THESIS: Second Home

This thesis proposes the design of a socially-driven building and public space located in a suburban neighborhood in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico. The goal of the project is to provide an environment that assists in the prevention of children entering the world of drug-related violence by encouraging the creation of good holding environments within the community. This element is currently missing from the community as these suburban developments were initially conceived as supporting infrastructure to the newly established light industry factories, colloquially referred to as maquiladoras. This in turn was part of a larger strategy by the government to reactivate the economy and employment in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

These neighborhoods have been home to rising levels of violence and crime over the last two decades decades. This affirmed historical patterns that saw the working class relegated to the outer-limits of the city, acting as spectators in the process of its evolution and facing difficult conditions, while maintaining minimum-wage jobs in order to support their houses.

The incidence of violence in these neighborhoods does not relate directly to conditions of poverty, but to the lack of institutions that can assist in the healthy development of children, a situation that local gangs easily take advantage of as these low-scale criminal organizations are usually a stepping stone into the world of drug-related violence. Drug cartels have increasingly begun to recruit children in order to restore loses suffered by the war against drugs that the mexican government implemented in 2006.

The final design reflects the complex nature of the problem, and is informed by both the local history and development of the current situation as well as choices of materials, proper distribution of space, and sustainable strategies required by the geographic region in which its located.