Cultural Corridor Chapultepec Makes Ambitious Proposal for Public Space

By Land8: Landscape Architects Network on May 11, 2016 No Comments / 8089 views

Article by Cristina Ferrara Cultural Corridor Chapultepec by FR-EE, in Chapultepec Avenue Mexico City. How many times, strolling on the street with your head held high, have you felt upstaged compared to the surrounding vehicles and buildings? Who, at least once in their life, desired to freely walk in the urban center, without worrying about one’s safety from cars, dangerous crossings, and the traffic noise? Well, something is going to change now in Mexico City because there will be a solution that is going to make the difference; a two-level green corridor running from Chapultepec Park down to the Glorieta de los Insurgentes, dedicated to pedestrians, bikes, skaters, wheelchairs, and strollers at the street level, in specifically designed lanes. It is the CCC– The Cultural Corridor Chapultepec by FR_EE Fernando Romero Enterprise, 1.3 kilometers of reinvented urban space specifically designed to give relevance to public spaces that embrace the history of places and which considers how crucial the presence of green areas are for high quality of life in any city.

Cultural Corridor Chapultepec. Image courtesy of FR-EE

Cultural Corridor Chapultepec

The project aims to “organize the surroundings, will double the green areas, will enhance connectivity and will celebrate the cultural diversity of the city” – says Fernando Romero, general director of FR-EE. Different Functions, one Goal: Make People Happy… and Active! The CCC is a multicultural approach, encouraging people to visit different creative and artistic open rooms; the theater and cinema area, water dedicated spaces, a reading and learning location, music places, and art settings. They are the fil-rouge of the pedestrian tape that lies on two levels; the ground floor and mezzanine, and the first level. Free time can be spent having ping pong matches with friends, visiting art galleries, or reading in the digital public library. Dancing spots and urban musical instruments, speakers, and a dance hall are available for all music-loving people, while a range of emotions are guaranteed at the open air auditorium; others might be stimulated at the first level cinema. If you have children, you can try kids-and-adults’ workshops, interactive fountains, or water exhibitions. All these attractions are perfectly mixed with a restorative mass of vegetation making this site the perfect place to relax and have fun.

Cultural Corridor Chapultepec. Image courtesy of FR-EE

When Arrangements and Details Make the Difference Now, you will wonder where all the traffic is; maybe you are thinking of new technological electric transports or of a drastic policy for the abolition of street vehicles, but none of this was needed. Good thing, because teleportation, at the moment, is impossible. Traffic has been simply pushed to the sides of the axis that connects Chapultepec Park to the city center and new lanes for buses have been provided so that the central space could be extended up to 57 meters in width! The CCC will include elevated walkways with detailed areas for activity and relaxation and wider, ground level walkways, bordered by bike lanes and crossed by all the perpendicular access from the near districts to the linear park. The vegetation aspect of the Cultural Corridor Chapultepec has been carefully designed; that’s why greenery will not only give shadow and relief to people, but it will also be decisive in mitigating the “heat island” effect. The corridor will be mostly be planted with a second row-order trees at the ground level, with bright foliage and a fine texture: the color changes from light to dark green until reaching the purple of some species. Together with ensuring shadow, climate control, and slight movement within the project, trees can also be considered a focal point, like landmarks for this project, visible from a distance. Lower level trees, shrubs, and perennial grasses cover almost the whole area of the first level with exceptions for the activity spaces. Their layout is not as linear as the trees’ disposition: they are rather mixed and spotted with no apparent geometrical principle and they give a sense of naturalism at the CCC. The advantages of shrubs and small trees in this project are mainly that they create natural boundaries of the areas as if they were open rooms; they also have a very good sound-absorbing effect of the noise coming from the adjacent streets, and finally, they create a visual separation from the urban hardscape surrounding the pedestrian axis. The use of materials in the project mainly involves natural flagstones for the whole paving, in a light color that seems to nicely reflect the sun’s heat, and a modest presence of steel for the railings which are mainly covered and reinforced by the shrubs at the first level; this grants the Cultural Corridor Chapultepec project a good balance between the hardscape and the softscape. In addition, the project will provide a very careful use of water for the irrigation and services since it will be utilizing recycled rainwater, and solar cells will provide electrical energy; a great sustainable project.

Cultural Corridor Chapultepec. Image courtesy of FR-EE

A Livable Urban Access The CCC is definitely a smart project offering different approaches to the city by looking at the surroundings from multiple points of view and different heights: it encourages people in walking and having fun. What earns this project the merit of being an effective and livable urban access is that the CCC is both an answer to citizens’ needs and the environment’s needs; with attention to urban and environmental requirements and the use of sustainable technologies, it is able to give high importance to both greenery and community life. Pedestrians gain priority and you will feel perfectly comfortable while you’re strolling around the center. So, if you want to be comfortable in wandering and relaxing in the middle of the city, safe and in a respected place, please consider the Cultural Corridor Chapultepec in Mexico City. What would make you more confident while walking in city centers? Go to comments

Full Project Credits For the Cultural Corridor Chapultepec:

Project Name: Cultural Corridor Chapultepec (Spanish: Corredor Cultural Chapultepec) Client: Sapi de CV Date: 2015 – 2017 Location: Chapultepec Avenue, between Lieja street and the Glorieta de los Insurgentes, Delegación Cuauhtémoc, 06700, Mexico City Program: Mixed use Construction Area: 452,085 square feet (42,000 square meters) Architects: FR-EE / FRENTE / RVDG Landscape Design: Mario Schjetnan GDU FR-EE Team: Fernando Romero, Mauricio Ceballos, Raymundo Zamora, Ignacio Méndez, Gustavo Pérez, El Mehdi Belyasmine, Montserrat Fragoso, Libia Castilla, Diego Velázquez, Alba Díaz, Gaia Cella, Pedro Ramírez, Ignacio Herrera, Aarón García, César López, Cecilia A. Pérez, Angélica Ortiz, Alejandro Magallón, Carlos Flores, Karen Soto, Antonio Carpio, Miguel Araujo, Diego Venegas, Christian García, Jessica Wang, Rigel Scarlett Dávila Cantú, Christopher Alexander Hernández Muñoz, Alan Mauricio Parra Vázquez, Ana Laura Cardoso Rodríguez, Vania Velasco Rodríguez, Oswaldo Guzmán Montero, José Jorge Carbajal Domínguez, Clarissa Moreno Tapia, María Fernanda León Sánchez, David Ari Orozco Suarte, Saúl Flores López, Adriana Jaquez Anguiano, Martha Angélica Villa Vivas, Diego Venegas Cuevas, Luis Enrique Torres Lira, Raymundo García Meneses, Edgar Campusano Ramírez, Araceli Damián Navarrete, Annia Rocha, Luis Enrique Pérez Cervantes, Viridiana Quintana García, Manuel A. Archundia Reyes, Osvaldo Jasso Vargas, Aranza Campeche Ramírez, Johana Vega Baltazar, Rodolfo Romero Chávez, Diego Guzmán Penella, Lucy Alejandra Rodríguez Iglesias, Christian García Díaz, Isabel Landín, Yair López Marín, Diego Jacobo Ruvalcaba, Alejandro Hernández Morales, Eunice Marisel Salinas Yáñez, Paola Castanedo Shaadi FRENTE / RVDG Team: Juan Pablo Maza, Ruysdael Vivanco, Jonathan Estrada, Narciso Martínez, Oriana Barrera, Mario Ramos, Mario Alquicira, Tania Juárez, Diana Pérez, Omar Velasco, Ana Pérez External Team: 24 Studio, Colinas de Buen, Ingeniería Experimental, ICA Ingeniería, Lighteam, Ildefonso Rodríguez Recommended Reading: