Architect Iñaki Echeverria has completed the first phases of an eco-park three times the size of Manhattan in Mexico City, using some of the infrastructure of the cancelled Foster + Partners-designed airport.
Named the Lake Texcoco Ecological Park, the project entailed the regeneration and building of public infrastructure on a massive wetland environment on the eastern side of Mexico's capital city. It opened to the public last month.
Mexican architect Iñaki Echeverria has completed work on the Lake Texcoco Ecological Park
The project covers 14,030 hectares of land, making it one of the largest urban parks in the world, and is protected by federal decree as an ecological site. It was designed to mitigate the effects of density and climate change ? and to improve communal welfare. Echeverria, who accepted the commission of the project on the condition he also became the director of the park, said that the project is "a key to the larger regeneration of the area".
Aspects were built on the site of a cancelled airport terminal
"This is not really a project about Mexico City ? it is a larger endeavour, it's the entire valley," Echeverria told Dezeen.
"By itself, it cannot guarantee the future of the valley, but it's a key to the larger regeneration of the area," he continued.
"Ecological restoration is not only about aesthetics it's about subsistence."
Regeneration works and infrastructure were included in the program
Once the site of ...