El Urbanismo Informal de Ciudad Mexico

I had the extreme pleasure of spending a couple of weeks in Mexico City this month, working with the rainwater harvesting group Isla Urbana in the city's Tlalpan delegacion and conducting research on DIY urban design all over town. It is an amazing place to do this research, because the range of informal urban design interventions here is staggering, on a scale to match the immensity and diversity of this amazing city.

On the one hand, as a dynamic and international 'global city,' hip cultural scenes and world-class architecture and design thinking set the stage for excellent examples of the sort of high-concept unauthorized improvements seen in L.A., Toronto, and London. Groups like Haz Ciudad - formed in large part by professional designers and planners - have embraced the concept of 'wikiciudad', the idea that anyone can edit and modify cities (see this excellent piece by my friend Jimena).

Here, Haz Ciudad's "wikilane" near the Mercado Jamaica in del. Venustiano Carranza has stayed put for months and become part of the fabric of everyday life in the neighborhood.
At the same time, however, in keeping with its duel identity as very much a southern, 'developing world' capital, Mexico City also essentially runs on informal urbanism.

Here, a couple of community members simply repave their street in a hillside neighborhood of Xochimilco. And below, an informal settlement and bodega constructed along a public bike path in Tlalpan.

Muchísimas gracias a todos en Isla Urbana y mis increíbles guías turísticos y compañeros de ciclismo Jimena y Oscar! Hasta la próxima!

(These are just a few favorites. If you feel like sifting through the less relevant stuff, please check out this album for much more DF.)