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Architects: Práctica Arquitectura
- Area: 1300 m²
- Year: 2018
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Photographs:The Raws, César Bejar
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Manufacturers: Ladrillo Azteca, Mextile, Rain Bird
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Lead Architect: David Martínez Ramos
Text description provided by the architects. The story of the Citizen Garden begins long before the project itself, dating back to 2014 when this land was to become a public parking lot. In response to social pressure and organizations,
The unused lot provided a valuable void amid the congested urban fabric and a series of trees that were preserved, except for four that were sick or dead. The soil of the site was used as aggregate for casting the benches. As architects and users of the city, we viewed the existing urban and social context as an opportunity; thus, we chose to maintain the idea of crossing the lot diagonally rather than going all the way around the corner, a way to cut through, but also to awaken the pedestrian in their wandering through the city. The transition from the street was framed by two service pavilions that, in addition to being used as storage, help to change the scale from the verticality of the adjacent buildings, which are up to ten stories tall, to the horizontality of the garden and its human scale.
The project was set back 2.5 meters from the property line, which, along with the existing 2.5 meters of sidewalk, resulted in a total of 5 meters, achieving visual and spatial relief, and a finishing touch that integrates the space with the urban scale.
The Citizen Garden can be translated as a house with a central courtyard, akin to a home where the large central clearing expresses the idea of an open and social space, free of programming and flexible for various uses. In its corners, four clearings in the vegetation connect to this courtyard through winding paths that seem to delve into the greenery, later opening the route to these lounging spaces, where the landscape is the material that allows one to understand how to inhabit the space.
The character of the garden allows for intimate spaces, lush vegetation that serves as a boundary and guide for semi-labyrinthine paths, discovering and contemplating the shade, and transitioning from large to small spaces to surprise the user along their journey. Making the Garden a living stage that grows, reacts, changes in smells, colors, and forms, and ultimately becomes another citizen.
The Citizen Garden project is an approach to the possibility of experiencing the city center in a different way. A common and meeting space that from its inception has risen as a forum to share ideas, get to know one another, express oneself, and improve as citizens, both collectively and individually, in an atmosphere of silence and mystery. When history is rejected, the search for memory is rejected, leading to a detachment from human quality. The Citizen Garden is a reflection of the struggle to promote spaces that people can remember, value, and share with new generations, designed not only as places for recreation or leisure but as places for reflection, permanence, and identity.
