“For the largest commissions, our government only trusts architects who speak English,” says Alberto Kalach, sitting in the verdant roof garden above his office, Taller de Arquitectura X. “And as you can see, mine is very bad.”



As we discuss the future and past of Mexico City (a topic that 55-year-old Kalach has been researching in detail for the past three decades), the DF-born architect manages to sound both wry and good-natured, without losing any of his impassioned critique – and all in very good English. “We’re supposed to have a government from the left in this city,” he says. “But all the investment goes to the wealthiest areas, while the poorer areas are forgotten.”

One hot topic of our conversation is the selection of the British firm Foster + Partners to design the new airport for Mexico City – a scheme which Kalach sees as a wasted opportunity, driven by the perceived prestige of appointing a “foreign” architect (Kalach also submitted a proposal). Another bugbear is the sprawling influence of business magnate Carlos Slim Helú, often touted as the richest man in the world.

To hear Kalach talk, one might conclude that he is a cynic (Rage Against the Machine is on the office stereo as we talk). Yet his largest body of work, focused around the idea of restoring Mexico’s historic lakes and forests, is full of ideals and optimism.

Alberto Kalach has been researching the future and the past of his native Mexico City for three decades. Photograph: Shumi Bose

The Lakeside City (“La Ciudad Lacustre”), which set out to recover the ancient Texcoco lake in the east of Mexico City, is the most comprehensive urban plan the city has ever seen. Kalach and fellow architect, Teodoro González de León, proposed to limit urban growth, clear and curtail development on the original lake bed, and allow the groundwater and rain to restore the body of water, eventually regenerating an area of some 7,000 hectares (17,297 acres).

Our plan is not radical because the lakes were there for thousands of years, whereas they have been disappearing slowly Alberto Kalach

Like any aspiring metropolis, Mexico City has been energised by the recent availability of capital, even as it remains beleaguered by physical and social problems. The greatest of these problems, says Kalach, is water, which he maintains is in ample supply despite the city’s elevated position (an average altitude of 2,250 metres). The region’s unique topography – a temperate basin, high above sea-level, surrounded by mountains and chequered with lake and river beds – means the city receives enough water without the expensive current solution of pumping, according to Kalach, if only it could be collected and reused.

“Our plan is not radical,” the architect protests, “because the lakes were really there for thousands of years, whereas they have only been disappearing very slowly over the last 500 years.”

Kalach’s practice has several built projects in the city – including the José Vasconcelos library, Reforma 27 tower and Kurimanzutto gallery, not to mention the elegant, copper-toned tower that houses his practice – plus numerous international projects. However, after many years of studying and working on the city, and growing frustrated with its often stubborn civic and governmental authorities, Kalach now prefers to keep his projects in the realm of speculation, having abandoned his great lifework – the restoration of Mexico City’s lakes – altogether.

Cuenca del Valle de Mexico (‘the Basin of Mexico’) seen from the air, and, right, how it would look under the proposal to regenerate its lakes and reforest the area. Photograph: Taller de Arquitectura X

How did the lakes project begin?

“There was a huge gap in urban thinking here [upon my return to Mexico City in 1984 after working in New York]. The city’s urban plans were just starting to emerge, on a building-by-building basis. Since then we have started to do large masterplans for strategic areas of the city. But every time the administration changes, they throw away what the previous administration did; what they had discovered and proposed.

“Ninety-nine percent of Mexico, taken as a country, doesn’t have any idea of planning. Like many developing countries, we have a very recent democracy, and an unprepared set of people governing. So we have to build up an infrastructure for the planning of our cities.”

What is the biggest planning challenge for Mexico City?

“The hydrological balance of the city. This city has to import its water, which is very costly because you have to pump it up more than 2,000 metres above sea level to bring it here. Just carrying the water up requires enough energy to power a city of 3 million people.

“One of our research projects – conducted over the past 20 years – suggests that the city receives enough water here, within the basin, to cater for 40 million people. At the moment the city is at 20 million, so we have enough water – it is just not well managed.”

Interior of Torre 41, the Kalach-designed office building of TAX which faces Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park. Photograph: Yoshihiro Koitani/Taller de Arquitectura X

Why not?

“All the water that comes into the basin – we pollute and get rid of it, instead of treating and recycling it. The way the city has evolved is basically fighting against its environment. We produced a plan to stop the [sprawling] growth of the city, which is very logical: densify the interior, and try to recover the forest around the city.



“Mexico City is not fully densified; it has huge gaps – intra-urban gaps. Well-populated areas in the city have no more than 200 inhabitants per hectare. It can be densified: the government has huge tracts of land, but sometimes they don’t even know what they have, or how they can be used.”

The way the city has evolved is basically fighting against its environment Alberto Kalach

Your work has a strong historical perspective ...

“The pre-Hispanic civilisations built a system of dams, in order to control the salt water and to bring clean water, sweet water, close to the civilisations near the mountains. But then the Spaniards, in order to conquer the city, broke the dams. They conquered the city; the water mixed and became salty, and so their idea was to build over and cover the lake, which had become useless for agriculture and so on.



“They started to follow a European scheme, which didn’t match the geography. And we have followed that inherited inertia for the last 500 years, working against the logic of the land. Our projects tried to create a more intelligent dialogue with nature and the surroundings: what should be forest, city, lake, farmlands.”

In such a fast-growing megacity, it seems a radical vision

“Well, the lakes were here for thousands of years, and they have only been disappearing very slowly over the last 500 years. Only 80 years ago, there were huge areas that still flooded in the city. The idea is that if we have the same geography, the same topography and if it rains more or less as much as it used to, then we receive enough water every year. So it’s very easy to recover [the lakes], as long as that area is not occupied by people.

“Over the past 20 years, we have lost maybe a third of the [Lake Texcoco] area to buildings, but there are still about 10,000 hectares that could be recovered. Basically, instead of allowing this anarchic development to continue growing over the bed of the lake – which is very expensive, because the quality of the soil is very bad – we wanted to conduct the growth of the city around the lake area, and to recover a huge natural feature that belongs to everyone, which will change the climate of the city.”

The outlying suburb Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, aka ‘ Neza York ’.

An artist’s impression of how ‘ Neza York ’ could look after reforestation.

What impact would it have on people living here?

“Part of our studies included a simulation of how the quality of the air would change with the recreation of the lake. It would bring a lot of benefits to the city, bringing a prospect of urban development that could continue for the next 50 years with a sense of community, a sense of logic, of efficient infrastructure.

“We proposed two types of reforestation: in the mountains around the city, and also reforestation within the city. There is a great opportunity to change the city with trees: you can see easily that those neighbourhoods that have a lot of trees are much better than those that don’t have any. It’s very obvious that a tree will give you a lot of benefits: stopping the strong sun, catching some of the pollution, and providing an ecological habitat.”

So how was your research project received?

“At one time, we got lots of important commissions from the city government, paying for all of this research, often in collaboration with the university scientists. For a while, it was a major part of our office activities – but after almost 30 years, we realised it was a bit frustrating, because there is no machinery in government to implement these projects. Most politicians are concerned with how to keep power over the short term. People come in and get out; they are not able to put together a strong team in order to give continuity.

“We have all these studies and all this research, but now we see the government paying offices from all over the world to do the same sort of work in three months. And so these guys, they come in and they don’t get it, they don’t understand the complexity of the problem.”

Alberto Kalach’s vision for a new airport on the lake. Illustration: Taller de Arquitectura X

Is that how you feel about the city’s new airport project?

“A branch office of Ove Arup in California created the original masterplan for the new airport site, but then all the competitors [for the airport tender] just ignored it and did their own. The winning design, the project they are going with by Foster + Partners, doesn’t have anything to do with the Arup masterplan as far as I can see.

“I very much admire the work of Foster. And I’m sure he can do it in a fantastic way – but a project like this needs the close direction of a client, with detailed knowledge of the site, the environment and the climate. Instead the clients say, “Hey, just do it” – so Foster and his designers give in to their wildest dreams. I don’t know if they are going to be able to build it, or even whether they can afford it. And I fear that Foster’s partner on the project, Fernando Romero [Slim’s son-in-law], is not going to challenge these things either.”

Your lake proposal included an alternative plan for the new airport

“In our proposal, there was the lake with an island, and the airport on that island. An airport is a very important piece of infrastructure for the city, but we considered that if you’re making the large investment of building a new one, then with a very small percentage of that sum, you could also allow the lake to recover.”

Kalach’s proposed Texcoco airport terminal. Illustration: TAX

One criticism of your project is that in a city of so many people, your plans focus on ecological rather than societal needs

“Well, you would make an incredible investment in the poorest part of the city, which is the east. And by directing growth in that area you would create an uplift, and the people would have better places to live.”

What are the main social problems in this city?

“The number one is insecurity, personal safety, in the sense of kidnappings. It’s a very polarised city. Very few, very rich people and a lot of poor people, in strongly contrasting situations.”

And can these things be addressed by urbanism and architecture?

“I think so. Supposedly, we have a government from the left in the city. But the reality is that all the investment is made in the wealthy areas, and the poor areas are forgotten. There is no awareness of the importance for society to attend to those areas, and of the economic potential that those areas actually have.”

Why won’t developers invest there?

“Simply because they don’t turn around to look at this part of the city; they’ve never even been there. By “they”, I mean the 8% of the country that owns the resources, that controls the economy and have the power to make changes in the city; they don’t care, that part doesn’t exist for them.

“Right now, there is a controversy in the city, because they want to build a shopping mall on top of Avenida Chapultepec. It’s a very wide, very old street, and so they thought, let’s build a shopping centre one mile long, right above it. They have already sold the air rights above the avenue, but the people don’t want it.

“And this is the vision of one owner, instead of the 300 neighbours who are currently facing this street. Suppose instead that you created nice sidewalks, planted trees and made somewhere beautiful; those properties would rise in value. You would give this area the chance to develop.”

You sound pretty disenchanted. Is that why you abandoned the restoration of the lakes project?

“Yes, because we did that project, which included a hundred ideas – small projects, different scales. And it was impossible: every time they would grab it and change it, there was no way of getting through. They will steal your ideas and pervert them, and build what they like.”

Do you see any signs of hope for the future?

“In Mexico, I see a young generation of architects who are trying to build in an intelligent way, considering the climate, and not copying the mistakes that are happening around them. This is happening – but only in small examples, little houses and so on. Large projects are given to the same people: there is a lot more money now, but it’s still in a very few hands.”