Rebuild by Design spent the last week in Mexico City for the release of the city’s resilience strategy with Mayor Mancera, kicking off our work in Xochimilco. The release consisted of three days including a press conference featuring the mayor and other key public officials, panel discussions with practitioners and academics on the topic of resilience, workshops on three key features of the resilience strategy, and a comprehensive tour of Xochimilco. The workshops brought together different local experts and partners and focused on the development of a new major airport in Mexico City, a pilot project for resilience in the borough of Iztapalapa, and Xochimilco’s master plan for resilience.
Rebuild by Design will be working with partners in Mexico City in order to co-create a process for the regeneration of Xochimilco, a UNESCO cultural heritage area that faces a wide array of challenges and opportunities moving forward. The team was given a comprehensive tour of Xochimilco and explored the historical canals and chinampas. This form of agriculture dates back to the Aztecs as they used agroforestry techniques to create islands of cultivation and an integrated canal system. To learn more, you can download the City’s resilience strategy in English and Spanish.