Urban Forms and Landscapes of Mexico
Joseph Heathcott
For this ongoing line of research, I am investigating the production of urban macroform in Mexico, and the varied modes of life such forms enable and constrain. I am interested in city-making at several scales and registers, from shifting global economies to policy and planning at the metropolitan level, and from episodic interventions and transformations to the countless routine decisions made from day to day that shape the urban landscape over time.
The work combines several methods, including fieldwork (site studies, observation, and interviews), spatial analysis using GIS and aerial imagery, and photographic documentation. Thus far, the research has resulted in several journal articles, a large portfolio of documentary photographs and suborbital images and collages, presentations, and interviews and feature pieces in mass media. One of the projects resulting from this line of work will be featured in the inaugural exhibit of the Museo Banco de México.
Activities, publications, and other results
"The Street Markets of Mexico City." Selection of ten large prints included by invitation to the inaugural group show Markets Through Contemporary Art, installed at the Museo Del Banco de México, Jul-Dec 2022.
Notes on the Urban Macroform of Mexico City. Booklet based on "Mexico City Morphologies" article, May 2021.
"Urban Worlds in the Making: A Walk through the Pedregal de Santo Domingo" Virtual tour and talk
Princeton University Program in Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities
January 2021
(Recorded in August 2021 for a lecture in Introduction to Urban Studies)
"Living in the Diagram: From Utopian Landscape to Modest Urban Neighborhood" Journal of Urbanism,
December 2020
"Architecture, Urban Form, and Assemblage Aesthetics in Mexico City's Street Markets"
International Journal of Architectural Research 13, 1
March 2019
"Mexico City Morphologies"
Special issue on The View From Above
2019
Interview conducted by Sérgio Perez
Vice magazine
Mexico City
25 October 2018
Project featured in The Guardian
"The Multicolored Street Markets of Mexico City"
15 October 2018
"Colonia Federal, Mexico City"
Photograph for juried group show
Barrett Art Center
Poughkeepsie, NY
May-Jun 2018