MEXTRÓPOLI

URBAN INTERVENTION
México City, México 
2018

The last decade has seen an important shift in the paradigm of urban mobility. The street is no longer thought of as a space dedicated to moving cars efficiently but as a complex environment in which different actors and speeds interact, a process that contributes to a greater richness of urban experience, safety and economic benefits. Following the example of Bogota, New York or Copenhagen, numerous cities have set out to changing the status quo of what a street should be.

Our project was developed as a workshop during the Mextropoli architecture symposium in Mexico City, were we proposed a ground-plane intervention at a busy intersection in the city’s historic center. We experimented with the idea of “dazzle camouflage”, a pattern that doesn’t aim at hiding but at disorienting the viewer. This pattern was employed as an innovative means of traffic control, blurring the barriers that usually separate different forms of traffic and altering the perception of space, as a means to raise awareness, increase attention of visual stimuli and making equally visible all actors on the street.