Infrastructure as a vehicle for community building : an urban design strategy for Iztapalapa, Mexico City

Mexico City suffers from flooding, water scarcity, pollution, subsidence and enormous financial costs related to water infrastructure. Poor governance contributes to the city's water troubles by creating overlapping political organizations whose interests and administrative purview often conflict. This thesis proposes decentralized water infrastructures implemented at the neighborhood scale, that engage directly with dominant institutional arrangements - namely, the complicated relationship between local government and social organizations representing the needs of informal settlements. The proposal articulates x) a site-specific exploration of design solutions for improving water service in one neighborhood of lztapalapa, 2) a template for coupled social and hydrological development that can be replicated elsewhere in the borough, and 3) a broad argument for multi-performative infrastructure that incorporates, and strengthens, existing reserves of social and political capital. Through these strategies, the thesis addresses the question of how urban designers can use physical infrastructure to not only improve basic service provision but also create new opportunities for community building within and between marginalized urban settlements.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Beane, George H. (George Holton)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gabriella Carolini and Rafi Segal.

• Urban Studies and Planning.
• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99057

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/99057