Progress, Mobility and Urban Regeneration in a Traditional Neighbourhood: El Encino, Mexico

Abstract

During the second half of the 20th century, the cities in Latin America began to grow rapidly, and the historic built environment has changed since then. Some of them preserved historic architecture, some others changed dramatically, and a few combined historic buildings with factories and the dynamics of new ways of mobility. This is the case of the neighbourhood: El Encino in Aguascalientes, Mexico. The factory: JM Romo was established in 1957 in El Encino. It pursued welfare and prosperity in the neighbourhood, helping with economics sustainability, such as a theme park development, building an indoor basketball court and schools for its workers. Somehow a social sustainability was achieved, but there was a loss of the historic buildings that were bought by the factory -and then they were torn down, and trucks changed the mobility on the narrow streets of the historic neighbourhood. So now the urban image of El Encino is a combination of the factory facades, parking lots and historic buildings. To find out about the social benefits to the factory workers and the opinion of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood two different surveys were conducted. Some of the results showed that the factory has pursued facilities for their workers, but not for the whole neighbourhood. Also, some residents built a garage in their houses because of the increasing traffic. Fortunately, the city planning has considered in the last years restoring the facades of the main houses, also changing the pavement, and building a new museum. Besides, the Guadalupe Posada Museum preserves the famous printings of this Mexican designer. It is through the analysis of the factory impacts (social and mobility), the developing of the neighbours to improve their own resilience and the late urban planning that the site can be preserved as part of a sustainable city.

The Relationship between Intangible Cultural Heritage and Urban Resilience: A Systematic Literature Review

“…This type of resilience is measured in terms of recovery, translated in the literature through ideas of heritage prevention, architectural preservation and recovery, a focus on the built environment, and an emphasis on conservation and rehabilitation as solutions to enhance and protect cultural heritage in the face of external hazards or exacerbated economic development. On the other hand, the evolutionary resilience approach is the least addressed by the literature, with only [33,41,57,63,82] embracing ideas related to the need of change and adaptation.…”

“…Academics argue that preservation should be considered for the building of a sustainable city, since the conservation of cultural heritage has several positive impacts to long-term community sustainability. These impacts correspond to an increase in property values; the development of heritage tourism and the reuse of buildings and structures; the enhancement of the local economy and a tool to foster a sense of pride [61][62][63][64]; and for the enhancement of both tangible and intangible heritage [61]. In fact, the negative impact of urban planning on local culture can be avoided with the use of cultural heritage policy practices as tools to better bridge the gap between the traditional conservative vision of protection and a new forward-looking perspective of urban planning, living heritage, which includes more dynamic and intangible aspects.…”

Mobility and Collateral Effects on City Heritage in Aguascalientes, Mexico

“…3). The main problem at the site was the installation of a factory in the northern side of El Encino, which dramatically changed the architecture since 1957 (see discussion in Acosta Collazo [6]); but surprisingly, the factory didn't promote changes in El Encino Park. Few aspects of daily life have changed, since then.…”