On Densification

By Hector Gonzalez

Buildings are required to be constructed in the shortest amount of time. There is a constant demand for housing everywhere in the world. How do we respond as architects and developers to this demand in the developing world where the economic growth constantly fluctuates? What about the Latin-American cities, particularly those with a sprawl pattern and responsive urbanism? Should the answer is to grow vertically? Taking this into account, implementation for densification should the calling.

 

According to Saskia Sassen (The global city) globalization is an economic process where powerful countries control the world’s economy, in which the telecommunications networks, financial institutions and other establishments participate on the basis of a modern economic system, resulting in the development of a global society that shares common attributes and buildings that are always looking for ways to be at the forefront of competitive development.

 

 

An observation on the generic city described by Rem Koolhaas is that the problem of cities is the dominance for business, it is permissive and sometimes dictatorial, but buildings become distant, facades that extend beyond curtain walls and mediocre designs.   It seems that developers and architects only seek to use materials and construction methods, rather than the intention to build design, the city becomes resistant to malleability.

As one of the cities with the highest per capita income in Mexico, Monterrey boosts its economy pursuing vertical developments. Citizens slowly understand the idea that living in an area of land mixed use is more sustainable and has major benefits than horizontal housing: densification at its best.

 

 

That is why the concept of a single-family housing in the city has evolved to creating a new way of living that people can operate in relationship to a new city lifestyle. Although we should not forget that the design models that architects and developers constantly repeat are cause for loosing identity in the city. We cannot think on past models but innovate in shapes and forms that response to local users, its education, culture and society.

“No matter how determined you are, it's hard not to be influenced by the people around you. It's not so much that you do whatever a city expects of you, but that you get discouraged when no one around you cares about the same things you do” Paul Graham.