City of Mega-forms: Towards an Urban-ism of Large Geometries

If one flies over Mexico City, one never ceases to be amazed by the continuous carpet of houses, whose maroon colored roofs and dense aggrupation’s create the normative urban condition of the city. Yet, this dense carpet is occasionally interrupted and juxtaposed by large architectural forms. These mega forms, also called mega geometries, dictate the moment where these interruptions occur. Here, the formal and scalar tension between big urban interventions and the expansive granular urban condition, highlight each other through frictions and interruptions. These mere moments of disruption are ground conditions that have been altered and manipulated to accommodate these large architectural forms. Mega geometries can be found in structures such as schools, churches, stadiums, roundabouts, amphitheaters, museums, monuments, and government buildings. These structures, can be characterized because of a series of specific qualities. The most obvious is through their interruptions caused on the grided layout throughout the city. Mega geometries are structures that are overly scaled for their programmatic implications. but able to accommodate a multiplicity of functions. Yet, not every overly scaled structure can be considered a mega geometry, because mega geometries tend to have an overpowering presence within its surroundings. Some examples that occur at the urban level are, relocating streets, renaming neighborhoods, and manipulating public transportation. Mega geometries also have the quality of hosting large assemblies of people, preachers, fans, tourists etc. There is no preference in audience or location, for their public accommodations usually include, seating, open spaces, parking, and commercial. Many amenities are contained within this structure because the design behind mega geometries is mostly focused on promoting and facilitating social interactions.

Mega geometries transcend their urban scale and can also influence the city at a pedestrian level. These mega geometries unconsciously invoke freedom and relief from the conventional urban environments pedestrians are exposed. At this level, mega geometries can dictate, traffic rerouting, festivity locations, and even market occurring. If you were to stand at the periphery of the Glorieta Insurgentes, you would acknowledge a variety of tourists and occasional vendors that roam unimpeded through the open space. When around them, is a ring of high speed traffic, followed by the dense carpet of housing once again. From a pedestrian’s perspective, these mega geometries are often hard to grasp, for only one façade is ever visible. The outside of these geometries tends to be deceiving and only understood as a composition of forms, rather than by their physical assembly, but the interiors are extremely complex and composed. Most of the insides of these structures are dedicated to favor and facilitate pedestrian traffic. Their interior complexity may sometimes be perceived as a labyrinth enticing audiences to explore and experience their interiors. Once inside, it can be acknowledged that most of these structures will contain a hollow center. It is here, where the main attraction or feature is usually hosted, like a soccer game, train station, or restaurant.

Mexico City has the largest bullring in the world, the Plaza de Toro’s Mexico. It has the capability to seat 41,262 spectators and occupies a whole city block. Although very specific programmatic conditions, the Plaza de Toro’s circular profile resembles that of the Basilica de Guadalupe, another circular structure with the same mega geometry qualities. Meaning, that these programs can be hosted interchangeably in other structures that share the same qualities and geometrical profile. In other words, the mass hosted in the Basilica de Guadalupe could equally be hosted in the Plaza de Toro’s, and vice versa. Or that the large-scale celebrations done in the Zocalo can be hosted under the roof of the National Museum of Anthropology and vice versa, because they share a common principle in geometrical profile that allows them to exchange locations without much programmatic alteration. In addition, the quality of interchanging programs is not limited to habitable structures only for it can transcend its programmatic limitations and interchange other type of mega geometries. This time, the roundabout of the Angel de la Independencia, can smoothly be switched with the Fuente de Cibeles, as both share similar profiles and monumental qualities. This quality of interchangeability in programs could start to infer about a vast range of possibilities to reorganize the current urban condition of the city. Mexico City has potential to redesign itself through the use of its mega geometries. If the programmatic implications currently hosted in each of the geometries were to really be interchanged, the possibility of a new adapting city could then occur. The benefits would then occur both at an urban and pedestrian level such as, regulating levels of traffic, shifting of social classes, or rearranging transportation routes. Hence, completely re-configuring the city as we know it today.