This post was originally written in Spanish, and translated by the author.

The scenario

Situate yourself as the main planner in a metro area of 300,000 inhabitants in southeast Mexico. There are ongoing efforts from the national government to construct a brand new regional train that will connect your city with the wider region. In an effort to improve the connectivity of the new stations, they make 220 million USD available for you to invest in urban mobility projects for the metro area. What would you do with it?

For those unfamiliar with Mexico, that amount is usually reserved for only the largest metro areas in the country, completely unheard of for a metro area that small.

A stream of wrongful decisions

The city of Campeche in southeast Mexico faced this scenario in recent years, but one wrong decision after another meant that a historical investment ended up being a complete waste of resources.

Let's dive in…

A BRT dressed up as a LRT

Every single post I read about Campeche’s glorious LRT, I can’t help but lament it.

An investment of 220 million USD (4,200 million Mexican pesos) going straight down the drain. An amount that, in a city like Campeche, would have been enough to turn urban transportation upside down, to completely reshape the city itself. That was an unheard-of investment for a metro area of 300,000 inhabitants in Mexico.

But what is the actual issue with this LRT?

Its not even a train!

We are actually talking about a BRT (that is dressed up to look like a train), somewhat similar to the Metrobus in Mexico City.

By itself, that would only be a branding issue, a marketing gimmick. But the problem goes deeper: this historical investment only offers 10 complete trips per direction per day, with some additional trips covering just a shorter portion of the line.

The service pattern is, frankly, quite confusing. However, the fact that there are more trips on weekends than on regular weekdays suggests that the system is catering more to tourists than to actual residents.

On a side note, the poor design of the schedule information sheet reflects a complete lack of care. It's ugly and hard to read.

If we do the math, the investment per daily round trip comes out to around 22 million USD. Absolute madness.

An outrageous investment for a transit system that supports barely any frequency, something that in any other city would just be a special bus service. It wouldn’t even qualify as a regular one.

The evidence points out that the Light Rail/BRT is failing to attract trips, even lowering fares (Don’t even get me started on fare integration)

Its impact on the urban mobility of Campeche (if we are being optimistic) compared to a regular BRT project in Mexico City.

Post by Osvaldo Alejandro explaining this further (available in Spanish)

Urbes.mx

Tren ligero de Campeche: un metrobús caro y limitado

Este artículo fue originalmente un hilo en Twitter. Fue editado para urbes.mx respetando la voz del autor y con su autorización…

Read more

a year ago · 2 likes · Osvaldo Alejandro

An isolated Tren Maya and the bus-based regional transportation system

If we look at how regional transportation in Campeche works, we find two options. On one hand, we have the new Tren Maya (which is also struggling and has low frequencies); on the other, intercity buses, most of them operated by ADO, a familiar sight to anyone who has traveled to southeastern Mexico.

Despite the Tren Maya being brand new, planned and built from scratch on mostly new right-of-way, Campeche’s station was built far outside the city, without any transit connection or a clear plan for how people would access it without using taxis or cars.

What could have been the epicenter of highest regional connectivity for Campeche and its surrounding region was completely squandered, amounting to nothing more than an isolated transport terminal.

I know there were several issues that impacted the final location of the station and the rail right-of-way, but there was simply no need to build it in the middle of absolutely nothing, where nobody would find it particularly useful.

The forgotten airport

Lastly, there is Campeche’s International Airport (IATA: CPE), connecting the city at both national and international scales.

Nowadays, the airport only sees 15 weekly flights to both Mexico City airports (MEX and NLU), and demand would hardly justify any increase in frequencies any time soon. Maybe in the future a direct flight to Tijuana or a Texan hub such as Houston or Dallas might be a possibility, but compared to similarly sized cities, those 15 weekly flights are actually remarkable.

The LRT does have a station serving the airport, but again, with scattered frequencies, that connection is unreliable at best.

The missed opportunities

So this is what I’m actually saying, what I want to re-frame:

What would happen if we concentrated every transportation facility into a single maximum-access point for urban, regional, national, and international transportation in Campeche?

Instead of a fragmented transportation network, we could integrate it and make transfers seamless, from the local to the international. And no, I’m not proposing anything revolutionary, just common sense. But we keep getting it wrong in Mexico.

Imagine this scenario: you come from a smaller town in the area and arrive at the bus terminal in Campeche, where a seamless connection is available to a more frequent Tren Maya, or to catch a flight to Mexico City, where you’re just one transfer away from 100+ destinations in over 30 countries.

What kind of opportunities would this alone generate for all Campechanos and their businesses? For tourism and regional economic integration?

That’s what infuriates me, an unique opportunity to drive regional growth turned into nothing (Actually is worse because of the excessive subsidies these services require to operate).

So I decided to draft my own conceptual proposal, same budget of 220 million USD, though it could realistically be done for less.

The proposal

A central transportation hub

Everything would revolve around a central transportation hub, with plenty of space to keep developing and strengthening it.

Just across from the airport terminal, we would build an integrated Maya Train and intercity bus station. The project would also include a local bus terminal, a central parking facility, and a secure bike parking structure connected to a Dutch-style network of segregated cycling paths.

We would call this project CETRAM Campeche - standing for Center of Transportation Transfer (Centro de Transferencia Modal in Spanish). We’d definitely want some marketing people involved in the branding, but this works for the purposes of this post.

This would guarantee the intermodality and seamless connections we’ve been talking about. And given Campeche’s tropical climate, all transfers could be made within climate-controlled spaces, or even naturally comfortable ones, if the right architectural project is developed.

This would be the neuralgic point of the city: maximum access and transportation connectivity at every scale.

High frequency urban transit

Next, an urban network of high frequency busses would be in implemented. Not exactly BRT, but with some infrastructure in place:

• Only bus lanes, guaranteeing speed and reliability of the service

• Minimum 15 minutes all day all time frequency, the next bus is always about to get there. This following Jarret’s Walker thesis.

• Average stop distances of 800 m. (0.5 miles)

• Average operating speed of at least 20 km/h (12.5 miles per hour)

This might be achieved with some nice and new trolleybuses, more efficent than battery buses, and with highly appreciated AC.

My proposal contemplates two main trunk lines.

• The first one, from the city center straight to the south, ending in our CETRAM Campeche.

• The second one east to west, improving the urban connectivity and with a transfer to the other line close to the city center.

You could go from one tip of the city to the other in less than 30 minutes and minimal wait time.

Obviusly, fare integration is in order. As is a complete redesign of the cities urban buses network, but this would be the backbone.

Self-generating trip demand

All this network integration would generate a relatively high volume of trips to our CETRAM Campeche as the central hub of the city, enough to support high frequencies all day, every day.

There is simply no comparison to the scattered service of the current LRT.

This higher, concentrated demand solves a fundamental problem in urban transportation. It’s not just about the capital cost of a project, it’s about generating enough demand to sustain a high-frequency system.

What can we do with the old train right-of-way?

As a consequence of building new right-of-way for the Tren Maya, the old train tracks, already out of use and no longer needed for any future system, could be repurposed. This is especially compelling given that they run across town and connect directly to our CETRAM Campeche.

This right-of-way could become the backbone of a walk-and-ride network for Campeche. These paths, lined with trees for shade and protected from motor traffic, would offer easy, comfortable, and convenient walking and cycling opportunities, while also providing connections to our high-frequency urban bus network.

This project could stand entirely on its own, and it would completely transform both the look and the mobility of Campeche.

Airport city: a driver for economic development

Finally, returning to the area surrounding CETRAM Campeche, there’s plenty of space to do something truly meaningful.

We would start with something modest and fitting for the size of the city: a satellite campus of the state university focused on business programs and continuing education; a small shopping mall; office spaces; hotels; and some mid-rise residential complexes. Together, these would create a dynamic neighborhood around CETRAM Campeche and drive even more ridership into the system.

All of this would give Campeche a significant strategic and competitive advantage over other Mexican cities of its size, punching well above its weight.

The region-wide impact and replicability

Now imagine that similar, appropriately scaled projects were carried out in every city the Tren Maya passes through, or along some of the other federally funded passenger rail corridors. We would be seeing a completely different outcome than the one we have today.

Instead of an isolated train running through a struggling region with minimal impact, we would have an integrated and productive region articulated by a rail corridor, one capable of supporting higher frequencies thanks to genuine network integration and the economic opportunities it creates.

Yet the failure doesn’t rest solely with the national government. State and municipal governments are equally culpable, all of them consistently failing to harness the real potential of these kinds of projects.

Back to reality

So instead, what we got were mediocre projects (and heavily subsidized), mismanaged investments, and a massive lost opportunity.

An expensive and underperforming BRT dressed up as an LRT. A train station in the middle of nowhere. A fragmented urban mobility system.

High investment, minimal impact.

I do believe Mexico can do better. We need a planning and long-term visioning culture to truly transform our cities.

Changing the direction

What does it take to head in a different direction?

Not politicians or political parties, but capable, autonomous, and well-funded institutions. It’s the only way to coordinate present projects within a larger long-term plan. We need to stop making decisions aimed at cutting a ribbon in three or six years, constrained within a single political term.

That, to me, is where Mexico’s real challenge lies, and what could actually change the direction the country is headed.

Examples in Latin America? There are several. Santiago de Chile comes to mind: without much fanfare, through slow and steady building, it has created one of the largest urban rail networks in the region. But that’s a story for another post.

I’d love to hear from you, what’s your take? Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments below.

Leave a comment

Notes

Analysis

Initial Charrete

On-site sketches

Sections

Schemes

Project Description

Naves over the Willamette is a boathouse proposal centered on the experience of flotation.

The project traces the rower’s transition from land-heavy, grounded, and anchored-to water, where mass gives way to buoyancy and lightness. Architecture becomes the mediator of this passage, guiding the body through a gradual loss of weight and a shift in spatial perception.

This gradient is expressed through both programmatic and formal decisions: from solid, enclosed volumes at the upper levels to progressively open and translucent structures as the building approaches the river.

Drawing from naval traditions and the etymological roots of the nave, the project integrates modular systems, rhythmic structural repetition, and material weathering to ground the architecture within the culture of rowing and the landscape of the Willamette River

Floor plans

Renders

Project Description

5314 NE 13th Ave Affordable Housing is a four-story multifamily housing proposal located in Portland’s Vernon neighborhood. The project addresses the area’s growing affordability challenges, where relatively high incomes coexist with significant rent burden, particularly among single-parent households and seniors.

Design Strategy

The design leverages Oregon and Portland affordable housing code provisions to maximize density while remaining sensitive to the surrounding residential context. A central courtyard organizes the project, improving daylight, ventilation, and social interaction, while breaking down the building mass to reduce its perceived scale along the street.

The unit mix includes studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, supporting a diverse range of household types. Decentralized common spaces and ground-floor amenities encourage everyday interaction, strengthen community ties, and promote safety through visual connections between private and public spaces.

Unit design

Strategic openess. The layout provides open spaces, each one with an appropriate threshold allowing privacy and smooth transitions between spaces.

Split bathroom. A split bathroom allows for a most efficient use. Having an independent sink, the most commonly used amenity, reduces friction between the users.

Presentation Boards

How would a $3 billion investment, built at Mediterranean construction prices, reshape your city’s transit system?

The answer isn’t straightforward, but here’s one thing I can tell you right away: you’re not turning any Sunbelt city into Tokyo anytime soon.

I’ve been playing the simulation game Subway Builder lately — for an ungodly amount of time, to be honest.

For those unfamiliar, Subway Builder is a new game developed by Colin Miller that puts you in charge of planning a subway system in any of 23 American cities. Since its initial beta release, the game has seen several improvements and keeps getting better. Overall, a great use of thirty bucks.

The game isn’t just fun, it also offers surprising insight into what it actually takes for a city to build great mass transit, or how easy it is to fail and go bankrupt trying.

So, why does the title say urban planning and not transport planning?
Well, that takes us to my first lesson.

1. The city’s development patterns shape the potential for mass transit

In normal mode, you start the game with $3 billion in the bank — but how far that money goes depends mostly on the city itself. What do I mean by that?

Let’s compare two similarly sized metro areas: Philadelphia (6.2M) and Houston (7.1M).

As a benchmark, I built a fully underground heavy-rail line (level –5 for all stations) and kept the default fare of $3.00 in both cases.

In Philly, a strong north–south corridor managed to reach:

• over 75,000 daily trips

• 2.2% modal share

• $32 million in daily profit

Meanwhile, in Houston, a north–south corridor with a westward branch, probably the lowest-hanging fruit in its current system, only achieved:

• 30,000 daily trips

• 0.8% modal share

• $8 million in daily losses

This shows you can’t escape a city’s existing development patterns. Those same $3 billion stretch much further in Philadelphia and could even justify future expansions, while Houston would struggle just to cover operations.

In real life, it’s a chicken-and-egg story. Development patterns and mass transit shape each other. You can’t have Houston without cheap oil and highways, or New York’s density without its historic railways and subway.

To end this lesson on a higher note: no city is doomed.
Not being able to support a subway today doesn’t mean you can’t have good transit. You can still design a great, efficient bus network, one that reshapes urban form and even creates the network effect needed to justify a subway someday.

Which leads me to my second point…

2. The network effect is real

Okay, let’s go back to our Philly run. We had a fairly successful north–south line.
What do you think would happen if we added a short east–west line?

If the east–west line existed in a vacuum, its ridership would be around 38,000 daily trips — nothing particularly impressive.

But if we run both lines together, total ridership becomes significantly higher than the sum of each operating on its own. How much higher?

• North–South: 85,000 trips (+21%)

• East–West: 53,000 trips (+39%)

Our combined ridership jumped from 100,000 to 138,000 daily trips — an overall increase of 38%. Even the transit modal share went up to 4.4%.

In other words, in transit planning, 1 + 1 ≠ 2. It’s more like 1 + 1 = 3.

That’s the network effect — and its true power.

The best part is that most cities can experience it even without a subway. A well-designed bus network can generate the same effect. That’s how cities like Toronto manage to achieve such high ridership with a relatively small subway system.

And there’s also another way to accomplish this with smaller investments: elevated light rail, which I’ll explain in the next point.

3. Elevated light rail is the way to go for most cities

Remember our $3 billion investment for the North–South line?
Well, the East–West line only required $850 million, and given that its ridership reached over 60% of the North–South line, it’s clearly a much better use of our money.

There’s also another key lesson here, one that’s not perfectly represented in the game, but incredibly relevant in real life.
As Jarrett Walker says, frequency is freedom, and a light metro makes it far easier to maintain high frequencies across the system.

That’s crucial, because in most American cities, current development patterns simply can’t sustain a frequent heavy-rail network. A frequent elevated light-rail system, however, is an entirely realistic possibility.

And with in-game construction costs (0.8× for elevated vs 1.0× for cut-and-cover tunneling), you can build roughly 25% more subway for the same budget.
If that were true in real life, wouldn’t you be in favor of elevated rail?

Of course, building great transit isn’t just about spending smart, it’s about avoiding dumb, expensive mistakes.
Which brings us to the next point.

4. Improvisation is expensive, plan beforehand!

This happens more often than I’d like to admit, and not just in the game, but in real life. It’s surprisingly common for transit agencies to launch projects without a master plan or a broader vision for where the network should go.

Take my hometown of Guadalajara, for example. With three light-metro lines and two BRT corridors, there are nine interchange stations in total, and I’d say only three are truly decent.
The rest involve long walks, endless staircases (some uncomfortably narrow), and even having to exit the station and cross huge intersections. Not great.

And that happens a lot in Subway Builder too.
If you don’t have a clear idea from the start of how many lines you want and where they’ll intersect, you’ll end up with costly deep-bore tunnels, awkward curves, or overly circuitous routes, all of which, in real life, would make construction far more complex and expensive.

In the game, it’s mostly fine, but in real life, it’s not.
When you’re working with a limited budget (and there’s almost never a reason to overspend), or trying to justify tax dollars to the public, you can’t afford to tell people they’ll need to climb three staircases and walk 800 feet just to transfer lines.

It’s always better to plan ahead, even for expansions that might never happen.
You might spend a little less today, but you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble down the line.

On that note, though, there are times and places where spending a little more actually makes sense.

5. Real state prices shape transit - Demolitions

Usually, you’d want to avoid demolitions, right?
But it really depends on the city, the location’s centrality, and local real estate prices.

When you’re tunneling under Midtown Manhattan, demolishing a couple of towers could cost more than a small line extension.

But in Dallas, tearing down a few houses to create a wider turning radius, thus achieving higher operating speeds, might be little more than a rounding error.

Ironically, it’s often that first scenario, the expensive one, that can actually support successful transit.
So, choose your poison.

And speaking of geography…

6. Job density and job centralization are fundamental

When we talk about density in urban planning, we usually mean population density.
However, job density is just as important, and in some cases, even more so.

A strong central business district drives trips across the entire metro area, especially when compared to jobs scattered at low densities along highways. That’s something Canadian cities tend to do far better than many American ones.

This is why it’s a real problem when companies move their headquarters to suburban campuses or edge towns, they’re almost impossible to serve with high-quality mass transit. Cities should actively work to prevent that trend.

The ideal scenario is having residential density (trip origins) and job density (trip destinations) aligned along the same corridor.
That’s what makes route planning for high ridership so effective.

And that’s something I always emphasize when talking about Transit-Oriented Development (TOD): it’s not just about living close to transit, it’s also about working and going places close to it.

There are a few final points I’d like to highlight.

Bonus. It’s only fun because of Mediterranean construction costs.

It’s no secret that construction prices across the U.S. are through the roof.
The Second Avenue Subway cost over $2.5 billion per mile, and at those prices, you can’t really build much of anything.

Bonus 2. New York plays in its own league

Playing Subway Builder in New York quickly shows just how deeply the city is shaped by transit, and how much easier it is to run profitable lines and finance expansion.
No other city even comes close.

Cities like Chicago, Boston, D.C., and San Francisco all have respectable ridership potential, but New York simply plays in its own league.

Final thoughts

There are plenty of lessons to take from the game, but we also need to remember the oversimplifications that make it work. There’s no public opposition, construction is instantaneous, and the game doesn’t simulate non-work trips, among other things.

That doesn’t make it a bad game; it’s a simulation, and still, a surprisingly insightful one.

While playing, I kept thinking back to two of my main references in transit planning (even though neither focuses on subways):

• Human Transit, by Jarrett Walker

• Better Buses, Better Cities, by Steven Higashide

Finally, this wasn’t an exhaustive list of things learned, but if you enjoyed it and want to see more, leave a comment, subscribe, and share, maybe I’ll do a part two.

I’d also love to hear your thoughts on this: whether you agree or disagree, or if there’s something I might have missed.

Project description

Diagrammatic reconstruction of Tanner Creek’s buried course beneath downtown Portland. The drawing explores how urban development, infrastructure, and real estate pressures erased a natural system, replacing it with hidden hydraulic networks.

The exercise focuses on layered representation, sectioned cartography, and narrative visualization as tools for understanding metropolitan systems

.

Short description

Arnulfo Aldaco participated as a speaker at the Metropolitan Forum: Challenges and Solutions for Mobility on López Mateos, an academic event hosted by CUCEA (University of Guadalajara). His presentation examined how congestion on López Mateos is not a traffic problem but a structural outcome of car-dependent urban expansion, weak territorial planning, and short-term decision-making.

Key idea

Mobility should be measured by how many people reach their destinations—not by how many cars are moved, requiring institutionalized, long-term planning centered on public transit, equity, and territorial order.

Video

Project Description

This project proposes a metropolitan network of walkable, safe, and shaded pedestrian corridors connecting schools, hospitals, neighborhood centers, and public spaces across the Aguascalientes metropolitan area.

Conceived as a scalable and replicable public-space strategy, the proposal reframes walking as critical urban infrastructure, prioritizing safety, accessibility, and everyday mobility for the most vulnerable users.

The project integrates urban design, mobility planning, and public health objectives, offering measurable targets for reducing traffic fatalities, increasing walking trips, and strengthening local economies.

Short description

Arnulfo Aldaco discusses the mobility crisis of Avenida López Mateos on Canal 44 (Señal Informativa), one of Guadalajara’s main public affairs programs.
In the interview, he argues that congestion on López Mateos is not a short-term traffic issue but the result of decades of car-dependent urban expansion, fragmented planning, and institutional misalignment. He emphasizes the need to shift from moving vehicles to moving people, proposing high-capacity public transit—particularly light rail, as a more effective, equitable, and urban solution than elevated highways or road widening.

Video

*Automatically generated captions available in English

Short Description

Arnulfo Aldaco participates as a guest panelist on Sótanos, Canal 44’s flagship public affairs program, discussing the mobility crisis of Avenida López Mateos in Guadalajara.
In the conversation, he argues that congestion is not a traffic engineering problem but the outcome of decades of car-dependent urban growth, fragmented planning, and weak metropolitan coordination. He critiques elevated highways and road widening as ineffective solutions, advocating instead for high-capacity public transit, institutional reform, and long-term metropolitan planning.

Video

*Dubbed version and captions available in english

Short description

Urban mobility proposal for extending Guadalajara’s Line 2 light rail to Minerva, shared by Libro Negro. The post generated public discussion around station placement, transit capacity, and alternatives to car-oriented expansion.

Short Description

Arnulfo Aldaco participated as a panelist in Spaces and Words, a discussion on the architecture of libraries and bookspaces as cultural infrastructure. The conversation explored how spaces that house books shape public life, knowledge access, and collective memory, positioning libraries and bookstores as active civic spaces rather than passive containers of information.

Key Idea

Libraries and bookspaces are not neutral buildings, they are spatial expressions of how societies value knowledge, access, and public life.

Press Coverage

Reforma - Harán feria especializada en arquitectura (coverage of the Feria del Libro de Arte y Arquitectura, Guadalajara)

Video

Project Description

This project was developed as part of an academic editorial design studio and focuses on the conception and graphic development of a magazine dedicated to architecture, culture, and the city. The exercise explored how editorial structure, typography, layout, and visual hierarchy can be used to frame architectural ideas and long-form cultural content.

The project involved defining the editorial logic, visual language, and layout system for interviews, essays, and visual material. Although the magazine was not published, the work emphasizes editorial thinking, narrative construction, and design as tools for communicating architectural and urban discourse.

View the Magazine

Snapshots

Sound becomes form.
This poster uses onomatopoeia to explore impact, hierarchy, and visual noise, turning typography into a field of forces rather than a neutral carrier of meaning.

Short description

Arnulfo Aldaco was invited to Planta Libre, one of Mexico’s leading architecture podcasts, to discuss the spatial, cultural, and social role of libraries and independent bookstores. The conversation explored bookspaces as places of community, memory, and cultural exchange, as well as the relationship between architecture, reading, and everyday urban life.

Key idea

Libraries and bookstores are not only containers of books, but active cultural spaces that shape how communities read, meet, and think.

Video

Short description

Mural published a feature on Librería Ojos de Perro Azul, highlighting the project as a cultural and emotional space for reading, encounter, and independent publishing in Guadalajara. The article explores the bookstore not only as a retail space, but as a platform for community, literary exchange, and urban cultural life.

Link

Link

Project Description

This project explores the relationship between cultural heritage, public space, and contemporary urban life through the insertion of a mixed-use cultural complex in Guadalajara’s historic center. The proposal combines a public look-out, cultural gallery, and commercial corridor as a strategy to reactivate pedestrian life while reinforcing the identity of the El Carmen neighborhood.

The design is organized as a sequence of terraces that gradually rise toward a public lookout, framing views of the city’s historic landmarks while creating a layered experience of public space. These terraces function simultaneously as circulation, social platforms, and transitional spaces between the street and interior programs.

At ground level, the cultural galleria operates as a pedestrian connector between urban blocks, activating the street with cultural commerce and everyday uses. Upper levels host flexible cultural and exhibition spaces, allowing the project to accommodate multiple activities while maintaining visual and spatial continuity with the surrounding heritage context

.The project emphasizes integration over contrast, using volumetric stepping, proportional façade rhythms, and sectional articulation to respect existing urban scales while introducing new public intensity into the historic fabric.

Floor Plans

Project description

Calle 5 de Mayo runs through Aguascalientes’ historic downtown and primary commercial corridor, one of the city’s most heavily trafficked pedestrian environments. Despite its centrality, the street’s sidewalks were critically undersized, forcing pedestrians to compete for space with vehicles on oversized travel lanes that prioritized car throughput over human safety.

Working alongside civic organizations and architecture students, this project made the case to city government that sidewalk widening was feasible without disrupting vehicular capacity, reframing the street’s cross-section as a question of political will rather than engineering constraint.

Temporal Intervention

As part of International Pedestrian Day 2020, the coalition executed a tactical urbanism intervention: a temporary sidewalk expansion that physically demonstrated how space could be redistributed.

Permanent Intervention by City Government

The evidence proved persuasive. Years later, the city government formalized the proposal, permanently widening one of the sidewalks, a rare instance of temporary civic action translating into lasting infrastructure change.

Project Description

This project emerged from a metropolitan planning workshop led by Pedro B. Ortiz, one of the foremost practitioners in metropolitan governance and polycentric urban strategy. The exercise addressed a structural challenge facing the Bajío metropolitan region: how to leverage existing infrastructure assets, particularly the Guanajuato International Airport and the Puerto Interior inland port, to generate a new urban centrality capable of organizing growth at the regional scale.

The proposal operates on two levels simultaneously. At the metropolitan scale, it introduces a transversal road network connecting the region’s three main corridors, supported by a suburban passenger rail system with three dedicated stations. This connectivity framework treats the airport not as an isolated facility but as the anchor of a new economic district, an aerotropolis organized around logistics, industry, technology, and knowledge production.

At the district scale, the Puerto Interior centrality is re-imagined with a coherent urban grid that integrates a diverse program: a technology incubator, a convention center, an IPN campus satellite, student housing, long-stay hotels, commercial corridors, parks, and a signature transit hub designed as an iconic civic landmark. The proposal also includes a second runway and new air terminal to expand regional air capacity in parallel with ground-level urbanism.

The project demonstrates how strategic infrastructure investment, structured through land value capture and cross-financing, can organize metropolitan growth into compact, livable centralities rather than dispersed sprawl.

Project Description

This project explores the idea of an ecumenical and itinerant sacred space through a single architectural gesture: the hug. Rather than responding to a specific religious doctrine, the chapel is conceived as a universal space for gathering, reflection, and spiritual encounter.

The architecture is defined by two enclosing planes that lean toward each other, creating an interior void that frames human presence as the central element of the project. The spatial compression and opening sequence emphasizes intimacy, fraternity, and collective experience over monumentality.

Materially, the project relies on corten steel as both structure and enclosure, allowing time and weather to become part of the architectural expression. The building is roofless, reinforcing a direct relationship with the sky and the passage of time, while the heavy anchoring elements at the base ensure stability and enable the structure to remain self-supporting in different locations.

Model

Floor plans