Daniel De León Languré will reveal to Architectuul his Platform for Fictional Competitions (Concursos Inventados). In this second edition he presents his project New Practicality in how to reconfigure Mexico City’s mass infrastructure in the pandemic period.

Two things characterize Mexico City: the first is the endless amount of people wandering the streets and open spaces; the second is the sense of instability and impending chaos to which it is seemingly doomed to overcome each day that ends only to approach once again the abyss of the next morning. Both conditions are both cause and consequence of the characteristics so favorable to human settlements that, pushed to the limit, generate a shortage of the most basic resources such as water and food. 

On the one hand, the valley in which Mexico City is located receives an immense amount of rainwater that is not used and is wasted to the point of causing a gradual sinking of the city due to the continuous extraction of water from wells. On the other hand, the growing population and water scarcity cause insufficient food production, forcing the inhabitants to consume vegetables brought from increasingly distant places. 

Given the impossibility of holding massive events in order to avoid contagion, the infrastructure designed for this purpose automatically becomes obsolete for its original purpose. However, this projects still represent opportunities for public re appropriation. The Azteca Stadium often serves as a volumetric parameter to understand the amount of garbage or rainwater that is generated or falls on the city. According to government, the stadium has the capacity to store approximately 1 million cubic meters of water. Under this new practicality, turning the stadium into a public water reservoir could solve the water needs of the surrounding neighbourhoods such as Santa Ursula, Coapa, Joyas del Pedregal, Caracol, Tetlameya and Huipulco, among others, for an entire year.

The esplanade and atrium of the Basilica of Guadalupe and Plaza Mariana have a total area of 4.9 hectares and host millions of pilgrims every December. In 2020, the most important event of the year was cancelled in order to prevent people from all over the country from gathering for a multitudinous catholic service. Wheat or corn production per ha. is up to 9 tons and there can be up to 2 harvest cycles per year. If wheat had been planted in February 2020 (the month of the first official case of Covid 19 detected in Mexico) we would have harvested until July 2021 approx. 135 tons.