Architect Rozana Montiel established her eponymous Mexico City–based firm in 2009 with the belief that beauty is a basic right. From the concept design for a new cultural center at the historic national archive building in the capital—which was originally built as a panopticon prison—to the reimagining of highway rest stops, her work reflects inventive solutions for enhancing the public realm. For a recent project funded by the Instituto del Fondo Nacional de la Vivienda para los Trabajadores (INFONAVIT)—the federal agency for workers housing—Montiel was asked to revitalize a 40-year-old public-housing development in the city of Zacatecas in north-central Mexico.
Home to about 40,000 residents, the housing project, named Manuel M. Ponce, had earned a reputation as a magnet for criminal activity. The perception of its being dangerous, Montiel believed, was not helped by the “very aggressive” colors of its 102 buildings, and the concrete canal—which was dry and barren—that cuts through it. When the architect and her team visited the site, they saw that, although generally desolate, the canal had become a play area for children, some of whom were using garbage-can lids to slide down the sloped walls. Based on this observation, Montiel’s studio proposed that part of the circa 500-yard-long section of disused urban infrastructure be transformed into a playground.
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