Mariela Pedraza Meza

Low Income Housing in Mexico: Towards a Landscape Led Approach Mariela Pedraza Meza

In the last decades demographic growth and urban development in Mexico have completely neglected the idea of social-environmental areas. The existence and enjoyment of green areas, places for recreation and fresh air in such cities are being made increasingly difficult. Having the opportunity to work in low income housing development in Mexico, it was identified the main concern. Developers and policies when providing low income housing and programs for improvement are mainly focused on the construction of the buildings themselves. Although environmental preservation are often included in guidelines and regulations but the importance of these is frequently reduced or are not considered as a basic necessity. As a result, the main issues and its limits to integrate landscape are: land speculation and profits of developers, the lack of professional training in the field and the cultural understanding of landscape design as a private garden proposal. This research suggests that low income housing requires the implementation of methods with theoretical bases that increase the use of landscape as an integral part of design.