taller mgl ° °

Nearly a century after its conception by architect Carlos Contreras as one of the city’s two new urban arteries (which at the time sought to anticipate rampant urban growth), the Periférico today exists as an organism in constant evolution, construction, and conflict with the city it surrounds. Its counterpart artery, the Miguel Alemán Viaduct, similarly aimed to ease vehicular flow amid rapid urban expansion; has become obsolete, insufficient, and equally a witness to the transformation of our city.

Peripheral Chronicles proposes an investigation into one of Mexico City’s most imposing concrete lines: the Anillo Periférico. If approached as a complex anthropological, urban, and architectural object, a journey along this line reveals itself as a trajectory through the many realities coexisting within our valley.

To traverse it is to take part in a tradition of intra-urban journeys imagined by thinkers such as Iain Sinclair, who explored London’s M25 motorway; or Julio Cortázar who, together with his wife Carol Dunlop, spent 33 days traveling along the “Highway of the Sun” connecting Paris and Marseille (a trip that normally takes around eight hours). Both are examples of unusual journeys that resulted in singular chronicles of their respective cities.

In this spirit, the project proposes walking the Anillo Periférico at the pace of a pedestrian, in rebellion against the speed and urgency imposed by the motorway: a journey that would allow for the documentation of one edge of Mexico City with the rigor of a scientific expedition.

Project developed with the support of Jóvenes Creadores SACPC, Architecture Generation 2024.