Ciudad Aeroportuaria BJX Masterplan
An aerotropolis proposal for the Bajío Metropolitan Region
Project Name: Ciudad aeroportuaria
Type: Planning Workshop
Workshop: Metropolitan Planning workshop led by Pedro B. Ortiz
Date: 2020
Location: Leon, Mexico
Type: Master plan, Urban planning
Group project
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.
