(Un)Sustainable City
March 20–23, 2020
The seventh edition of the Festival of Architecture and City will address an unavoidable issue on the urban planning and architecture agenda: the climate crisis.
If a few years ago we asked ourselves in MEXTRÓPOLI about the possibilities of the future, today it seems that the question is reduced to the possibility of any future. It seems alarmist, maybe it is. But we must not forget that behind the I want you to panic of Greta Thurnberg there is still a call of hope: I want you to act.
Densification, water and population indices are factors that are also important when thinking about the present and future of our cities, especially under a risky context in regards to the climatic conditions of the planet. Therefore, the MEXTRÓPOLI Architecture and City Festival will reflect on a fundamental theme that will allow us to build new responsibilities for the future of cities; This without leaving aside the festive spirit that invites the citizen to appropriate their spaces. The seventh Festival of Architecture and City will be an intense and enriching conference for all those interested in architecture, urban planning and culture in general.
For its 2020 edition, MEXTRÓPOLI will have the presence of:
Manuela Carmena, former mayor of Madrid in the period from 2015 to 2019. During her tenure, an environmental and pedestrianization initiative was launched that privileged the presence of the citizen over that of the automobile.
The architect and urban planner Moshe Safdie. Safdie graduated from McGill University. In 1964 he established his own firm to make Habitat’67, an adaptation of his thesis and a turning point in modern architecture.
Luis Zambrano, biologist and professor at UNAM, will propose a reflection on urban sustainability. Likewise, Phillip Rahm will expose the practice he has formed since his office, which he calls meteorological architecture and which addresses how climate can be included in construction methods. Iñaki Alday, architect and landscape architect, will also be present, recognized for his leadership in a new approach to the relationship between cities and rivers. Likewise, the Ecuadorian collective Al Borde will give the guidelines for an architecture that favors efficiency and participation. Irma Boom, Lucy McRae, Beatriz Colomina, Neba Sere and Anatxu Zabalbescoa complement the discussion from their respective disciplines: journalism, design and activism.
MEXTRÓPOLI will also maintain in its activities the architectural exhibitions, with which the public can expand their vision of the contemporary architectural exercise. The Franz Mayer Museum will house El Otro, from the Mexican Frida Escobedo. Contemporary photography of Chilean architecture will be shown in the City Museum with the Winter exhibition. For his part, in the Image Center the photographer Tomás Casademunt will exhibit his work, which proposes new techniques to portray architecture. The lighting designer Toni Arola will set up Reflections in the Arte Alameda Laboratory and, finally, the Old School of San Ildefonso will be the space that will host the Blank Sheets of Rozana Montiel and City (in) Sustainable: 20 proposals, exhibition in which Young architecture firms in Mexico will show their reflections to address the climate crisis.
MEXTRÓPOLI cannot fail to thank the support of Spanish Cultural Action (AC / SE) through its Program for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture (PICE) for its support in Mobility, with which it was possible the participation of Antoni Arola, Anatxu Zabalbescoa and Iñaki Alday in the seventh edition of MEXTRÓPOLI.
Four days to think and celebrate the city:
MEXTRÓPOLI 2020
Live the extraordinary city!
