Articulo Nadia | Intbau Mexico

Building community in the face of fragmentation

Nadia Samir Rincón

Doing architecture means working with the community through research, analysis, and carrying out a project. Urbanism is largely an extension of architecture, which is why they should not be understood as separate topics.

Mexico faces serious social problems that we also find in different parts of the world. Among wars, migrations, drug trafficking, prostitution, insecurity, as well as other forms of violence, our society faces increasing fragmentation.

A few years ago, I developed a master plan for a neighborhood in the city of Cuernavaca, in search of solutions through urbanism to counter drug trafficking and insecurity. The project has been well received internationally and has also been presented locally. Always when presenting, asking the following questions:

How many of you have experienced violence?

Please provide the text you would like me to translate.

How many have seen someone sell or use drugs?

Please provide the text you would like me to translate.

How many have lost someone because of drug trafficking?

Unfortunately, in July 2026, a friend lost his life due to drug trafficking. It was one of the most unjust ways to lose a life, and I am sure that he had only worked for years to build a quality life, and in an instant, that possibility was taken from him.

His death left me with many doubts, but it also made me understand that there are even more reasons to continue this fight through good architecture and urbanism.

I wish I could live in a perfect utopia like the ones shown in presentation slides, but I know that life goes on and that death is also a part of it. So today more than ever, I understand that the answer to insecurity is not to stop, but to continue learning from the past to build the present and create a better future.

Security is also built.

Many doubt classical architecture and traditional urbanism because they believe they should have remained in the past. However, many of the ideas we find in traditional cities remain relevant to our contemporary cities.

Architecture alone cannot solve violence, but what it can do is contribute to creating the conditions for a community to develop. (Krier, 1988). And above all, countries like Mexico need this.

Jane Jacobs spoke about the importance of streets observed by their own inhabitants and developed the concept of "eyes on the street," where the presence of people, homes, businesses, and activities contributes to creating conditions of urban safety (Jacobs, 1961).

A safe street is not necessarily an empty street; safety is found in one where life exists, like people walking, children playing, neighbors interacting around their homes, open shops, and places where people can stop, observe, and socialize.

Jan Gehl studied the importance of what happens between buildings: walking, staying, conversing, observing, and participating in public life. The quality of urban spaces is related to the possibilities they offer for everyday life (Gehl, 2011). When we talk about safety, we must also discuss architectural measures and urban design methodologies that have existed in precedents applied in previous centuries and that we can observe in various living examples of historical architecture.

A city we can recognize

A city we can recognize. Mixed-use zoning allows services to be within walking distance and makes daily life more immediate, as streets need activity, neighborhoods need recognizable spaces, and cities need landmarks that create a sense of location and belonging.

Kevin Lynch explained the importance of the mental image we build of a city through elements such as paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. They are elements that allow the urban environment to be legible and recognizable for the inhabitants. This is important when we talk about identity, as a city we cannot recognize is unlikely to become a place with which we establish a deep relationship.

When we recognize a square, a street, a church, a market, or a building, it is when we also begin to build a memory of the place and feel part of it, and it is then that the city stops being just a collection of buildings and thus becomes a place, which can become part of our identity. (Lynch, 1960).

Learn from the past

Christopher Alexander, along with other researchers, developed in A Pattern Language a series of patterns that help understand how certain relationships between buildings, streets, public spaces, and activities can contribute to creating places where human life can develop naturally (Alexander et al., 1977). These principles can be found in traditional cities from different parts of the world: public spaces defined by buildings, streets that connect activities, transitions between the private and the public, squares of different scales, and places where people can stay and build community.

It's not about copying a historical city at all, but rather understanding why certain configurations have been able to sustain daily life for generations and applying that to the present. (Alexander et al., 1977, Krier, 1998).

Léon Krier also addressed the relationship between architecture, city, and community, as well as the importance of an urban structure where streets, squares, buildings, and activities form a coherent whole for the development of the community (Krier, 2009). A living community remains in the memory of its inhabitants, thus generating a history that lasts for generations.

Traditional urbanism still has much to teach us; not because we should literally return to the past, but because we can learn a lot from it, to replicate and adapt it to the present.

Culture, identity, and integration

Today more than ever, not only Cuernavaca, Morelos, or Mexico, but the entire world needs to define its cultural boundaries.

It does not mean asking for immigrants to be excluded, but rather finding ways to integrate them into the local culture so that they can truly contribute to the quality of human life, without erasing differences. A community can welcome new people, ideas, and traditions while at the same time preserving what gives it identity. (Lederach, 1997).

Architecture participates in this process because it is also a physical expression of culture, as our buildings, squares, streets, materials, and public spaces tell stories about who we are and what we value.

Mexico has enormous wealth in this sense: our colors, materials, squares, towns, constructive traditions, and the different cultures that have shaped our identity. Preserving this wealth does not mean freezing our cities in the past, but rather recognizing that our identity can also help us build the future. (González, 1996).

The past is not the problem.

Many consider that classical architecture and traditional urbanism belong to another era. The correct answer is not to go back to the past but to learn everything we can from it.

For centuries, cities were built around the human scale, proximity, mixed uses, street continuity, and the relationship between buildings and public spaces. (Jacobs, 1961).

These principles have not ceased to be useful because the century has changed; what has changed is the way we apply them, as we can use new technologies without abandoning fundamental urban principles, build contemporary buildings without losing the relationship with the place, and likewise, we can embrace new cultures without destroying the existing identity. (Alexander et al., 1977).

A responsibility we share

There will continue to be situations that make us doubt: the deaths of young people at the hands of drug trafficking, the disappearances of women and men, violence, all the current wars in the world, and many other forms of suffering are unfortunately part of society and are not something that will change overnight. Likewise, natural and now artificial disasters are part of life, and it is unpredictable where, how, and when they will happen.

These problems will persist during the years we practice our profession and may be present for much of our active life. Therefore, our responsibility as architects, urban planners, and craftsmen cannot be limited to the project we have in front of us, and it is precisely now that it is more necessary than ever to build community.

Being part of the traditional movement also means recognizing that we are not working in isolation.

Through organizations and movements like INTBAU, ICAA, IBAT Brazil, Traditional Architecture Group, Architectural Uprising, La Table Ronde de l’Architecture, Culturas Constructivas, Chapter of The New Urbanism, among many other initiatives; architects, urban planners, students, academics, builders, artisans, and the community from different parts of the world are finding spaces to learn, share knowledge, and work together.

Conclusion

For me, the importance of these networks is not only in promoting traditional or classical architecture, but in keeping us united. It is in knowing that there are other people who are also studying the past, questioning the present, and seeking to build a better future.

Not all of us will have the same answers, nor will we work in the same countries, or face exactly the same problems, but we can learn from each other, share knowledge, we can help each other and thus build a professional community, but above all a society that has the capacity to respond to the challenges our cities face and pass on to future generations a worthy place to live.

I believe this is particularly important for our generation, as the social problems we see today will not disappear during our professional lives. Violence, wars, migrations, loss of identity, and the fragmentation of our cities will continue to present us with difficult questions, and in the face of them, we have a duty, which is not to solve all the world's problems through architecture, but to confront them and take action.

Now is the time, because it is when we have the opportunity to work, to speak, and to listen to people who have more experience than us. We can contribute a small grain to humanity with good designs, great ideas, preserving our culture and being proud of who we are, of the mixes we have, our language, the textures, the colors, and above all, the architecture and urbanism that make Mexico such a beautiful and community-filled place.

Architecture cannot solve all the problems of our society; it cannot remain indifferent to them either. We have the duty to learn, to work, and to stay united. (Lederach, 1977).

And it is for all these reasons that building a city above all means building a community. If cities are made of people, relationships, and shared spaces, it is our responsibility as architects, urban planners, and society to ask ourselves what kind of life we are making possible with what we build.

Cities are not made solely of buildings; they are made of nature, of people, of relationships, and of the life that occurs between them.

Thank you for all your support.

References

Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., & Silverstein, M. (1977). A pattern language: Towns, buildings, construction. Oxford University Press.

Gehl, J. (2011). Life between buildings: Using public space. Island Press.

González Gortázar, F. (Ed.). (1996). La arquitectura mexicana del siglo XX. Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes.

Jacobs, J. (1961). The death and life of great American cities. Random House.

Krier, L. (2009). The architecture of community. Island Press.

Krier, L. (1998). Architecture: Choice or fate. Andreas Papadakis Publisher.

Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city. MIT Press.

Lederach, J. P. (1997). Building peace: Sustainable reconciliation in divided societies. United States Institute of Peace Press.