Cleaning the canal, one segment at a time
The initiative focuses on different projects of short, medium and long scales to protect, preserve and regenerate the Canal Nacional, seen as a socio-environmental unit.
1. Canal Nacional es “Canal Nacional is” is a project that will start by making the current efforts more visible and facilitate the integrations of new members and initiatives. It is formed by different “channels” (digital and analogous), dedicated to participation and communication.
2. Nodos “Nodes” identifies a series of unused and underused infrastructural elements that are connected by the canal and that can become microhabitats for the communities that live along Canal Nacional. In the short term, connectable structures can be built to host ephemeral events, and moved accordingly. In the medium term, existing bridges can be made wider in order to host different kind of celebratory and economic activities, increasing the sense of security in the area. In the long term, bigger investment could allow for the regeneration of old spaces such as turning an abandoned treatment plant into a cultural space and observation tower.
3. Cuicacalli (a Nahuatl word that refers to meeting spaces where social classes disappear) is a project idea that aims to generate citizen observatories, where knowledge can be generated and spread.
4. Refugio “Shelter” considers the canal as a shelter both for humans and other species, as well as for memories and culture. A series of artistic interventions, such as painting aquatic fauna within zebra crossings, would depict how (not too long ago) people used to move through water in their canoes.
Challenges and hopes ahead
The final proposal and the results of the two weeks of workshops were presented to a jury formed by Fomento Cultural Banamex, people form the office of design for inclusive and sustainable streets in México and a local authority representative.