Dialectics: public space / landscape (process stage 2)

17 The Housing Phenomena

141 i) Dialectics: public space / landscape (concepts)

21 Deconstruct + Reconstruct (methods description)

143 ii) Operations (overlaying)

22 i) The puff-pastry method (deconstruct) 23 ii) The integral-urban-operation + knowledge economy vision 24 iii) The codes for 1 integral system of public spaces (reconstruct) 31 Zoom in + Zoom out (process stage 1)

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

170 iii) Reconstruct matrix 177 Decode + Code (process stage 3) 178 i) Infrastructures inventory 180 ii) Matrix of criteria indicators

CONTENTS

LEXICON 180 i) Sustainability radius 185 MultiPuebla (ordnance proposal) 203 Conclusion

Agenda 21 A planning framework developed in 1992 by the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (for which is also known as the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development) that enlists global and local actions to be implemented by the UN’s members to reduce the impact of human activities on environment in the 21st Century. After a 1997 and 2002 revision, the goals presented in the Agenda 21 are since 2015 included in the 2030 Agenda (UNCED, 1992).

HQDIL

207 References

Multicriteria method of assessment of the urban space sustainability based on five concepts -heritage and resources, local environmental quality, diversity, integration and social link – (Chaguetmi and Derradji, p.2, 2019).

Integral Urban Operation Enhanced by the UN-Habitat Latin America Secretariat, is an urban implementation strategy of multi-actor and multi-sector correlations in which a given area – whereas it’s at neighbourhood, town or territorial scale – is intervened by a set of various projects conceived under a unique integral, efficient, informed, coherent, and synergic metropolitan vision (LA Network, 2020). It aims for a global impact as in urban as in social, economic and multi-dimensional areas, whereas its vision, alienated to the New Urban Agenda, looks for the physical translation of the SDGs (LA Network, 2020).

Landscape Urbanism “(Whereas) landscape has traditionally been defined as the art of organising horizontal surfaces (specially related to pastoral countryside imagery) …by paying close attention to these surface conditions –not only configuration, but also materiality and performancedesigners can activate space and produce urban effects without the weighty apparatus of traditional space making (given by the construction of buildings over horizontal surfaces)... (therefore) landscape is a medium for addressing the increasingly common urban conditions of de-densification and sprawl.” (Waldheim, p.12, 2002).

Metapolis a term first conceived by Francois Ascher in 1995, it refers to the urban footprint born out of big cities breaking down the physical boundaries of their original political limits into other small towns. They use motorised mobility infrastructures to reach the settlements they are merging with, making their way across territories, thus fragmenting them. The merged towns then change their administrative, economic and daily life functioning to meet the demands of the big city they are now connected to (Pelegrín et al., 2020).

(To the Great Architect of the Universe)

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

LEXICON

(The) Metropolitan Area of Puebla

Sustainable Development Goals

is an urban-territorial zone (CESOP, 2016) in the State of Puebla that, after a 30-year expansion process, nowadays encompasses its capital city of Puebla with the neighbouring towns of Amozoc, Coronango, Cuautlancingo, Juan C. Bonilla, Ocoyucan, San Andrés Cholula, San Miguel Xoxtla and San Pedro Cholula (Pérez and Aguilar, p.112, 2008).

(Stylised as SDGs): a set of seventeen objectives of worldwide impact towards a sustainable future, which implicate strategies and actions to be taken in present days to prevent future human living to be at peril. These compose the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development set and adopted by the United Nations’ members in 2015. They are: no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace justice and strong institutions, and partnerships for the goals. (UN-SDG, 2020).

New Urban Agenda Is a guideline of actions envisioned under the universal “right to the city” developed during UN’s Habitat III Conference in Quito, Ecuador, on October 2016. The document establishes that governments shall meet the Sustainable Development Goals (2030 Agenda) through urban planning and housing, enlisting a series of alienated urban policies, strategies, programs, actions, specific goals, criteria and indicators to do so (United Nations, 2017).

QUEP (qualité des espaces publiques) multicriteria method of assessment of the quality of public spaces (Hadji, p.858, 2012).

Planetary Urbanisation (also referred in this work as planetary urbanism): is an urban research concept developed by the Urban Theory Lab of the Harvard-Graduate School of Design that builds upon the 1970s “complete urbanisation of society” hypothesis made by Henri Lefebvre. Planetary urbanisation takes the typical local urban cores and cities concepts (“agglomerations”) to the outside territories of their expansion (“operational landscapes”). This implies that the way in which “major traditions of urban research, data collection and cartographic practice” define spaces, zones and borders, must be dissolved. It makes no difference between rural and urban areas, as these “are becoming (one) integral worldwide operational landscape for (economic) urbanisation processes” wherever they be situated. The planetary 21st Century worldwide urbanisation binds sciences, politics, economics, societies and nature, despite location and physical conditions. (The Urban Theory Lab, 2020).

UN-Habitat III is the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development that took place from 17-20 October 2016, following the previous year implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Thus, this summit focused on how local and global governments, especially those committed to the mentioned agenda, can meet the eleven Sustainable Development Goals (SDG as stylised in the 2030 Agenda) and the Paris Agreement on climate change (UN-SDG, 2020).

Urban knowledge economy Sustainable economic approach based on functioning, agglomerated and specialised yet diverse multi-sector and multi-site circuits of existing productive urban areas, related directly to local knowledge industries, productive structures, human capital, and the specific locations in the city - spaces and places - in which all these elements are given. From them, it builds its sustainable development strategies of multi-site process city. (Serreli, pp.6-7, 2013).

Public space(s) Spaces for community living, where meeting, trading and mobility happen; where individuals are considered equals, and have the right to enter or stay regardless their own personal, social or economic conditions (SEDESOL et al., p.33). Open areas in settlements which are destined to a collective use and/or function, not limited to leisure activities, universally accessible and traversable (SEDATU 2019). Also, it’s defined as a free-use space under local authorities’ jurisdiction, physically characterised as “empty” spaces -free of any built infrastructures-. These “voids” link together different areas between and outside the city itself, integrating a network. It distributes urban lands and buildings, while allowing services and accessibility. The public space is the place where social contact and collective identity is given, relating commuters with their neighbourhood and city (SEDATU, SEMARNAT, et al., p.203, 2017).

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

Special thanks to: Marco Julio del Moral Argumedo (for taking the time to decode and translate data from PYTHON to GIS to be used in this work), the Mobility Secretariat of the City of Puebla lead by Alejandra Rubio Acle (for giving all sorts of support and facilities to the development of this work), Daniel Llerandi Estrada and Norman Campos (for granting access and use of some of the photographs of their private collections for the narrative of this work), , Demetra Kourri (for being the most supportive, offering theoretical and conceptual knowledge guidance), and Claudio Molina Camacho (for inspiring humanisation at any turn). Eamonn Canniffe, head of MAA+U, The Manchester School of Architecture. The Chevening Secretariat of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

LEXICON

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

THINKING PROCESS MAP (OR CONTENTS)

PROLEGOMENON

In the current first half of the XXI Century, the analysis of built space as a phenomenon of urban expansion in developing countries is continuously addressed by different visions, methods, frameworks and policies. These are the efforts of citizens, professionals, local and international governments and institutions, looking for a sustainable and egalitarian future. During the 2010s, one of the European visions on urban planning research for the developing world is the “urban knowledge economy” (Serreli, p.7, 2013); parallel to this, on 2020 the UN-Habitat Latin America and the Caribbean organisation has adopted a similar framework-tool for the region called “integral urban operations” (as translated from Spanish) (LA Network, 2020). Combined, these methods establish a comprehensive strategy for the elaboration of development plans in Latin American cities, from collecting data, to design process and construction of physical urban space. In Mexico, the National Bureau for Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development SEDATU (Secretaría de Desarrollo Agrario Territorial y Urbano, as translated from the Spanish), created a public program called “Programa de Mejoramiento Urbano” (SEDATU, 2020) that finances urban scale projects whose characteristics are similar to the ones produced under the aforementioned planning tools. However, it is common for there to be a gap between all these resources and the local authorities who are in charge of managing, proposing and executing public projects –the Mexican administrative system divides in 32 states, each composed by numerous municipalities-. They fail to generate assertive proposals as knowledge on urban research, space design strategies, data collecting and socialization processes, among other factors, are not being considered. In consequence, the lack of understanding how the dynamics of the nowadays territorial urban phenomenon are operating over specific Mexican localities, not only prevents the generation of effective sustainable development plans. It leaves neglected and unaddressed the fact that Mexican settlements have turned into urban/rural communities who are economically polarised, socially vulnerable, culturally detached, and standing over predated fragmented territories of unequal quality of life.

Image 00. Thinking process diagram (or contents), that synthesises my work’s narrative. From 0 to 6, the process’ narrative is grouped in stages that are subdivided in titles, which encompass the evolution in stages of the methodology here proposed and applied. Look out for the icons along my work’s pages. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020. I

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

Based on this context, my work is conceived as an initial approach to start filling in the gap in the sustainable development planning process of the Metropolitan Area of Puebla (referred in this work as MAoP), through urban and architectural design thinking. The accelerated uncontrolled urban growth in the last 30 years of the fourth most important metropolitan area in Mexico has duplicated its urban footprint and population, as it also has predated natural forest reserves, exhausted the hydrologic system, and generated large wasteland areas (territorial voids/s.l.o.a.p.s –spaces left over after planning-). Local public institutions have proved incapable of keeping up with providing efficient public services and infrastructures. This has enhanced the existence of marginalised areas across the MAoP, with urban communities becoming physically, socially, economically and naturalresiliently vulnerable. For these current conditions, the MAoP has become a metapolis. The aim of my strategy is to recognise in the public space system the biggest chance for urban sustainable development planning and projects.

PROLEGOMENON

My research stands on how the public space system, out of all the definable existing systems that may compose the MaoP entity, has the capacity to articulate and integrate most of the given built and non-built urban variables, from local to territorial scales. Building upon various authors’ –Silvia Serreli, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Neil Brenner, Christian Schmid, Charles Waldheim…- research and projects’ concepts –public space/landscape dialectics, cities as archipelagos, planetary urbanisation, landscape urbanism…- that come together in support my vision, and are influencing as planning and architecture, as academy, practice and politics alike. The way in which public space systems of usually specific local-site condition transcend into a metropolitan/territorial scale is through the concept of landscape. Thanks to the organic sprawl of the contemporary urban expansion, both concepts now share the capacity to build a network to connect the different areas between local settlements, and with their surrounding regions. Nowadays, landscapes and public space are organising and distributing land uses and buildings alike, containing services and accessibility. They compose places where social and collective life and identity happens, relating commuters with their neighbourhood, city, and territory. This approach asks for a continuous change in scale analysis (an action process that I call zoom in – zoom out) as what happens globally impacts the local, and vice versa. In one hand, by establishing public space and landscape as similar trans-scalar spatial elements, visions like the urban knowledge economy and the integral urban operations become viable framework-building strategies to solve the problematics of the MAoP. In the other hand, a public-space/landscape system helps to integrate the rural and urban existences of the metropolitan phenomenon, understanding them as a unity. This rural-urban union enables the recognition of the natural, social, economic and cultural roles that each rural town or city neighbourhood plays in the urban sprawl. Public-space/landscape sequences become artefacts to regulate it while empowering people. My work’s objectives are as follow: 1. To establish an overview of the urban evolution of the MAoP, in order to understand the moving forces and actors that have defined its dynamics. 2. To propose and develop an analysis method intended to offer an insight into the natural, demographic, social, economic, cultural and urban components, fundamental for a sustainable development strategy related to space design. 3. To exercise architectural and urban operations between the planning systems that are meant to specify sites in territories for sustainable development public space projects. 4. To propose a framework highlighting specific urban corridors and sites in the territory that ensure an integral global urban operation towards economic processes. 5. To set a code system to architecturally program public-space/landscape sites at different space scales, allowing continuous “zoom in - zoom out” procedures as a trackable forward and backward way to inform decision-making actions. Thus, enabling a flexible and adaptable design framework. It is important to note that further transdisciplinary actions are required to ensure the future applicability of any proposed framework. The aim is to set the focus on the public

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

space system as a territorial and local space catalyst for metropolitan transformation, highlighting the importance of an integral trans-scalar thinking in the analysis and procedures when designing spaces for people. The methodology I propose for my metropolitan analysis is divided in these stages (see Image 00): 1. The Puff-Pastry method that deconstructs the metasystem into its various systemic layers. After giving a time-line context, the MAoP is considered as an urban entity composed by overlapping layers of systems (a metasystem). Based on the Puff-Pastry vision by architect researcher Carlos García Vázquez, I define and describe each layer and its elements. To do so, I collect data from Mexican government open data platforms and surveys, as from direct public authorities’ donations. Depending on the source format, the data is translated to manageable software. Finally, this is mapped, based on Jacques Bertin’s cartographic semiologist methods. 2. The urban integral-operation and knowledge-economy visions drive a re-overlaying procedure of the most meaningful –to my research objectives- defined systemic layers to identify sites and locate the public-space/landscape system in the MAoP. The overlaying graphic method leads to an indexing diagnostic of each of the overlaid sequences, resulting in the definition of large zones –regions, corridors, multisite circuits- in the territory whose areas can be suitable for integral-urban-operation projects using the public-space/landscape system. 3. The reconstructing code for urban/architectural programming the identified sites interventions, under the metropolitan public-space/landscape system. Based on the HQDIL –heritage and resources, local environmental quality, diversity, integration and social linkand QUEP –quality of public spaces- spatial quality assessment methods, a final method is developed to architecturally program specific sites contained in the defined to-beintervened regions. For example, if a metropolitan high-level educational system and a traditional craft one are defined, their territorial joint –or overlapping process– may demonstrate the possibility of urban growth economy, related with spaces for production, exhibition and trading; eventually this same trace may highlight one specific area in the city to set the physical translation of them overlapping operations. Upon this, my methodology is expected to generate two sets of codes: a list of deconstructed systems (given by numbering the systemic layers of MetaPuebla), and the list of reconstructive spaces (given by the alphabetical set of architectural programs). The final programming code will be constructed by these numbers and letters. They are the means in which the coded space program can go backwards from local to territorial scale, then future design proposals can ensure local actions of global impact. Through all the previously mentioned elements, this work contributes to the refocusing of urban public planning projects of the Metropolitan Area of Puebla towards the sustainable principles of the UN’s New Urban Agenda and the National planning

PROLEGOMENON

contributions are: a. To infer a territorial outlook of the expression of social intangible local variables in urban morphologies and spaces: culture, safety perception, identity, belonging, citizenship, social tissue, public safety, traditions, religion, etc. b. To identify –locate- urban activities, situations and contexts not necessarily related to political but to territorial administration. This, opening the discussion for administrative changes towards regional management and metropolitan governance, especially in Mexico. c. To show a how-to method to use open data resources and specific processing software to retrieve, collect and present information, while using methods –such as HQDIL and QUEP– to diagnose, translate and measure existing and ideal space conditions. d. To be a tool for public and private decision making, promoting a vision of shared territorial governance that implies a multidisciplinary and multisite cooperative policy within the MAoP. e. To set a background to the creation of the Territorial Operational Programme of Puebla, from an architectonic-urbanist perspective, under SEDATU’s guidelines (2019). As a final note, there are two kinds of images I use for the narrative of my work, besides the cartographies I produce along the research methodology process: sketches and photographs. Whereas all the sketches are of my authorship, photographs will indicate its source or author. The sketches are a reflect on the architectural design thinking along the production of this work, and photographs are aimed to make visible the most important subject in the MAoP improvement: people.

Photography 01. A view to Puebla’s historic downtown, UNESCO World Heritage Site from the viewpoint of Los Fuertes de Loreto y Guadalupe. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2018.

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

PROLEGOMENON

FRAMING ZOOM

Image 01. Framing the zoom to locate the Metropolitan Area of Puebla. Source: digital diagram by author, 2020.

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

FRAMING ZOOM

Mexico is considered one of the most important developing countries of the American Continent, not only due to its size and population, but also for its privileged geography, large natural resources, and its social, economic and democratic reforms of the last 30 years (World Bank, p.15, 2018). It’s geographically located at the south of North America, although is also part of Latin America, for which is the northernmost nation of such culturally-defined area. It limits to the north with the United States of America, to the south with the nations of Guatemala and Belice –Central America (Augustin, p.8, 2018)-, to the east with the Atlantic Ocean -through the Gulf of Mexico –, and to the west with the Pacific Ocean (see Image 01). Mexico is the fifth biggest country in the continent and is the second most populated one in Latin America, behind Brazil. Puebla is one of the 32 Mexican states that integrate the geographical political administration of the country. It’s located at the nation’s central area, geographically positioned between the State of Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico on the Atlantic Ocean, although it lacks a coastal front as the neighbouring state of Veracruz separates it from the sea (see Image 01). The isosceles triangle shape-like of its territory is given by the political boundaries of Puebla with its state neighbours: the aforementioned states of Veracruz and State of Mexico, alongside the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Morelos, Tlaxcala, and Hidalgo (Protección Civil del Municipio de Puebla, p.25, 2014). Hence, the state of Puebla is part of the central mountain system known as Sierra Madre Oriental, which is crossed by the country’s transversal volcanic system called Eje Volcánico Transversal, containing the Popocatepetl, Iztaccíhuatl and La Malinche volcanoes. (Protección Civil del Municipio de Puebla, p.15, 2014). The city of Puebla, capital of the aforementioned state of the same name, is situated at approximately a two-hour road trip to the south-east from Mexico City (see Image 01). The city was founded in a valley surrounded by the rivers Atoyac, San Francisco and Alseseca, during the Spanish Conquest era - 1531 -, after the Spanish had conquest the neighbouring town of Cholula. Its original urban settlement was established under the Hispanic Renaissance style canons, following the typical space-coordinate distribution of the ruling powers of religion and politics of the era – a cross-facing arrangement between the Viceroy’s town hall and the Catholic Church Cathedral, a squared public plaza in the middle –, from which the rest of the town was built: a reticular grid. In the following centuries, the city would be developed with different architectural vernacular styles – especially featuring the Mexican Baroque style in religious, public and housing buildings -, for which is considered since 1987 as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO (see Image 02).

Image 02. One side of Puebla: some landscape landmarks and heritage centres. Source: collage assembled with photographs by author, 2019.

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

FRAMING ZOOM

METAPUEBLA Nowadays, the original historic centre has expanded, transformed and merged with other neighbouring town centres, transcending its surrounding territory and turning into a new -problematic- urban paradigm: the MAoP. Out of thirteen officially defined Metropolitan Areas in Mexico, the MAoP is the second most important one, with a population of 2,948,253 as of 2016 (CESOP, p.16, 2016), with some areas growing more than 263% in less than 30 years (CESOP, p.12, 2016). At the same time, its urban footprint has sustained an accelerated and organic sprawl, almost duplicating its original area by merging together various settlements –Amozoc, Coronango, Cuautinchan, Juan C. Bonilla, Ocoyucan, San Andrés Cholula, San Miguel Xoxtla, San Pedro Cholula- (CESOP, p.22, 2016) (Augustin, p.10, 2018). These processes have defined the MAoP as a metasystem: an heterogenous physical urban grain of interlinked urban cores, connected by mobility infrastructures, functions, activities or any other social, economic and cultural synergies. The large motorised mobility infrastructures fragment the territory: while connecting two specific points of activities/places, they also neglect connecting existing colonias and barrios –neighbourhood-like Mexican configuration – alongside their route, generating marginalised places, dried landscapes and urban voids –or spaces left over after planning-, as built connections characterise themselves as considerable physical –and social- polarizing barriers (see Image 03). The UN’s City Prosperity Index for Mexico considered the MAoP as the most socially and economic unequal metropolitan area in 2016 (ONU-Habitat, p.15, 2016), and the perception on public insecurity reached its highest level in 2019 with 92.7% of its citizens considering the city unsafe for living (ENSU-INEGI, p. 2,2020). Another effect of the mobility infrastructures and the distant location of their linked urban cores is the physical dissolution of boundaries and centres, not only of the involved municipalities’ administrative division but between the aforementioned barrios and colonias. This dissolving process has produced a parallel effect on social psyche, as citizens detach themselves from places, as these have lost their physical uniqueness. Therefore, the metasystem is also fragmenting the social tissue: citizens are losing their identity. For the capital city of Puebla has become now a metapolis, a trans-local yet punctual metropolitan phenomena of polarized conditions -towns, productive areas, leisure centres, housing clusters- interlinked by high motorized roads that bring about a “tunnel effect” that fragments the rest of the continuous undefined and fragile territory, as vulnerable neglected communities and left over unrelated but visible landscapes constitute large pieces of this broken organic expansion (Pelegrín et al., 2020). These are the reasons to redefine the area as MetaPuebla.

Image 03. Another side of Puebla: some vulnerable urban settlements deprived of physical substrate. Source: collage assembled with photographs by author, 2017-2018.

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

In order to simplify the analysis of the metasystem’s problematic of the capital territory, this document synthesises it – cracks it - through a list of codes that better describe how the metasystem has modified the natural and built spaces, thus affecting people’s quality of life.

METAPUEBLA

SIMILARITIES: MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES As mentioned in the Prolegomenon, first to be established is an overview of the urban evolution of the MAoP, which is divided in two parallel processes: manufactured landscapes –analysing the territory’s morphological physical changes in relation with urban sprawl– and the housing phenomena –exposing the factors and actors behind such metropolitan expansion-. During the early 2000s, as urbanisation processes from cities to outskirts became faster, diverse authors and architecture schools began to explore new radical concepts of urban analysis, thinking and production. The contemporary city can be now addressed either as a set of landscapes (Waldheim, 2002) or as archipelagos (Aureli, 2011). The scale of urban expansion was shifting from a given delimited pre-existent urban settlement –or complex- to territories across: “...the organization of horizontal surfaces (country sides, lands and oceans) ... (are nowadays) addressing the increasingly common urban conditions of de-densification and sprawl.” (Waldheim, p.12, 2002). The mid-2010s’ planetary urbanism theory of the Urban Theory Lab of the Harvard-GSD considers that contemporary cities have not only manipulated and dissolved urban and rural physical borders and morphologies. They are now metapolis demanding a new political and economic territorial management, especially when local sustainable development planning comes across: “…analyses must be especially cognizant of the multiple scales at which the urbanization process is expressed: global, supranational, national, subnational, and regional, metropolitan, municipal, neighbourhood and local.” (Brenner, p.152, 2014). The contemporary city is built upon a series of activities given in a same unique place -a territory– that links diverse functions and individuals –a society– through fluxes constantly subjected to change –dynamism-. It’s a system whose dynamics change in time, meeting evolution or chaos, especially when local particular variables are influenced by the global phenomena of which they are part. Still, both its dynamic and global characteristics are responsible for its capacity to contain and control all of its components, if not in a balanced way, keeping them connected and operational, to the very least. All things considered, a manufactured landscape would be the resulting space of urban – manipulating- operations over a given specific area. The boom of urban expansion of most contemporary Mexican cities took place in a span of fifteen years, from 1990 to 2005 (UN-Habitat, p.72, 2018), during which the private real estate promotion defined markets and urban planning (UN-Habitat, p.73, 2018). This altered both tangible (natural structures, natural resources, land use, land value, services offer, services availability, mobility infrastructures, mobility accessibility…) and intangible (safety perception, identity, belonging, citizenship, social tissue, public safety, traditions…) variables inherent to territorial configuration (see Image 05). The city of Puebla observed the modification of its boundaries, transforming itself into the Metropolitan Area of Puebla. Along with other cities in the country that undertook similar territorial modifications, it developed a new set of characteristics which I have listed and defined as codes for its now manufactured landscape condition (see Image 04):

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

SIMILARITIES: MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES

Destabilized urban limits –undefined borders-: the physicality of a recognizable territorial membrane breaks, becoming peri-urban areas located at the edge of the urban systems that communicate to major urban central services through a main -usually deficient– roadway. (see Image 05) And from the central services and infrastructures to the satellite-ised settlements, the supplies of drainage, water and electricity, as those of mobility, health, education and general-goods, are not fully covered. Invasion of natural reserves –predation of biological cycles-: the lack of regulations on the territorial use and market lets the urban area to grow by invading natural reserves, which is not defined only by deforesting actions but also to alterations on environmental cycles –like those of water, air and earth– and predation of biological pre-existing profiles. Social problems: usually, the agglomeration of infinite masses brings about social segregation, therefore enhancing insecurity, domestic abuse, street violence, street crime, and ultimately, unemployment and low-education levels, related to the lack of urban equipment as these edge areas are far from work and education centres. Ghost towns: an unexpected effect of the massive unplanned sprawl of housing centres, there’s a measurable number of places that are abandoned, no matter the economic sector. This, due to the lack of proper public supplies and services, and the resulting social problems. Physical decline –the un-identity-: coming as a mixed result of the tangible and intangible codes of the new urban system, commuters are decoded individuals, detached from any psyche relation with the place in which they live, thus reflecting on the physical conditions of the built elements -infrastructures, streets, buildings and houses alike-. Residual spaces –in-between voids-: the dispersed urban grain leaves behind large space gaps between the main centre(s) and the satellite developments. The condition stresses if enclosed housing settlements are existing in the dispersion scheme. In this sense, there’s also a legal gap in which the mandatory percentage of green area demanded for new clusters of development is neglected by the real estate investments, as it becomes a wasteful portion of land in-between the new masses, instead of being fully integrated to the designed project. The codes I have here named and described are contained in the metropolitan systems and have been radically reshaping the environment in the last 30 years; in order to find areas of opportunity to crack them down, it’s necessary to explore the institutional factors behind the nowadays’ MAoP. After this, I am proposing a method to outline, territorially represent and understand its composing systems: a deconstruct to reconstruct process. Then, I will present a reconstruction strategy-framework. Image 04. The listed Manufactured Landscape codes of the MAoP. Similar to other places in Mexico and Latin America. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020.

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

SIMILARITIES: MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES

THE HOUSING PHENOMENA In Latin-American countries, the process of urban spread is not the result of an integral strategy of decentralization of the services and infrastructures common in more developed countriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; town planning. Satellite-like sprawl in Latin-America is a response for the demand of affordable housing, being the only architectural program that the new settlements contain. In other words, low-cost housing offers in Latin-American cities are produced as sets of buildings that may provide the basic shelter scheme needed, but lack other public amenities and urban infrastructures, making it difficult to find a good quality of life in such places (Augustin, pp.10-11, 2018).

Image 05. Top aerial view of MetaPuebla. Source: Google Maps, 2018.

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

Image 06. A diagram representing the offset-like operation of urban expansion taken by the Housing Phenomena in the MAoP. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020.

THE HOUSING PHENOMENA

The construction of new living areas in many Latin-American cities is a profitable strategy based on real estate business controlled by private companies, rather than being the result of the management of a public strategy to solve the demand of housing, or a public-private alliance to do so. Nevertheless, even if property trade is the force that drives the development of new territories around the city, its final building permission is given by the local public administration councils, regards of doing so based on planning strategies and policies, or not.

These events defined today’s MAoP, which in 30 years has added 8 towns to its urban footprint – Amozoc, Coronango, Cuautlancingo, Juan C. Bonilla, Ocoyucan, San Andrés Cholula, San Miguel Xoxtla, San Pedro Cholula -, as it even got close to the neighbouring state of Tlaxcala since 2005 (Pérez and Aguilar, p.112-113, 2008).

The problem of the real estate companies being in charge of zoning the cities’ new dwelling areas translates into the local authorities’ economical incapacity to connect these new settlements to the existing networks of public and private services and infrastructures, once they are built and inhabit (Augustin, p.2, 2018). The private sector, due to its intrinsically characteristics of profit and market, is capable of producing low cost residences on a fast track schedule that takes only months, compared to the timings that bureaucracies take for local authorities to get access to public resources meant for urban development. In Mexico, there are two differentiable stages of urban expansion based on housing. The first one comprises from the 40’s to the 80’s, when certain schemes of early modernist planning, surveyed directly by the government, maintained a controlled sprawl of the location of new developments around the historic centres of its major urban settlements, along with simple and punctual road infrastructures. The second stage started in the early 90’s, when government diversified the urban housing schemes to other non-major cities. To do this, the financial control and planning criteria opened up to private contractors, transforming the supply of affordable housing into a profitable business, enhancing the organic -even random- sprawl of urban footprints over territories. Although public national and international institutions have set policies on urban development -the most effective ones in 2016-, the negative effects on the Mexican territory are in most cases, irreversible (UN-Habitat, p.31-32, 2018). The process observed in the city of Puebla dates back to the boom of new working, middle and upper-class housing of the 60’s, surrounding its historic urban core and connected to it by defined circle of mobility road. If anything, the modern highway that connected Mexico City with Veracruz at the north of the town, enhanced the industrial zoning of the area, with no further effect on the given urban grid (Pérez and Aguilar, p.114, 2008). However, in the first half of the 90’s, based on the aforementioned scheme of privatization of housing, two events took place: first, the south-west areas previously known as the Atlixcayotl Natural Reserve were sold and deforested for a series of new middle and upper-class complexes; second, the north-east forests and riverscapes were either sold for low-cost affordable social housing or illegally invaded by lower-class families, especially around the industrial northern area along the Mexico City-Veracruz highway. Image 07. A diagram representing the MAoP area as a large-scale composition of intertwined urban conditions, ready to be deconstructed. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020.

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

THE HOUSING PHENOMENA

DECONSTRUCT + RECONSTRUCT Now that the modificative codes of the metropolitan area have been explored as a result of an inadequate housing development policy on areas surrounding original urban centres, an analysis operation is to be proposed to identify its nowadays’ components. “The application of a holistic method that includes both subjective and objective aspects is necessary to determine the advantages and the dysfunctions of neighbourhoods.” (Chaguetmi and Derradji, p.1, 2019).

Image 08. A diagram representing the deconstruction of the MAoP in its various layers of urban systems. What are the systems that integrate the MAoP? They all are overlapping existences coded by the Manufactured Landscape evolution. How are they overlaying one another? Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020. 20

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

DECONSTRUCT + RECONSTRUCT

First, in order to define the variables that modify the dynamics of the MAoP system, its territory is approached as a large-scale composition of intertwined existences. These existences are none other than territorial systems, characterized as Carlos García Vázquez describes in his theory of The Puff Pastry City: four grand sub-visions -culturalist, sociologist, organicist and technologist-, each composed by layers –just like a puff pastryof a city type: of the discipline, planned, post-historic, global, dual, entertainment, selfsustainable, nature-like, body-like, liveable, cyber-city and chip-like (García, p.2, 2004). Overlapping systems within the city system itself (see Image 08).

ii) The integral urban operation + knowledge economy vision (overlaying)

i) The Puff Pastry method (deconstruct) The Puff Pastry City theory translated into an analysis method is an exercise of classifying and defining a series of systemic layers that integrate the MAoP, using a process to locate their composing data within the territory –mapping-. The data used to generate these maps is obtained from the Mexican National Institute of Statistics, Geography INEGI (translated from Spanish, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía), from the SCINCE and Geo-statistic Framework open data platforms. However, this procedure is conditioned by the availability of specific information through these platforms, and by the date on which some data was generated, as the Mexican government failed to realize full geostatistical surveys in 2015, therefore some of the official information is as old as almost a decade. If any, these span of time and availability offers the opportunity to reinforce strategies to acknowledge the variables and readings of the urban systems. The deconstruction of the territorial phenomena in various layers of city systems opens the possibility of channelling the vision and scale of analysis by looking to the city as a multiplicity of specialised circuits -e.g. artistic, educational, production, etc.-, a city of multisite process related to the economic dynamics behind its existing conditions: Urban Knowledge Economy, as Silvia Serreli has defined. At this point, the analysis turns into an exercise of disassembling and reassembling the agglomerations that are defining the MAoP, responding to a question that seeks to distinguish and recognise those layers that specify the role of the various sites that integrate the area, therefore stablishing a criterion for decision making and action - enhancing, improving, preventing, cancelling...(Serreli, pp.6-8, 2013). The aforementioned processes of collecting data and mapping are related to the conditions of agglomeration and dispersion of the systems that are expected to show up in relation with masses, voids, territorial and political location, physical patterns, natural context, etc. Image 09. A diagram representing that in reconstructing a series of the defined urban layers of the metapolis’ system, the possibility of a sustainable development system opens up: the way in which systems are complementing / coexisiting in the area is related to the level of sustainability of the territory. This joint shall focus on an urban knowledge economy strategy based on integral urban space operations. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020.

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

DECONSTRUCT + RECONSTRUCT

In this second stage of analysis, indexing is the interpretation of the given mapped data; the procedure of abstracting the information that is relevant to the quantitative research the obtained mappings describe. The indexed thinking focuses in the recognition of the mentioned specialised circuits and sectors. When they are related to the public space system, specific large site areas that represent the opportunity to establish productive structures will be highlighted, thus located in the territory. The spatial operation of joining systems and variables with the capacity for economic growth, social empowering, identity empowerment, bio-cycles recovery, etc., is the way in which this work asserts Integral Urban Operations (see Image 09). The visions that give focus to my research are fundamental to the future expansion and applicability of its analysis, findings and proposals. Their approach enhance the production of a territorial framework adapted to a metropolitan area of the size of the MAoP in the context of a developing country. As they also find supportive and complementary arguments in other contemporary concepts such as manufactured landscapes and planetary urbanism (to be fully addressed in Dialectics and MultiPuebla chapters). All these to ensure that my sustainable development framework proposal is aligned to the UN’s New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals. iii) The codes for 1 integral system of public spaces (programming reconstructs) In the third stage, the joined urban components are to be coded as one integral system of public spaces, composed by public programs –architecture– and infrastructures – urbanism- (see Image 10). This approach is meant to complete the existing partial vision of the urban space -related to a contemporary activism– focused on non-motorized mobility as the only way to break down the codes of the manufactured landscape. This document proposes a mixture of methodologies to analyse specific areas of the city –sites highlighted by the previous phase-, based on the HQDIL method -Heritage and resources, local environmental quality, diversity, integration and social link-, and the QUEP method -assessment of the quality of public spaces (as translated from French)-. (Chaguetmi and Derradji, p.2, 2019). (See Image 11). The QUEP method is a 2012 quality evaluation multicriteria procedure based on a tabulated grid –matrix– that crosses established criteria –based on a sustainability vision, particularly related to public space- and the indicators to weight how much of it is satisfied or absent (Hadji, p.858, 2012). The procedure is a five-step sequence that starts with the choice of a driving vision, whose objectives –also considered as dimensions– define a set of expected or wanted detailed criteria for the public space area to be evaluated. Later on, criteria are cross-referenced with a set of quantifiable indicators, selected from previous approaches and benchmarks, which ultimately will score each of the components, synthesising all the different criteria in one criterion per assessed theme (Hadji, pp.858-859, 2012). The QUEP evaluation uses formulas and percentages to index scores (see Image12), but does not propose a specific graphic representation method.

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

Image 10. A diagram emphasizing that this framework proposes that the public space system of the MAoP has the capacity to integrate all the urban variables - tangible and intangible - through space for people. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020

DECONSTRUCT + RECONSTRUCT

Image 12. Highlights of the QUEP approach. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020

The HQDIL method is a 2019 diagnosis method based upon QUEP while being critic about its narrow vision, arguing that although it addressed simple yet effective formulas for assessing public space, it lacks the transversal “shared diagnosis” nowadays needed to generate more effective proposals towards urban transformations and sustainable development: “...scientific studies...focuses on one certain aspect” (Chaguetmi and Derradji, pp.2-4, 2019). (See Image 13).

Image 11. A diagram representing the final product of the already enlisted phases of analysis. A method is to be presented that may program -and to some extent, code – the urban and architectural proposals on specific areas where the overlapped systems may highlight its potential for sustainable coexistence – and development -. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020.

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

In this sense, HQDIL expands the scope of the analysis method stablished by QUEP, by including the subjective (commuter’s opinions, feelings and perceptions towards a space) and the objective (physical evaluations and diagnosis of spatial conditions) components of the quality, not only of the public space system of a given area, but introducing the concept of environment, which gives the opportunity to think of local analysis and proposals with a global territorial impact. The holistic vision that developed HQDIL, also enables its process to be as adaptable and operational as the particular conditions and available data of the studied area may permit (Chaguetmi and Derradji, pp.4-5, 2019).

DECONSTRUCT + RECONSTRUCT

system, to be proposed in this framework. The main reason why they are not being literally applied is because their results are not used for a design project proposal, but for the setup of new urban policies, whereas this work aims to be the starting reference for space projects. Finally, it’s worth to note that although the described methods are based on the UN’s previous Agenda 21, their sequence and approach are aligning to the 2030 SDGs. Therefore, the conclusion of the QUEP + HDIL methods review is the accomplishment of a matrix proposal based upon them that encompasses the listing of measurable criteria for space-designing and its later translation into a set of codes (see Image 14). These codes are to be applied throughout the creative process of the architectural program that will fundamentally respond to the integral urban operation to take place in -a given- site. The sites to be intervened are the ones highlighted and located at a territorial scale during the second stage of this analysis –overlaying operations-.

Image 13. Highlights of the HQDIL approach. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020.

First, HQDIL establishes five sustainable development axes: heritage and resources, local environmental quality, diversity, integration and social link, whose physical structure translations are defined and classified by field, built structure, and use –the field is divided in four groups: residential space, non-residential space, no built space and infrastructure– (Chaguetmi and Derradji, p.5, 2019). Then, in the diagnosis phase the territory’s strengths, weaknesses, potentials and dysfunctions are assessed, based on the previous described elements and cross-referenced with qualitative research –user’s needs, user’s wishes, professional and academic analysis, etc.- (Chaguetmi and Derradji, p.5, 2019). The assessment includes an indexing process similar to the QUEP’s one; with such scores, a sustainability diagnosis profile radar is generated to be the conclusive proposal’s main argument (Chaguetmi and Derradji, pp.5-6, 2019) (See Image 13).

Image 14. A diagram of the conceptual elements from the QUEP and HQDIL approaches used in thinking process of the elaboration of this framework coding method. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020.

Both QUEP and HQDIL are considered guidelines to the process of constructing a method to develop urban/architectural programs for specific sites interventions in the metropolitan

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

DECONSTRUCT + RECONSTRUCT

As each place in the territory responds to different existing conditions, it is unlikely that codes are quantitatively one hundred percent replicated, however it is possible that programs can be so, as they are the means to achieve the desired quality of sustainability in the space-design proposals. To ensure this, the matrix of criteria indicators is accompanied by an infrastructures inventory and a sustainability profile radius, which are also based on the QUEP + HDIL methods and the applicable local policies, such as SEDATU’s policies (SEDATU, 2020). Nevertheless, at this stage it still remains the question of how the proposed listed methods are actually informing urban-architectural design. It is in the process of their application that the defined territorial systems and the local codes merge into a single lecture, related to an exercise of scale changing, as the following chapter explains.

ZOOM IN + ZOOM OUT

As previously established, the analysis methodology I designed in this work for MetaPuebla is composed by three phases of methods: 1. The Puff-Pastry method that deconstructs the metasystem into its various systemic layers. 2. The urban integral-operation and knowledge-economy vision that re-overlays some defined systemic layers to identify sites and locate the public space system. 3. The reconstructing code for urban/architectural programming the identified sites interventions, under the metropolitan public space system. From this, there are two sets of codes I generate throughout my proposed process: the list of deconstructed systems (given by numbering the systemic layers of MetaPuebla), and the list of reconstructive spaces (given by the alphabetical set of architectural programs). The final programming code is constructed by these two elements -numbers and letters- as through them future design proposals can address territorial and local conditions. They are the means in which the coded space program can go backwards from local to territorial scale, thus ensuring that local actions have a global impact. The codes formed by numbers and letters, when related to the concepts of integral urban operations and urban knowledge economy, find their own trans-scale dialectic. In one side, the territorial list of numbers is only fulfilled by a set of various local projects conceived as one integral, efficient, informed, coherent, and synergic metropolitan vision (LA Network, 2020). On the other side, the local list of letters is only successful when it becomes part of multi-sector and multi-site circuits of productive urban areas (Serreli, pp.6-7 2013). This list recognises both existing and possible contributions for the development of an urban knowledge economy in a given place or site (Serreli, pp.6-7, 2013), supporting proposed particular actions -local programming- to reconfigure it for further territorial interactions –global impact– These concepts, aligned to the New Urban Agenda, look for the physical translation of the SDGs (LA Network, 2020). In this way, my work’s analysis offers the opportunity to exercise a zoom in - zoom out thinking that allows a trackable forward and backward way to inform decision-making actions undertaken along a flexible and adaptable design process (see Image 15). This implies the need to define what is considered meaningful territorial data for this framework. Based on Jacques Bertin data-analysis works (1983), MetaPuebla can be defined as much an urban phenomenon as a geographic entity, which means that all of its variables are distributed geographically (Bertin p.24, 1983). They compose networks that can be specifically traced out through space, therefore the correct system to graphically represent them is a map (Bertin, p. 8, 1983).

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

ZOOM IN + ZOOM OUT

First, in order to understand how to-be-mapped data is selected, the information must be collected under a pertinent correspondence criterion. For Bertin, the pertinent correspondence is a perception in which the components of a given collected data are relevant to the questions established by the research –or correspond pertinently–, in such a fashion that they are able to answer them (Bertin, p. 10, 1983). Thus, the more pertinent correspondences there are between the questions and the available information, the better. Thus, meaningful data is the one that is more likely to offer answers to the research questions. Second, the to-be analysed data is filtered through the quality level of knowledge and/ or understanding that its information may offer. Bertin defines answers and their quality as readings of information and reading levels (Bertin, p. 10, 1983). He considers three levels of reading: elementary (one question-answer corresponds one component), intermediate (various questions-answers correspond one component), and global (a question whose one answer corresponds all components) (Bertin, p. 10, 1983). Therefore, the reading of the pertinent correspondence backs up the selection of particular data. As expressed in this work’s Prolegomenon, this research aims to answer: 1. How was the urban expansion of the capital city of Puebla across time and territory, and how did it turn into a metasystem? 2. What are the natural, demographic, social, economic, cultural and urban components of the MetaPuebla system, related to space design? 3. Is there an urban public space system within the metasystem, and if there is, is it possible for it to be the catalyst for metropolitan transformation through local multisite interventions? 4. What transdisciplinary sustainable frameworks can be applied in MetaPuebla’s public space system to improve people’s living?

Image 15. A diagram representing the concept of change in scale while applying this framework’s proposed analysis methods towards public space / landscape design projects. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020.

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

In consequence, meaningful data for this work’s analysis is the one that can be geographically allocated within the territory of the MAoP, and whose resulting networking trace is likely to impact on the MAoP’s public space system. For example, the topographic data becomes important as terrain morphology defines the given shape of natural and artificial infrastructures. Also, whereas the inherent nature of a meaningful component is tangible or intangible, it ultimately has a physical expression that can be mapped. For example, it can be stated that people’s identity is constructed by various intangible factors, such as gender, tradition and religion, and these may happen in built space. As public space also contains and boosts identity, the relation of the physical translations of identity factors with public space, if analysed, may offer guidelines for spatial design. In the following four chapters, the pertinent correspondences will be described, since they are inherent to the concept of layers under the Puff-Pastry method. The graphic elements of the cartographic analysis -invariant, variables, and categories of a map- reinforce my work’s change of scale thinking. Bertin defines the invariant of the analysis as “the central notion common to all the pertinent correspondences” (pp. 5-6, 1983), or in other words, the one unchanging analysis entity upon which all questions and

ZOOM IN + ZOOM OUT

answers are made about. The MAoP -or the metasystem MetaPuebla- is the invariant of this research. The visual variables –or components– are the graphically translated “variational concepts involved” (Bertin, pp. 5-6, 1983). I consider that MetaPuebla is defined by three main different components, renamed as structures: natural, social and artificial. Others may be considered as my work meets applicability. Finally, Bertin states that variables are divisible: “The different identifiable parts of a component or variable” are the categories (Bertin, pp.5-6, 1983). In this work, the analysis will categorise them through the deconstructed systemic layers. In this way, the three existing systemic structures I suggest – Natural, Social and Artificial – become jointing entities between the metasystem’s theory, methods and analysis graphic representations (see Image 16). Finally, it is imperative to address the technical process of the collection of the meaningful data. The technical process of mapping begins with the collection of data archives and compilations from Mexican government open data platforms (INEGI) and from direct public authorities’ donations -specifically the Mobility Secretariat SEMOVI and the Municipal Institute of Planning IMPLAN of the city of Puebla-. After this, data is filtered, selected, and translated into a manageable format, using Python and QGIS software. This is, tables of information are attributed to georeferenced shapes, points or lines –depending on the type of collected data-. Layer by layer of georeferenced data elements are moved to QGIS, where they are arranged in specific layers of data, exported later on to an AutoCAD file. From this format, vector files are created for a final export to a graphic treatment software where legible data maps are produced. This technical process has been developed specifically for this work upon the format limitations of the available data resources, and the knowledge horizon of the available software tools (see Image 17). The elements of the graphic mapping method deconstruct MetaPuebla in order to define its composing factors and to construct codes for a parallel zoom in – zoom out approach. The following four chapters contain the mapping process of this framework’s analysis that describes the systemic layers of MetaPuebla’s structures. The 1st Stage of the territorial analysis for urban multi-site architectural local operations.

Image 16. A diagram summarising the mapping-process concepts taken from Jacques Bertin data-analysis works (1983) to define and express meaningful information in this work. It also shows the connection between this work’s expected graphic data elements and products, and Bertin’s method. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020.

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

ZOOM IN + ZOOM OUT

Image 17. A diagram summarising the critical path of the technical process behind the collection, compilation, translation, selection, production and expression of the georeferenced data of this work’s MetaPuebla. Source: author, 2020 Photography 02: territorial contrasts. A view from San Andrés Cholula to some of the different moments in the urban sprawl of the MAoP. In front, Saint Andrew’s Church, in the middle the Public Law Enforcement Centre of the South, at the back some Angelopolis’ Development luxury towers. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2018. 36

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

ZOOM IN + ZOOM OUT

1ST STAGE (The Puff-Pastry Method | Deconstruction) The 1st Stage of this work’s analysis methodology is an exercise of classifying and defining a series of systemic layers that integrate the MetaPuebla system, based on the process of locating the system’s composing data within the territory –mapping-. As mentioned in Deconstruct + Reconstruct, this metasystem deconstruction finds its inspiration in the The Puff Pastry City theory (García, 2), thus considering the MAoP as a territorial composition of intertwined existences. Its composing layers are arranged in four frames of systemic structures (Memory, Natural, Social and Artificial) from which a Deconstructed Matrix interface is graphically composed to represent the metasystem. This tool helps to understand how each other is interrelated and sequenced, as sets the interface for the operations and programming of the next stages.

X. MEMORY (SYSTEM STRUCTURE) The first part of MetaPuebla’s system deconstruction stage is an introductory frame that graphically synthesises the information given in the first four chapters of this work. These answered the question of how the urban expansion of the capital city of Puebla evolved across time and territory, thus becoming a metasystem. The time factor produces a collection of urban-chronologic traceable shapes that turns the system into an existing memory, or memory of existences. This “Manufactured Territory” story is presented in the mapped analysis contained in this section. As a consequence of the existing meta condition, this work intends to establish a correlation between the volatile built environment and the rates of violence and criminality registered in the MAoP. This “Violence / Fragmented City” is not only a remembrance but an existing situation whose solution can begin with its nowadays acknowledgement: “The possibility of solving problems inherited from the past (like inequality and poverty) and new criticalities (like environmental decay and overcrowding) is one of the challenges of contemporary times...” (Serreli, p.4, 2013). The construction of a territorial system framework begins with the analysis of the urban evolution (memory) and the overview of its current conditions (x existences), in order to establish the basis for urban integral operations “...which will entail maintaining a close relationship between physical structures, social relations and political capacity. The lack of identification of these three dimensions heavily reflects on the future of the city and its contemporary urban landscapes...” (Serreli, p.3, 2013).

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

1ST STAGE: THE PUFF-PASTRY METHOD (DECONSTRUCTION)

Photography 03: Puebla, 1698. As registered and exposed at the Archivo de Indias. Photo: Puebla Antigua cultural promotion online society. Facebook: Puebla Antigua 2013.

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First panoramic picture of the urban settlement of Puebla, 1922. Photo: Puebla Antigua cultural promotion online society. Facebook: Puebla Antigua 2013.

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Photography 04. Puebla seen towards the volcanoes in 1960. Part I. Photo: Puebla Antigua cultural promotion online society. Facebook: Puebla Antigua 2013.

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Photography 05. Puebla seen towards the volcanoes in 1960. Part II. Photo: Puebla Antigua cultural promotion online society. Facebook: Puebla Antigua 2013.

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Photography 06. Huexotitlaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mill used to be the farthest point in the MAoP, surrounded by country. 1960. Photo: Puebla Antigua cultural promotion online society. Facebook: Puebla Antigua 2013.

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Photography 07. Limits of the urban settlement of the MAoP in 1940. View from Humboldt to the volcanoes. Photo: Puebla Antigua cultural promotion online society. Facebook: Puebla Antigua 2013.

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Photography 08. MAoPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nowadays skyline and territory. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2018.

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Photography 09. February 2020 Studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s protest after the killing of four Medicine School students during their intership in a clinic at the limits of the MAoP. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2020.

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Photography 10. February 2020 Feminist protests in downtown Puebla. Puebla registers one of the highest rates in domestic violence and feminicides in Mexico. Photo: Denisse Quiroga Mora personal collection, 2020.

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1ST STAGE (The Puff-Pastry Method | Deconstruction) I. NATURAL SYSTEM STRUCTURE The first deconstructed system structure describes the layers of natural components of MetaPuebla related to its built environment. The natural structures of the metasystem are the physical canvas on which the city is founded and keeps expanding upon; a geographically located site with particular environmental and biotic characteristics. Nevertheless, these natural existences do not conceptually integrate a “blank” canvas. On the contrary, those attributes are conditioning the morphologies and dynamics of the urban expansion. This, in spite of the denial and predation of the pre-existing ecosystems during the sprawling operations. The unsustainability of a predating urban growth is related to the fact that many LatinAmerican cities (such as Puebla) were originally settled nearby important water and green landscapes. During the second half of the 20th Century, planners and authorities were influenced by the worldwide modernist ideas (Pérez and Aguilar, p.113, 2008) who conceived territories as a founding tabula rasa (Rowe and Koetter, p.13, 1978). They made use of the unprotected natural landmarks that surrounded their cities to build new urban areas (UN-Habitat, 32). The recognition of the natural layers of the territory is the first step towards assembling the co-existence between natural and man-made structures: “...to reduce the impact of natural and climatic phenomena, it is necessary to stop the urban expansion of Mexican cities.” (UN-Habitat, 37). Both natural materiality and morphology are distinctive of this metasystem’s geographic canvas, their layers ultimately consolidating its “Genius Loci”. Their reading offers the information to guide the inclusion, protection and reproduction of MetaPuebla’s large eco-habitat infrastructures, thereby generating acknowledgement upon what landscape urbanism defines as “...the relationship between the natural environments and the processes of urbanization...” (Waldheim, p. 10, 2002).

metapuebla: towards a territorial system

1ST STAGE: THE PUFF-PASTRY METHOD (DECONSTRUCTION)

Photography 11. Paseo del RÃo Atoyac. Atoyac River waterscape along 5 km in the Angelopolis area. The river goes through the MAoP. Photo:Author, 2018.

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Photography 12. Zapotecaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hill, at the North-West side of the MAoP. Photo: Norman Campos personal collection, 2020.

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Photography 13. Park of the Families at Los Fuertes de Loreto y Guadalupe, houses an eucalyptus reserve. Photo: Author, 2018.

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Photography 14. Puente Negro basin at the Northmost area of the MAoP. During rainy months, it represents a flooding danger. Photo: Protecciรณn Civil Puebla twitter account, 2019.

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Photography 15. View from the Zapotecaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hill to the MAoP, La Malinche mountain at the back. Pollution is visible. Photo: Norman Campos personal collection, 2020.

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1ST STAGE (The Puff-Pastry Method | Deconstruction) II. SOCIAL SYSTEM STRUCTURE The second deconstructed system structure describes the layers of the social components of MetaPuebla related to either built or intangible urbanities. The social structures of the metasystem are the result of people’s activities, dynamics and behaviours, which take place in this precise territory, and condition its material space. The human factor is inherent to any entity defined as urban, for cities are man-made places per se. Hence, it is fundamental to determine which are the spaces related to human activities, and analyse how they are relating one another, for “...the city project is necessarily bound to... the practical need to make different institutions complementary, including the market, democratic systems, social opportunities, political freedom and other institutional subjects.” (Serreli, p.2, 2013). In order to achieve this, the material-space-related activities are here represented by the available “Services and Amenities”, and the quality of life systems offered in the city integrate the “Democratic Infrastructures”. Whereas, the “Population Descriptions” give an insight into the meta-citizens, and their dynamics and behaviours across the territory are framed through “Economic Descriptions”. The “Economic Descriptions” of the social structure can give insight on the relationship between people’s activities and behaviours, to define to what capacity it’s possible to establish a multiplicity of specialised circuits in the metasystem. In this sense, it becomes important to read the agglomerations that are defining each of the social layers, whenever they are relating to existing physical conditions (Serreli, pp.6-8, 2013). For such assembles can specify the role of the various sites that integrate the MAoP, therefore stablishing a criterion for future integral decision making. The deconstruction of the social system structure into its composing layers it’s the first step into a social-sustainable city design that strengthens “...the various institutions defending the different, interrelated kinds of freedom (and people): the market, the state, the media, political parties, schools and non-governmental organisations.” (Serreli, p.4, 2013).

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Photography 16. View from the cable car at Los Fuertes Hill 01. Photo: Secretariat of Tourism of Puebla, via TelefÃ©rico Puebla twitter account, 2018.

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Photography 17. View from the cable car at Los Fuertes Hill 02. Photo: Secretariat of Tourism of Puebla, via TelefÃ©rico Puebla twitter account, 2018.

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Photography 18. Women leading the offer and demand dynamics at a weekly street market in a San Jerรณnimo Caleras neighbourhood. Photo: author, 2017.

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Photography 19. Accesibility in a sidewalk being tested at the first complete street in the MAoP, Forjadores Boulevard, in San Pedro Cholula. Photo: author, 2017.

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Photography 20. A considerable ammount of elder people living in the rural areas of the MAoP are still economically active. Elder biker at Forjadores Boulevard, in San Pedro Cholula. Photo: author, 2017.

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Photography 21. The corridor of services Angelopolis, which is the most luxurious and expensive area, stands over a former natural reserve called Atlixcayotl at the South-East of the MAoP. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2019. 82

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Photography 22. Students of different education levels moving aroung the public transport transfer zone. Moving to school can be complicated in the MAoP. Photo: author, 2019.

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Photography 23. Physiotherapeutic campaign during Vía Recreativa Puebla. For health prevention, it’s fundamental for authorities to rely on these mobile health clinics. Photo: author, 2019.

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Photography 24. Religious procession up to the top of the Pyramid of Cholula, to the Remedios Virgin Sanctuary. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2019.

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Photography 25. Traditional crafts market El Pariรกn, downtown Puebla. Photo: Secretariat of Tourism of Puebla, via its official twitter account, 2018.

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Photography 26. Regional Museum of Cholula, at the Eastern side of the Pyramid of Cholula base. Photo: author, 2019.

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Photography 27. Blessed Sebastián de Aparicio memorial, a symbol of benign Colonial authority encompassing State and Church, part of the MAoP’s identity. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2018.

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Photography 28. An improvised basketball court in FOVI-San Juan Caleras. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s common to find sport facilities put together by commuters, making use of s.l.o.a.p.s in the territory. Photo: author, 2017.

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Photography 29. San Jerรณnimo Caleras neighbourhood area is one of the priority areas for social development in the MAoP. Photo: author, 2017.

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Photography 30. Cages for cars in low-income social housing areas of San Bartolo, MAoPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s South-side. Robbery of cars and other types of violence is usual in economically vulnerable communities. Photo: author, 2017.

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Photography 31. Reforma Avenue, next to Pueblaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heritage site. One of the most economically dynamic areas besides the Atlixcayotl-Angelopolis area in the MAoP. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2019.

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Photography 32. Also common in low-income social housing areas is a space-ghosting phenomenon due to the lack of urban services, amenities and mobility. San Bartolo housing. Photo: author, 2017.

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Photography 32. Housing density slowly overcrowds and moves into landscapes, dangerously turning into slums. Borders between Alseseca River, Jardines de San Manuel and la Margarita neighbourhoods. Photo: author, 2017.

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Photography 33. In other areas of the MAoP, housing is built extensive and horizontally, thus growing organically, breaking borders of built and country. San Ramรณn lowsocial housing area. Photo: author, 2017.

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Photography 34. Pueblaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cathedral Square, in front of the Town Council of Puebla, remains to be as of this day as the most important open square in the MAoP. Photo: Norman Campos personal collection, 2020.

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Photography 35. Atlixcayotl linear park. Most of the MAoPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parks are not considered as such, due to their location or official function. In this case, the park is controversially categorised as a cicleway. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2019.

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Photography 36. Rural areas to the Northwest of the MAoP. Water basins are fundamental for the natural and economic production of this particular region. Recovery systems are vulnerable. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2019.

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1ST STAGE (The Puff-Pastry Method | Deconstruction) III. ARTIFICIAL SYSTEM STRUCTURE The third deconstructed system describes the layers of the construct infrastructure components of MetaPuebla, inherent to its manufactured territorial sprawl. The man-made infrastructures consolidate the sites, networks and connections that keep the urban grain as a functional, integral and communicated entity. The artificial structure binds together the layers of the previous deconstructed systems. So, the territorial scale of the first and second stages enable to address it as the physical substrate upon which the manufactured environment rests. This implies that its built trackable elements contain and supply the city with the necessary physical – or material – services, whenever “Deficient urban fabrics require the improvement of the supply of services, equipment, public spaces, transport and the availability of sources of employment, as well as institutional arrangements and comprehensive programmatic developments” (UN-Habitat, 36). The morphologic system is the first layer out of deconstructing MetaPuebla’s urban fabric, or in other words, the form of its grid. SEDATU has classified the urban trace of Mexican cities in three grid types: broken-dish, reticular and ring-shaped (SEDATU, p.57, 2018). This simple approach to existing city configurations synthesises the identity of the existing physical networking road and public services supply systems. The metasystem’s existing morphologic grids integrate the manufactured founding-canvas of the artificial system structure. These “Manufactured Physicalities” also compile systems of physical points such as joints, grid stabilizers, squares, terraces, gardens, and of physical interlaced series of them, such as corridors and complexes (Rowe and Koetter, pp.151-174, 1978). These punctual systems also rest upon the grid of the morphologic system, using it to communicate and merge with the rest of the metasystem through the artificial network-systems. The way in which points are positioned along the grid, defines levels of agglomeration and dispersion, absence and massing, about the specific physical layer they integrate inside the urban fabric. Thereby, if the artificial structure is also the main physical substrate of the metasystem, then the mapping of the aforementioned artificial elements can be intended to hint about the existence of an urban public space layer-system. (See Image 18). The deconstruction of the artificial system structure into its composing layers of material fluxes, networks and points, and the analysis of how these are agglomerated, dispersed, physically massed and/or physically absent, are “...Focusing on space and the role of technology (supply lines) in enabling new spatial relationships - again avoiding questions of style – (which) will put us in an excellent position to understand where architecture and

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The deconstruction of the artificial system structure into its composing layers of material fluxes, networks and points, and the analysis of how these are agglomerated, dispersed, physically massed and/or physically absent, are “...Focusing on space and the role of technology (supply lines) in enabling new spatial relationships - again avoiding questions of style – (which) will put us in an excellent position to understand where architecture and urbanism are heading in the coming years” (Maki, p.130, 2008).

Image 18. A diagram representing the public space system as a one philosophy, thus a one continuity of spaces and infrastructures. This was the first idea scheme for the elaboration of this framework. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020.

Photography 37: the infrastructures of the territorial manufactured landscape. The Atlixcayotl lineal park transforms into an elevated cycleway running along one of the biggest motorised mobility infrastructure in the MAoP. The Atlixcayotl Boulevard effectively modifies the sociospatial geophysical fabric of Southern region of the MAoP. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2018.

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Photography 38. Boulevard 5 de Mayo. Built in the 1960s upon the pipeline process of the San Francisco River. Infrastructures altering the territory. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2019.

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Photography 39. Pedestrian crossing at elevated road over Las Ă nimas neighbourhood. Motorised mobility as a priority in the system endangers all kinds of users. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2019. 122

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Photography 40. Women riding a â&#x20AC;&#x153;combiâ&#x20AC;? in Forjadores Boulevard. Most of the trans-territorial public transport system relies in this units, many of them non regulated by authorities, and with unclear travel routes. Photo: author, 2018.

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Photography 41. People using the complete street Boulevard Forjadores, in San Pedro Cholula. Unfortunately, the scheme runs only through five of thirteen kilometres, due to different administrative localities and the lack of territorial governance. Photo: author, 2018. 126

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Photography 42. Status of the urban green areas around Reforma Avenue and San Felipe Boulevard. The junction is one of the most dangerous for non-motorised users to pass by. Photo: author, 2019.

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Photography 43. Shot of the articulated transport system RUTA running through its Northmost line. Can you imagine what those drivers at the back may do to a pedestrian or a biker? Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2020.

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Photography 44. The industrial corridor Puebla 2000 (in the middle) brought in updating amenities (Cuauhtemoc Stadium in the back), and also new complexes and infrastructures that altered its previous rural context (front). Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2018.

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Photography 45. S.L.O.A.P.s are becoming voids of both territorial and local scale, places where nothing happens, surrounded by built randomness. FOVI-San Juan Caleras neighbourhood. Photo: author, 2017.

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1ST STAGE (The Puff-Pastry Method | Deconstruction) IV. DECONSTRUCTED MATRIX As described in Zoom In–Zoom Out, the 1st Stage of the analysis of MetaPuebla (the Puff-Pastry Method or Deconstruction) makes use of collected data and graphic elements to deconstruct MetaPuebla in its composing layers of systems, representing them through a mapping method. In order to describe and analyse each of them, they are distributed under four frames of Systemic Structures: X. Memory (of how the urban expansion evolved across time and territory into a “Manufactured Territory” and “Violence/Fragmented City”). I. Natural Structure (the environmental and biotic materiality and morphology of its geographic canvas, consolidating its “Genius Loci”). II. Social Structure (the structures result of human activities materialised as “Services and Amenities” and “Democratic Infrastructures”, and of human dynamics and behaviours condensed in “Population Descriptions” and “Economic Descriptions”. III. Artificial Structure (the “Manufactured Physicalities” of man-made infrastructures that supply the city with the necessary physical services inherent to urban life). Each of the generated systemic layers or maps were numbered using the roman numerals of the frames they belong to as the first number of their number-code. The second number of their code is an Arabic numeral that indicates their list order in their correspondent frame. For a better understanding of the results, the obtained mapped-layers are not only listed, but arranged in a matrix that uses a graphic representation that shows them as a set of input-output data (see Image 19). In other words, the deconstructed matrix is a proposed interface for a better analysis understanding. The first input is represented by MetaPuebla, from which the frames of systemic structures are the output. The following column of output data is the sequence of deconstructed layers that come out of the frames, treated as linked dependants. Both the list of numbers (see Image 20) and the interface of the deconstructed matrix are the basic tools of the next stage of this work’s proposed analysis method: “Overlaying Operations” (towards an integral-urban operation and knowledge economy vision). “If the architecture that excites us today has to do with investigating qualities of translucency, screening, and the creation of overlapping spaces and visions, this might indicate a sociological trend more than a formal one: with the dissolution of traditional space-defining elements, we are becoming more sensitive in perceiving subtle indications of territorial definition.” (Maki, p.138, 2008).

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(left) Image 19. The Deconstructed Matrix. Source: author, 2020. (right) Image 20. Code making elements so far. Source: author, 2020 138

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2ND STAGE (Overlaying Operations | towards integral-urban operations + knowledge economy) I. DIALECTICS: PUBLIC SPACE + LANDSCAPE The 2nd Stage of my work’s analysis methodology gives an interpretation of the mapped systemic layers by rearranging the ways in which they are overlaying, producing an indexing of data. The objective is to define specific circuits, corridors and sectors that relate to and/or integrate the public space system. As pointed out in Deconstruct + Reconstruct and Artificial System Structure, I propose that the public space system has the capacity to integrate all the urban variables – tangible and intangible – whenever it improves or generates functional, integral and communicated spaces, linking the systemic structures altogether. To define the capacity of public space to integrate an urban-improvement catalyst system, besides enlisting and describing its physical conditions, it’s fundamental to study how these spaces are interacting with all the existing variables of urban layers. To do so, I perform six different overlaying operations between the territorial graphic planar dimension of specific systems of the Deconstructed Matrix. Accordingly, dynamics and behaviours between them are highlighted, thus becoming readable, and later on, indexed. Is there an urban public space system within the metasystem, and if there is, is it possible for it to be the catalyst for metropolitan transformation through local multisite interventions? The decision I made of choosing the public space system as an urban regenerator rather than any other of the integrating MetaPuebla’s system is synthesised by its inherent condition of binding together the different parts of the city (or separating or neglecting them when deficient or non-existent), enhancing a multi-site scheme. To that end, it uses the different tangible and intangible fluxes, networks and points of its systemic frame structure, and of others. Ultimately, public space is a mediating artefact/system. Nevertheless, the concept of public space is usually related to a town scale, rather than to a territorial one. Silvia Serreli, Landscape and Urban Planning researcher (2013), has been able to define the landscape and public space concepts as trans-scalar components. She recognises that, as cities have merged with surrounding towns and territories -especially in developing countries-, the large landscape areas left in between -spaces left over after planning- or around the sprawl, have become mediating spaces of a “variety of ways of life... (and) of values of a place” (Serreli, p.12, 2013). Just as public spaces link ways of life and different places in cities. Years before, the architect and urbanist Charles Waldheim, in an article for the PRAXIS journal mentioned that landscape assumes functions of the public space: “Landscape is a medium... uniquely capable of temporal change, transformation, adaptation and succession... and change, demanded by contemporary urban conditions.” (Waldheim, p.13, 2002).

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2ND STAGE Therefore, it’s possible to establish shared similarities between the concepts of public space and landscape: plurality (of public happenings), culturally influenced, horizontal scheme (of expansion), spaces of collective interactions and dynamics, spaces of possibilities (for sustainable development, social cohesion, social capital enhancement and improvement of quality of life), exposed to decay and dissolution (when city administration fails to regulate them, thus relying on efficient urban planning and citizenship), and they are subjected the paradigm of “image-gardening” (Serreli, pp.1214, 2013). In synthesis, the public space is to local/site scale what landscape is to territorial scale: “... as the very ordering mechanisms of the urban field itself, capable of shaping and shifting the organization of urban settlement rather than offering predictable images of pastoral perfection.” (Waldheim, p.13, 2002). Based on the mentioned dialectics, the overlaying operations and indexes of the following section define specific circuits, corridors and sectors (multi-sites) to implement future integral-urban operations proposals, under an urban-knowledge economic vision, and to define a public-space/landscape system.

(Overlaying Operations | towards integral-urban operations + knowledge economy) II. OVERLAYING OPERATIONS

The 1st Stage of deconstruction is a pragmatic process that manages to objectively describe the metasystem’s components, but lacks to fully acknowledge how the elements are actually behaving towards it. Whereas almost all the deconstructed systems in my work are the result of anthropogenic processes - thus making humans implicit to them - it is essential to break the material rigidness of the approach and start transferring it to place making elements. My framework proposes the system of public-space/landscape as means to direct the analysis to space designed for people. In this 2nd Stage I propose an exercise of indexing in order to recognise people within the mapped data, besides executing the analysis operations of overlapping systems towards an integral landscape/public-space responsive system. The sequences of indexing tell the process of the abstract thinking of the deconstructed mapped systems, highlighting collective-life’s dynamics in them, specifically those of MetaPuebla’s citizens. Indexing is the interpretation of the previously mapped data. For each overlaying operation I set two sequences of mappings: the first is a direct overlaying of the chosen deconstructed maps, and the second is the indexing of cartographic information, expressing it in a diagram-like map. Both integrate the reading of the overlaying operation. For example, the first reading is made by overlaying the following deconstructed systems: X.06-Manufactured sprawl, II.14-Marginalisation, III.03Barrier elements, and III.08-Urban voids. The first map shows the direct overlaying of their original elements. The second map indexes their relations. By doing so, it interprets existences such as: X.06 Rural expansion, II.14 Vulnerable satellites, III.03 Divisive elements and III.08 Spaces left over after planning. The reading shows that they are co-existing in a “pushing away” dynamic that goes from the MAoP’s centre to its peripheral areas. Both analysis-maps feature an interface showing the data used as input from the Deconstructed Matrix. The following pages show the indexing process of the overlaying operations.

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A1. Manufacturing forces [Overlaying study]. The first overlaying operation is made between the layers X.06 Manufactured sprawl, II.14 Marginalisation, III.03 Barrier elements and III.08 Urban voids, of deconstructed systems. Above: mapped overlaid operation. Below: interface shows the input data from the Deconstructed Matrix used in this analysis. Source: author, 2020. 144

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A2. Manufacturing forces: pushing away [Indexing study]. The first indexing reads the information of the layers as X.06 Rural expansion, II.14 Vulnerable satellites, III.03 Divisive elements and III.08 Spaces left over after planning. These elements are creating altogether a pushing away movement from the centre to the peripheral areas. Above: indexing operation. Below: interface shows the input data from the Deconstructed Matrix used in this analysis. Source: author, 2020. 146

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B1. Dual city [Overlaying study]. The second overlaying operation is made between the layers X.08 Crime tipping points, II.14 Marginalisation, III.02 Road violence and III.08 Urban voids, of deconstructed systems. Above: mapped overlaid operation. Below: interface shows the input data from the Deconstructed Matrix used in this analysis. Source: author, 2020. 148

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B2. Dual City: Counter reaction [Indexing study]. The second indexing reads the information of the layers as X.08 Inequality responses, II.14 Vulnerable satellites, III.02 Inequality infrastructure and III.08 Segmented society landscapes. These elements are negatively counter-reacting to the pushing-away move of the central area. Above: indexing operation. Below: interface shows the input data from the Deconstructed Matrix used in this analysis. Source: author, 2020. 150

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C1. Urban knowledge [Overlaying study]. The third overlaying operation is made between the layers II.07 Education centres, II.11 Museums + Heritage, III.03 Public transport, III.04 Non-motorised mobility and III.07 Industrial complex, of deconstructed systems. Above: mapped overlaid operation. Below: interface shows the input data from the Deconstructed Matrix used in this analysis. Source: author, 2020. 152

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C2. Urban knowledge: dispersion [Indexing study]. The third indexing reads the information of the layers as II.07 Knowledge circuits, II.11 Identity circuits, III.03 Connectivity, III.04 Complete streets possibility and III.07 Production circuits. The elements are irregularly dispersed across the territory; fragmented corridors and circuits. Above: indexing operation. Below: interface shows the input data from the Deconstructed Matrix used in this analysis. Source: author, 2020. 154

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D1. Connecting landscapes [Overlaying study]. The fourth overlaying operation is made between the layers X.06 Manufactured sprawl, I.02 Topographic, I.05 Landmarks | Landscapes, III.01 Road system, and III.02 Barrier elements, of deconstructed systems. Above: mapped overlaid operation. Below: interface shows the input data from the Deconstructed Matrix used in this analysis. Source: author, 2020. 156

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D2. Connecting landscapes: linking peripheria [Indexing study]. The fourth indexing reads the information of the layers as X.06 Rural expansion | productive green, I.02 Physical-natural constraints, I.05 Territorial public space, III.01 Connectivity, and III.02 Divisive elements. The elements integrating a ring peripherical phenomena, possibly linking to the internal space of the territory. Above: indexing operation. Below: interface shows the input data from the Deconstructed Matrix used in this analysis. Source: author, 2020. 158

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E1. Urban fabrics [Overlaying study]. The fifth overlaying operation is made between the layers X.06 Manufactured sprawl, I.02 Topographic, I.05 Landmarks | Landscapes, II.11 Museums + Heritage, II.20 Open squares, III.01 Road system, III.02 Barrier elements, and III.05 Urban green areas, of deconstructed systems. Above: mapped overlaid operation. Below: interface shows the input data from the Deconstructed Matrix used in this analysis. Source: author, 2020. 160

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E2. Urban fabrics: Center + peripheria [Indexing study]. The fifth indexing reads the information of the layers as X.06 Expansion of productive green, I.02 Physical-natural constraints, I.05 Territorial public space, II.11 Identity circuits, II.20 Joints + articulators, III.01 Connectivity, III.02 Divisive elements, and III.05 Urban public space. The selected elements show the possibility of linking central and peripheric areas through sequences or corridors. Above: indexing operation. Below: interface shows the input data from the Deconstructed Matrix used in this analysis. Source: author, 2020. 162

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F1. Composing Multi-site [Overlaying study]. The sixth overlaying operation is made between the layers X.06 Manufactured sprawl, I.02 Topographic, I.05 Landmarks | Landscapes, II.06 Services + Amenities, II.14 Marginalisation, II.20 Open squares, III.01 Road system, III.02 Barrier elements, and III.05 Urban green areas, of deconstructed systems. Above: mapped overlaid operation. Below: interface shows the input data from the Deconstructed Matrix used in this analysis. Source: author, 2020. 164

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F2. Composing Multi-site: Circular multi-site [Indexing study]. The sixth indexing reads the information of the layers as X.06 Expansion of productive green, I.02 Physicalnatural constraints, I.05 Territorial public space, II.06 Specialised sectors, II.14 Vulnerable communities, II.20 Joints + articulators, III.01 Connectivity, III.02 Divisive elements, and III.05 Urban public space. The elements have defined areas conforming a peripherical ring of multi-site dynamic opportunities. Elements also are dispersed across the territory. Above: indexing operation. Below: interface shows the input data from the Deconstructed Matrix used in this analysis. Source: author, 2020. 166

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Image 21. 2nd Stage analysis direct overlaying indexing products, arranged as a sequence. Source: author, 2020. 168

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2ND STAGE (Overlaying Operations | towards integral-urban operations + knowledge economy) III. RECONSTRUCT MATRIX As described in Deconstruct + Reconstruct, the 2nd stage of the MetaPuebla framework (Overlaying operations) indexes the mapped layers produced in the 1st Stage of my work to read information that is relevant to a quantitative approach. The indexing of the overlaid data has focused in the recognition of diversely characterised circuits and sectors within the metropolis. These, related to the composition of a public-space/landscape system. Thus, specific territorial areas capable to host future urban-integral articulating elements have been detected in the territory. The undertaken overlaying operations are: manufacturing forces (A1), dual city (B1), urban knowledge (C1), connecting landscapes (D1), urban fabrics (E1), and composing multi-site (F1). The following indexed readings were generated from them: pushing away (A2), counterreaction (B2), dispersion (C2), linking peripheries (D2), centre + peripheria (E2), and circular multi-site (F2). Each of the generated graphic operations and indexes are classified under a general “reading action”, represented by an uppercase letter from A to F. Next to it, the number “1” represents an overlaying operation, and number “2” its particular indexing. For a better understanding of my work’s results, the graphic readings mentioned above are arranged in the same matrix interface as the deconstructed layers of the 1st Stage (see Image 22). That is, the products generated in the 2nd Stage are placed as a consecutive set of output data following the first ones’ arrangement. The overlaying operations are outputs linked from the different systemic layers; their dependent connections graphically represented. Next, the sequence of indexes generated by them is directly associated. In this way, the final output of the MetaPuebla matrix interface is the synthesis and reconstruction of both overlaying and indexing actions: MultiPuebla, a set of possibilities to break down the manufacturing codes, and reconstruct the MAoP (see Image 23), to be fully presented in the conclusive chapter MultiPuebla. The overlaying operations and indexing interpretations integrate a methodology that not only overlaps, but joints different systems and variables whose relationship in the territory usually goes unnoticed (e.g. between education centres and the presence of public squares). In some cases, the overlaying of usually considered opposite systems has given a further explanation to current complex situations. For example, reading “B” taking elements from reading “A”, shows a relationship between located high crime-rate areas

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and the infrastructures of the high-road system, whose built elements seem to endanger the transit of pedestrians, bikers and drivers alike, while offering hide-and-seek places for criminals. In other cases, the procedure has connected systems of different scales, acknowledging the possibility of important trans-scalar complementary corridors. For example, reading “C” suggests a sequence between the industrial complexes and the main lines of services as their footprints compose linear corridors, something that reading “D” actually stresses, thus demonstrating the viability to create a system from the concepts exposed in Dialectics: Public Space + Landscape. By understanding the system’s physical relationships and how these impact in the territory through the proposed methods, my work sets an urban-integral-operations thinking. On the other hand, as this framework aims to set the ground for future urban-knowledge economies, the overlaying operations offer the opportunity to expose how the economic and social activities are physically translating into the territory. For example, reading “C” recognises a disperse scheme of such activities, whereas reading “E” shows that in some areas these are related to local public squares. In other words, there’s a possibility for multi-site centres with the capacity for economic growth, social empowering, identity empowerment, bio-cycles recovery, etc. Finally, this stage’s products synthesise the deconstruction process by reconstructing the matrix, and defining specific spatial relations (circuits, corridors, sectors) to be considered as frameworks for future proposals. As reading “F” highlights, the most important territorial dynamic is a circular-like peripheral sequence of sectors. These are integrated by marginalised settlements with urban sub-centres (former towns), rural-use lands and landscape elements, whether green plains, forest patches, hills or riverfronts. I propose to define sectors as peri-urban regions. Parallel to this, another important territorial dynamic is the network of corridors of mobility and uses that links the peri-urban regions with the protected heritage centres. Or in other words, the spatial sequence that relates de original cities with the urban expansion. The MultiPuebla chapter will use planetary urbanism principles to propose a territorial framework with the information obtained by the overlaying operations. Before moving into territorial proposals, I must define a methodology to intervene specific regions and sites within the MAoP, one that responds to the integral (planetary) system of landscapes and public spaces. For this, up to this point, besides the matrix interface, my work has generated two set of codes for the final 3rd Stage of analysis: the numbers of deconstructed systems/layers and the alphanumeric listing of reconstructing operations/ indexes (see Image 24). “The dominant trend of twentieth- century architecture and urbanism could be described as the evolution of space...” (Maki, 130), whereas “It is not style or representation that keeps architecture relevant to the city but, rather, the spatial relationships it creates in the image of society” (Maki,138).

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Image 22. The Reconstructed Matrix. Source: author, 2020 172

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(left) Image 23. MULTIPUEBLA first proposal framework concept, based on readings A-F. Source: author, 2020. (right) Image 24. Code making elements so far. Source: author, 2020. 174

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(Decode + Code | Programming Reconstruct) The 1st Stage of the MetaPuebla analysis method deconstructed the metapolis into its layered components by mapping and arranging them into four frames of systemic structures, both set of elements being represented in a matrix to understand how they are interlacing together. The 2nd Stage of this examination process performed different overlaying operations using the deconstructed matrix elements and interface. This led to an indexing diagnostic of each of the overlaid sequences, resulting in the definition of large zones in the territory whose areas can be suitable for integral-urban-operation projects. Now, in the 3rd Stage, the framework sets the analysis process to assess the conditions of any of these sites, considering that their inherent scale is not territorial, but local. The results of this assessment integrate a diagnosis that works as the evidence to support any architectural program/space proposal. Put differently, the 3rd Stage establishes an urban/architectural programming method for areas occupied by urban communities. To do so, it presents three tools to study, diagnose, and intervene their built environment in the metasystem: (i) Infrastructures inventory, (ii) Matrix of criteria indicators, and (iii) Sustainability radar. As mentioned, they can be used to evaluate existences, inform and program proposals, and monitor the performance of recently built projects and operative structures. The thinking process behind the definition of this work’s proposed urban-architectural programming tools were described in the chapter Deconstruct + Reconstruct of this work. There it’s mentioned that these reconstructive instruments are based on the HQDIL (Chaguetmi and Derradji, p.2, 2019), and QUEP (Hadji, p.858, 2012) methods, using guidelines established by the New Urban Agenda and the UN-Habitat Secretariat. The process combines the indicators of the QUEP method –specific criterion that measures the status of a given element in the space– with the objectives/targets of the HQDIL method –measurable descriptions on sustainability, action axis-, thus adapting them to this work’s purposes. The Decode + Code concept refers to the diagnosis of the current conditions of a site area –decode-, and to the responses that, directly based on it, space design proposes to solve, improve, or create ideal ones –code-. In this sense, the action of programming through a clear set of alike data and criteria -the assessment indicators and action axis– attempts to enhance informed design-decision making. Therefore, it’s important to remember that the final codes of this framework are composed by the “numbers” of the territorial deconstructed layers and overlaying indexes, and the “letters” of the reconstructive program spaces (see image 20, code making elements). As explained in Zoom In–Zoom Out, they are the means to track the global impact of the local proposals in the territory. Neighbourhood-scale design reconfigures the relationship

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between individuals and their capacity for collective action (Serreli, p.10, 2013), as “territory enables the reconfiguration of the city...into places in which the power of small gestures is also felt in community ties...” (Serrelli, p.11, 2013).

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(Decode + Code | Programming Reconstruct) i) Infrastructures inventory (see Image 25) The first instrument enlists and diagnoses the physical existing structures of the area, similar to how any classical urban/architectural site analysis does (Chaguetmi, p.5, 2019). These are classified in four fields: (1) residential space, (2) non-residential space, (3) no built spaces, and (4) infrastructures (Chaguetmi, pp.5-10, 2019). Next to the listed classification, the elements composing the fields are named or described, for example as housing, types of urban equipping, commercial activities, economic activities, public spaces, green areas, underused areas, mobility services, roads, public services networks, etc. In other words, the fields and the spaces that define each field:

1. Residential space (housing typologies). 2. Non-residential space (spaces serving the housing areas, facilities and services, industrial and tertiary activities centres, production and/or commercial places). 3. No built spaces (manufactured open spaces like public squares, green areas, left over after planning natural/landscape areas, open public spaces). 4. City supply and communication infrastructures. (Chaguetmi, pp.5-10, 2019)

Finally, in the last column of the inventory, the use of each of the elements is addressed by stating specific data about them. This is important to establish a clear relation between these local existences and this framework’s sustainable visions. The way in which people are using them can early identify strengths, weaknesses, potentials, disfunctions, needs and/or wishes of both built space and community (Chaguetmi, p.6, 2019). The following are examples of “use” fill-in information: percentages of use, density of population, social marginality rates, data on insecurity, overcrowded places information, notion about an object/space, quality status, resilience status, number of accidents, accessibility, etc.

Image 25. Left: i) Inventory heading showing “field”, “structure”, and “use” columns. Right: ii) Matrix of 10 criteria indicators. The numbers next to each of the matrix criterion makes a reference to the inventory, for they inform one another. Source: handdrawn sketch by author, 2020. 178

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ii) Matrix of criteria indicators (see Image 25)

Finally, the urban/architectural program of a local proposal can be coded by the three sets of generated codes, responding to a community’s specific conditions while establishing actions of territorial impact (see Images 27-28).

The second instrument translates the status of the listed infrastructures into a set of public space quality indicators, which synthesise a given individual criterion (Hadji, p.861, 2012). This criterion is indeed a specific use or function, an indicator of collectiveness. By doing this, the spatial elements are given a specific role that shifts their classical definition into an integral-urban operation strategy. There’s no limit in the number of elements that may be translated into each criterion, as it’s also possible that none of the given elements are relating to an indicator.

iii) Sustainability radar (see Image 26) The third instrument is the graphic representation of the quality of living of the area through public space, but defined by five sustainable development objectives – treated as axes -. In this way, the emphasis is made in the sustainability of collective life through given spatial elements. Even if these are not characterised as “public open spaces” or “urban green areas” per se, but have a role in the community’s public life: “...public places are private places in the most fundamental sense...people are discovering in cities such places with dual meanings, and cities are increasingly being required to provide such spaces.” (Maki, p.124, 2008). Ergo, the five axes of the radar are: (a) heritage + resources, (b) local environmental quality, (c) diversity, (d) integration, and (e) social link (Chaguetmi, p.14, 2019). The indicators of the matrix are informing the radar, therefore their synthesis into letters integrate the final element of the programming codes. As architectural or urban infrastructures are assessed or proposed, they make reference to a particular axis code.

Image 26. A diagram showing the (iii) sustainable radar and its five-dimension axes of sustainable development objectives. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020. 180

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27. A diagram representing the concept behind the coding process – or characterization – of the space programs of the specific site. The 1st stage of deconstruction defines a series of territorial systems, synthesised as numbers, and arranged in a matrix. The 2nd stage overlays the mapped elements, defining strategical areas of implementation. The 3rd stage programs urban-architectural elements towards an integral urban operation. The coexisting elements are listed as letters. Its local insertion has an impact in the territorial system, and vice versa. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020. 3RD STAGE: DECODE + CODE (PROGRAMMING RECONSTRUCT)

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28. Code making elements, final list. Source: author, 2020. 182

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Photography 46: February 2020 protests across the Reforma Avenue, as public safety is threatened by different crime and violent events across the MAoP. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2020. 3RD STAGE: DECODE + CODE (PROGRAMMING RECONSTRUCT)

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MULTIPUEBLA. (CONCLUSION) I.MULTIPUEBLA City as a multisite solution through a public-space/landscape framework. In this part of the conclusion chapter I use planetary urbanism principles to propose a territorial ordnance zoning framework with the information I obtained –and coded- during the overlaying operations of the 2nd Stage. In other words, in this chapter I present MultiPuebla. This final cartographic proposal finds its inspiration in the Urban Switzerland proposals developed under the planetary urbanism theory by Christian Schmid, Neil Brenner, Nikos Katsikis and the Urban Theory Lab-GSD (Brenner, pp. 398-426, 2014). In a similar way, my proposal bases its trace on “networks, borders and differences” (Brenner, p. 407, 2014) that define large specific land use patches whose morphologies are organic: they are not meant to be precise in form. However, this does not mean that they are not recognising the deconstructed variables mapped in the 1st Stage or the indexed dynamics of the 2nd stage. On the contrary, as it is based on them, this tracing exercise allows a more accurate definition of potential strategic, integral, and operative sites. By omitting the restrictions of nowadays political administrative limits, it’s possible to focus instead on defining borders of shared territorial governance: “In order to be able to cope with the new urban realities developing… old fashioned and outdated spatial representations have to be challenged.” (Brenner, p. 406, 2014). Then, these new integral-territorial borders can properly enclose the sustainable urban regions highlighted at the end of the 2nd stage. As the Urban Theory Lab of Harvard-GSD describes in Urban Switzerland: “Although maps are usually used to illustrate known facts, here they (are) employed as tools to produce knowledge”. (Brenner, p. 406, 2014). My proposed framework MultiPuebla highlights the peri-urban sectors of the MAoP as a circuit which nowadays is already existing as an orbit containing the urban sprawl. As described in Reconstruct Matrix, I have defined sectors as peri-urban regions, which are integrated by marginalised settlements. The role of the public-space/landscape system (of rural-use lands and landscape elements, whether green plains, forest patches, hills or riverfronts) is to articulate the urban fabrics existing in these regions (urban subcentres, former towns, satellite gated communities, social housing complexes, spread Juntas Auxiliares, barrios and colonias). The space-articulating function implies other two fundamental actions: containing and defining. In other words, the public-space/ landscape system “roots” urban expansion, controlling it. Then parallel to this, the system makes use of the territorial dynamic of its network of corridors of mobility –as streets are also public space-. It uses the network to link the peri-urban socio-spatial regions to the protected heritage centres. In other words, it empowers the spatial sequence and change of scale that relates original –core- cities with the rural towns and new urban areas of the expansion. This integrates the rural and urban social existences of the metropolitan phenomenon, understanding both people and spaces as a unity.

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MultiPuebla is an ordnance zoning framework which rather to be final, recognises the ever-changing complexity of the analysed MetaPuebla entity. It illustrates proposed practical strategies as territorial-physical regions to be intervened using public-space/ landscape structures. Specific locations and sites in them are to be socio-spatially programmed. “…we require adventurous, experimental and boundary-exploding methodological strategies to facilitate the empirical investigation of (urbanisation) processes. Whether or not a distinct field of urban studies will persist amidst such theoretical, conceptual and methodological innovations is a question that remains to be explored in the years and decades ahead.” (Brenner, p. 163, 2014).

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Image 29. A diagram summarising the territorial and local concepts of MultiPuebla’s framework, and their zoom in - zoom out dynamics. Five goal-axes of the proposed strategies are cross-referenced from one scale to another. Whereas the main element of the territorial approach is a circuit of multi-site regions of specific urban roles, the local ones are integral on-site projects measured by the sustainability radar. Source: Author, 2020. 186

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The MAoP is a fully urbanised territory, given by a circuit connecting various operative and functional peri-urban regions. A multi-site metropolis. These are unifying what previously was differentiated as urban settlements and rural areas. They do so using the natural landmarks across the territory. When changing the scale, they turn into public spaces, meeting regional landscapes in-between. The system defines the different land uses and value, particularly stressing on production lands, urban cores, corridors of dispersed amenities, and the public space network that connects them. And takes them back to the territorial landmarks. Source: author, 2020. CONCLUSION: MULTIPUEBLA

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Photography 47. Territorial landmarks and regional landscapes defining urban elements and dynamics. Photo: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2018.

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The remaining patches of the Southeastern Atlixcayotl-Quetzalcoatl forest reserve connects to the Eastern forest areas of Flor del Bosque through the Atoyac river, and its tributary basins and rivers. Then landmarks go north, meeting the basis forest of La Malinche mountain. These territorial landmarks and regional landscapes canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be addressed as voids anymore. Any public space proposal inside the urban cores or along the networks has to actively respond to it. As this system maintains the structure integral and operational. Regional landscapes -riverfronts, lakes, hills, parks- reinforce the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ordnance strategies. They are local spacereferences, defining borders and transitions. Source: author, 2020. CONCLUSION: MULTIPUEBLA

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Photography 48. The urbanisation of the large territorial road connections of the MAoP implies recognising that their scheme is no longer that of a high motorised road. When MetaPuebla expanded, they became part of the city. Therefore, they need to be transformed into public spaces of a complete street scheme. Photo: author, 2017. 190

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The built infrastructures and spaces in the MAoP are condensed through the network that distributes, connects, and grants accessibility to them. Amenities and services are existing dispersed through an heterogeneous fabric in the territory. Due to the scale of the planning strategy, recognising their operative dynamics as fluxes creating complete streets corridors seems more effective. Only the original agglomerated cores are highlighted, as they function as built-metropolitan citizenship centres. However, establishing a multi-site region implies the diversification of the management and operation of the MAoP, as pointed out in the following pages. Source: author, 2020. CONCLUSION: MULTIPUEBLA

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Photography 49. Agriculture plains, farm lands, and the water basins that sustain them, are empowered by legally constituting them as production reserves. This gives citizenship and urban certainty to the rural vulnerable communities. Photo: Norman Campos personal collection, 2020. 192

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The MAoP is surrounded by large rural production areas. They are the metropolisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; main source of raw materials, food and crafts. They also house human capital that works dispersed across the territory, depending on their skills. MultiPuebla recognises rural contexts as production land reserves in the urbanisation process. This promotes clear and effective landuse policies and land value to protect them. They are part of the operational sequence of territorial spaces. Using the connectivity network, punctual site areas are defined where product process and trade -market or cultural- is given. Specific built space makes clear that these are not free-use voids. Source: author, 2020. CONCLUSION: MULTIPUEBLA

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Photography 50. As P. V. Aureli theorises, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the large sea of urbanisation and the islands that define it. Different from Aureliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visions, here the space-defining islands are not buildings, but landscape landmarks. Source: Daniel Llerandi Estrada private collection, 2019.

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The previously described elements draw together a territorial restraint strategy to control and ordain the urban expansion of MetaPuebla. They create an adaptable membrane that acknowledges urban dynamics as ever changing. Local spacedefining conditions cannot be predicted, but through clear frameworks of consecutive territorial, regional and neighbourhood scale, it is possible to keep the focus on maintaining a liveable city. Thus, building upon resilience and preventing undesirable scenarios. Source: author, 2020.

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Image 30. Following Image 29, this diagram summarises the final translation of the territorial concepts of MultiPuebla’s framework in local contexts. This, based in the axes of the 3rd stage of my MetaPuebla’s analysis methodology. Local proposals are the built architectural expressions of empowering communities across the territory. MultiPuebla -the MAoP itselffully addresses its social dimension through this Multisite Regions components. Source: Author, 2020. 196

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MetaPuebla’s indexing F2 Composing Multi-site study translates into the definition of these first eleven peri-regions in the MAoP. They constitute a sustainable territorial operation system which is meant to regenerate the detected marginalised urban settlements. Therefore, they are integrated by patches of urban sub-centres, former towns, satellite gated communities, social housing complexes, spread Juntas Auxiliares, barrios and colonias. Defined and articulated by the public-space/landscape system, they are linked by MultiPuebla’s peripheral network. They protect the rural-production lands. As Image 30 illustrates, they contain the projects developed as integral urban operations under a knowledge economy vision. Source: author, 2020. CONCLUSION: MULTIPUEBLA

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MultiPuebla Matrix. Regions are listed and given a function/role/purpose in the economic and urban process of the MAoP. The intention is not to limit diversity or to create new urban identities. It is to highlight their importance in MultiPuebla. Their systemic infrastructuresâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; components are listed. They respond to MetaPueblaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s methodology sustainable MATRIX CODES and AXES (left). Source: author, 2020. 198

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Photography 45. S.L.O.A.P.s are becoming voids of both territorial and scale, places wherehow nothing happens, spatial, social, industrial and ecological strategies are flowing and (left) Image 31.local A diagram illustrating the economic, surrounded by built randomness. FOVI-San Juan Caleras working together between scale changes, and through the elements of the MultiSite Regions system. Source: author, 2020. neighbourhood. Source: author, 2017. (right) Mapped diagram of MultiPueblaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s regions role-functions, their place in the metropolis, and the resulting linked dynamics of their interactions when operational. Source: author, 2020. 200

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MULTIPUEBLA. (CONCLUSION) II. CONCLUSION City as a multisite solution through a public-space/landscape framework. My work has defined the MAoP as a metasystem, which is a city made out of other cities, covering a territorial scheme. From this, it resulted necessary to understand, define and describe what are the systems and structures that integrate it, using the lens given by time, natural, social and artificial frames to do so. Then, some indexing operations were performed using the systemic layers contained by them, in order to define which can be used to repair the territory. For the metasystem is fragmenting the space, predating natural reserves and dividing people. The procedure also highlighted areas in which integral urban operations can be undertaken for such regenerating purpose. To ensure that the local projects will bring about an impact in the territory, a final programming method was proposed, relating the global operations with the communitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; potentials. The first part of my framework gave an overview of the urban evolution of the MAoP, understanding that the moving force behind its expansion was the privatisation process of housing of the 90â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and the lack of proper and effective land use policies before 2016. This allowed for the predation of the surrounding natural reserves and the random merging of cities surrounding Puebla Capital. Then, I list a set of current problematic conditions of this new manufactured territory: disconnected services, centralised administrations, large spaces left over after planning, predated bio-systems, undefined urban borders, citizenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s un-permanence and un-identity, space ghosting, high violence rates and the proliferation of gated communities. Things considered, the second part of my framework proposed a methodology composed by three different stages and methods to define the natural, social and built components and actions fundamental for any sustainable future of the area. My methodology was applied in the third section of the framework. The analysis methodology I designed, its three phases of methods and the results I obtained are as follow:

Image 32. The codes of MultiPuebla to crack down the manufacture ones of MetaPuebla. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020.

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1. The Puff-Pastry method that deconstructs the metasystem into its various systemic layers. The methods I used were: a. Collecting data from three sources (Mexican government open data platforms, given by local authorities, produced by author using satellite imagery), then translate it from georeferenced language to graphic-production software. b. Mappings generated with the previous methodology. c. Mapping were treated as systemic layers of meaningful composing data. They were grouped in four systemic frames: time/memory, natural, social and artificial. d. A graphic matrix interface was generated to arrange them. The elements were listed and numbered.

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In this 1st Stage I was able to define the urban expansion of the capital city of Puebla across time and territory, and the natural, demographic, social, economic, cultural and urban components of the MetaPuebla system related to space design. 2. The integral-urban operation and knowledge economy vision that re-overlaid some of the given systemic layers, identified and located the elements of an integral public space system. The methods I used were: a. Overlaying operations of the mapped elements of the previous stage. b. Indexing the data showed by this, specific circuits, corridors and areas were defined. c. The graphic matrix interface was completed, as it shows fluxes of input and output data and components, translated into codes. d. I added the codes to the already existing list for programming space. In the 2nd Stage I was able to explore the possibility of an urban public space system within the metasystem, as the spatial relations given through it offer an opportunity for metropolitan transformation through local multisite interventions. 3. The reconstructing code for a specific site to be intervened inside this one integral system of public spaces, which is the method to propose a data-driven architectural program. Based on the HQDIL and QUEP analysis methods, my framework proposes three instruments to program sustainable local proposals: a. Local infrastructures inventory. b. Matrix of criteria indicators (under a sustainable public-space/landscape system vision). c. Sustainability radar composed by five sustainable objectives: heritage and resources, local environmental quality, diversity, integration, and social link. The steps of my proposed methodology are related to those of my design-thinking process, explained through a series of hand-drawn diagrams. Once the methodology stages were executed, digital imagery took over graphic mappings and interfaces to describe the data and its analysis. A parallel narrative is set in photographs showing an insight to the people and places that co-exist in the MAoP. The framework shows some basic strategies to analyse, acknowledge, diagnose and propose strategic actions under a territorial vision, aiming to future research and decision making informed through clear set of alike data and criteria. Especially but not limited to trans-scalar spatial design â&#x20AC;&#x201C; architecture and urbanism â&#x20AC;&#x201C; planning frameworks. All these, were synthesised in the conclusion chapter of MultiPuebla, where an ordnance survey proposal plan is presented, inspired by the planetary urbanism concepts of the the Urban Theory Lab of HarvardGSD. This framework is meant to serve and guide future urban-architectural planning decision making in the MAoP and in Mexico. It stands between academic work, policy and practice, for a country where these approaches are less developed or formalised. As it cracks down the codes that sustain the current urban problems, the readings of data presented can be a tool for public and private decision making, promoting a vision of shared territorial governance that implies a multidisciplinary and multisite cooperative policy within the MAoP.

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Image 32. One site of a multi-site circuit system. An early concept on territorial exteriorities intervened as punctual public space / landscaping projects. Source: hand-drawn sketch by author, 2020.

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(left) Windermere roots. Binding green: a concept on MultiPuebla’s public-space/landscape system. Photo: Author, 2020. REFERENCES

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metapuebla: towards a territorial system

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(Part 1 of 2) 2020 Martin Quiroga Mora MMU 18053620 | UOM 10611733