Mexico's National Social Distancing Campaign began on March 23, 2020, but a couple of weeks earlier, even as the federal government recommended continuing normal activities, social media was already filled with people choosing to self-isolate and replicate the European model. Some architecture firms immediately decided to close their physical offices and transition to a remote work model, while others took several weeks longer. However, this period of social and physical (spatial) distancing is experienced differently in every household. Over the months that this pandemic has unfolded, it has exposed not only the inequality regarding basic needs in dense urban areas, but also the fragility of the established social order. Whether at a macro or micro scale, all of these experiences occur within and are influenced by the built environment, making architecture both judge and jury in this equation.
At ArchDaily, we have been tracking all projects, initiatives, and articles linking COVID-19 and architecture. We believe this pandemic can yield positive, concrete actions across various theoretical and practical lines of work—housing, public space, and participatory processes, among others—within the architectural spectrum. That is why, as part of a collaboration with Mexican architects Mariana Ríos and Leticia Lozano of MACIA ESTUDIO, we are launching the series Reflexiones COVID-19 (COVID-19 Reflections), focusing on Mexican architects. The series aims to understand how architectural practice in Mexico has transformed over recent weeks in response to this situation, and what personal reflections will translate into collective efforts to shape the "new normal" of architectural practice. In this edition, we share the reflections of PAAR—founded by architects Karla Paola López Carrillo and Carlos Alberto Ríos Limón—a landscape architecture firm that bases its vision on the premise that nature and landscape are essential infrastructure for quality of life.
