El Refugio de los Abuelos
Year
Location
Status
Co-authors
Area
2020
San Pedro Garza García, NL, México
Built
Adrián Flores, Carolina Segura, David de la Garza
300 m2
In the borough of San Pedro Garza García, a part of the annual budget is destined to projects proposed by the citizens selected through a participatory budget program. We were asked to help organize neighbours and work with them to materialize their ideas into concrete projects. We participated in neighbourhood assemblies and workshops. In these workshops I met Flora Rodriguez, a local leader from the outermost neighbourhood in the borough.
The neighbourhood is mostly populated by older people. They had an abandoned government building that once housed a children’s library; the absence of children in the neighbourhood rendered it useless. The structure was in good shape and the open-space allowed for a variety of uses. So we decided to transform it into a community centre for the neighbours. In our research, we found out potential users enjoyed gardening; we incorporated into the design garden beds for growing produce and a perennial garden.
The plot is located at the literal edge of the borough, next to another neighbourhood historically associated with crime. There has always been a sense of alienation between the two neighbourhoods. For years, there has been an unofficial bus stop at the corner of the plot and a path traversing the site more heavily used by people from the other neighbourhood. During the participatory design process, it was important to establish a dialogue from leaders of both neighbourhoods in order to accommodate all users.
At the end we were able to regularize an unofficial bus stop and the path as well as transforming the building into the activities center they wanted. The construction process was halted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic but resumed after and the finished project was handed to the neighbours. Since most of them are of a vulnerable age the flexible space has been transformed to accommodate uses during the quarantine. Local leaders named it “El Refugio de los Abuelos” (Grandparents’ Refuge).