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The Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico (ZMVM) is one of the most populous on the planet, with 21 million inhabitants according to a survey made in 2010 (year of the latest census analysis). Of these, 53% (11.1 million people) live in the 59 municipalities belonging to the conurbation of the State of Mexico, 42% (8.8 million) in the Federal District (or Mexico City), while the remaining 5% (1 million people) live in the 21 municipalities of the State of Hidalgo. ZMVM is the world’s eighth most economically important metropolitan area, with a GDP similar to Belgium’s. The whole area is made up of a central city (Mexico City) surrounded by a vast urbanised area that since the 1960s has spread to include the nearby municipalities of the State of Mexico, and continues to encroach on outlying areas. Over the last thirty years Mexico City’s footprint has tripled.
Between 2005 and 2010 overall urban development in the ZMVM extended over 18,800 ha for a total of 146,032 ha. More specifically, 68% of this growth has been in the municipalities of the State of Mexico, 31% in the State of Hidalgo and 1% in the Federal District. This indicates how urbanisation in the Valley of Mexico has followed an extensive, piecemeal, low-density model of expansion. Land occupation varies widely in type and intensity, the Federal District differing greatly from the States of Mexico and Hidalgo. The Federal District has stopped urban sprawl and started a regeneration programme of certain central areas. Peripheral consolidation processes have been started in some areas to increase population density and halt horizontal urban sprawl. Improvements are still piecemeal though, with some areas undergoing planned regeneration while other downtown districts are seeing a flight of the population. These efforts contrast, however, with the continued disorganised horizontal urban growth still continuing in the States of Mexico and Hidalgo. The result is a vast,...
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The New architecture Signs that change is afoot
Elizabeth De Portzamparc
To avoid any confusion of terminology, it should be pointed out that the term “New Architecture” was in fact used by Walter Gropius, but very soon...
Mexico City MAPPING A large federation of small cities
In this issue CityPlan crosses the ocean to explore Mexico City, one of Latin America’s cultural capitals. The metropolitan area of Greater Mexic...
Report from THE Pearl River Delta Front
Node Architecture & Urbanism
I have known Doreen Liu, founder of NODE, for ten years. At that time, I was editing a special issue of an architectural magazine called Beijing, Shan...
