Decarbon & Revitalize: Energy, Equity and Design for Mexico City’s Neighborhoods
Department of Architecture
Rafi Segal, PI
Christoph Reinhart, PI
Daniela Martínez Chapa, RA
UNAMDaniel Daou, Instructor
Elena Tudela, Instructor
We will be working to advance a more sustainable and better quality of living in Mexico City’s neighborhoods. Combining analysis and interventions in the physical existing built environment (architectural and urban design) together with developing retrofitting packages for carbon emissions reduction and alternative energy production - onsite photovoltaic generation (energy models). In consultation with city officials, UNAM collaborators, and other stakeholders, a Mexico City neighborhood will be selected for which a working method, strategy, and outcomes will be produced to improve its sustainability and livelihood in terms of: reducing carbon footprint, reducing energy consumption, establishing alternative energy supply, advancing sustainable mobility, improving biodiversity, creating more stable, healthy, and affordable housing, strengthening social cohesion, recovering spaces for the community, improving access to public space, and more. Essential to this project and early in its process is the introduction of an energy model by MIT’s Sustainable Design Lab (SDL) and the guidance on how to use it in the context of Mexico City. SDL under the directorship of Prof. Christoph Reinhart will conduct a 3-day workshop in Mexico City to instruct and exercise the use of this model as a design, planning, and policy tool. Our vision through urban regeneration is a future mixed-used, biodiverse, well connected, sustainable, walkable neighborhood. A decarbonized, decentralized, healthier, and more equitable city.
This collaborative project has a two-fold contribution: providing concrete and specific urban+energy analysis and proposed design interventions for a case study neighborhood, and establishing the tools and methods for urban and energy retrofitting of the entire city and beyond.