Adaptive Infill:
Redefining Abandoned Space
in CDMX

Project Description

With the current lack of adequately sized, centrally located, affordable housing in Mexico City, no building should remain vacant and be allowed to deteriorate. This proposal utilizes the numerous earthquake damaged buildings in the city and provides a strategy to populate them with affordable housing. This idea was explored at Condominio Insurgentes, an abandoned high rise in central Mexico City. Instead of prescribing program and space to occupants, furthering the homogenization of the way we dwell, bathroom and kitchen cores are placed throughout the structure allowing residents to create and expand their home as they see fit. A structural bracing frame wraps the building reinforcing it to prevent collapse or further damage while allowing for infrastructure like circulation, water, waste and electricity to be easily reintegrated. This process facilitates flexible future construction as residents expand across the floorplate and into the space frame creating an ever growing and changing building.