Dane Alonso

OBJECTIVE

The arcades that coexist next to the gardens are structures that reinterpret the region´s traditional architecture. They serve as frames for the civic and leisure events required by the city. The selected materials were artisanal ochre brick, basaltic grey stone for pavements, and an extensive array of local flora species.
The generation of a civic square with a new identity was only possible by understanding and ordering the previously disarticulated spaces and giving each of the spatial elements a new role while keeping a strong relationship between them.
Different spatial and experience qualities were achieved for each of the spaces. Leisure and meeting points for the community, a civic square, and an open-air forum. Spaces that recognize and fortify the transit, pause, leisure, and encounter of their users.
The use of thoughtful architectural and landscape design generates shaded areas on the open plaza, creating diverse atmospheres throughout the gardens, ranging from a dense vegetation zone, with stone benches under tree shadows, to a civic square with hard pavements that holds its own social dynamics.

CONTEXT

Mexico is one of the world’s most seismically active regions, sitting atop several intersecting tectonic plates. In 2017, an earthquake struck September 19th (coincidentally on the 32nd anniversary of the 1985 Mexico City earth¬quake), with an estimated magnitude of Mw7.1 and strong shaking for about 20 seconds.
After the devastation caused by these two earthquakes, not only physical but also social and psychological, the reconstruction efforts in the city of Jojutla began with an inclusive participative process, where the community got involved in all projects, especially the one destined for the main civic square where neighbors gathered, celebrated, manifested and encountered with each other on a daily basis.
From the perspective of architecture and urbanism, the seismic event is of great relevance for various reasons that affect the responsibilities of our discipline. The territory, its population, the physical and social infrastructure of countless communities and millions of individuals are at stake and seeking balance.
True reconstruction is not possible without reestablishing everything that has fallen. It is urgent to re-establish the interest of society for equals in disgrace, the knowledge that is born from the memory of previous experiences, the recognition of the different (and absurd) social differences in our country, the inequity in the distribution of wealth, and the population in the territory and the misery, as well as the lack of opportunities and security that are tragically evidenced by these events.