Canal Restoration
Kinship creation through restoration
Collaborators: Sam Leung + Lisa Qiu
Monterrey, MX
Four miles north of downtown Monterrey, MX, the Arroyo Topo Chico collects stormwater into concrete channels and expels it from the city.
The region’s annual drought is often followed by heavy September rain. The dry soil is impermeable; water inundates the canal system, often destroying infrastructure and affecting city’s poorest along the canal’s banks.
This proposal daylights the ephemeral stream that preceeded the canal, and builds supporting infrastructure to create transparancy between the Topo Chico neighborhood and its water.
The region’s annual drought is often followed by heavy September rain. The dry soil is impermeable; water inundates the canal system, often destroying infrastructure and affecting city’s poorest along the canal’s banks.
This proposal daylights the ephemeral stream that preceeded the canal, and builds supporting infrastructure to create transparancy between the Topo Chico neighborhood and its water.
Light-Touch Building Typology
A steel frame building on piers provides flexibility for new buildings in this ecological flood zone. As housing, laundry, or infrastructure, the building addresses needs at a meteorological scale by collecting rainwater, producing solar energy, and devoting space for water to permeate the soil beneath the structure. It is one of many pieces to the puzzle.
A steel frame building on piers provides flexibility for new buildings in this ecological flood zone. As housing, laundry, or infrastructure, the building addresses needs at a meteorological scale by collecting rainwater, producing solar energy, and devoting space for water to permeate the soil beneath the structure. It is one of many pieces to the puzzle.
12–2022