TLAPALTEOTL : The Lake That Refused to Die

A territorial reading of Lake Texcoco's deliberate erasure, from the 1521 conquest to today's 5 percent remnant, locating the project at the southern edge of Lago Nabor Carrillo where Canales Chimalhuacán I and II meet the dead-end highway.

The experiential sequence in 5 movements, descending from the Chimalhuacán causeway through the salt-crust and aquifer galleries before rising to the boat dock, carrying the severed city back to the lake it lost.

The ground floor plan organised along the unfinished highway axis, tracing the full arc from buried history at the educational tower to working desalination and chinampa farming at the marsh edge.

A split-level reading of the programme from the underground Gallery of Suppressed Waters up to First Water at the summit, narrowing from public ground to the most distilled idea as it climbs.

A sectional perspective contrasting the heavy land-facing half on pad foundations with the lightweight lake-facing timber shell that floats and rises with the water, proposing a gentler way to build on sinking ground.

A detailed study of the leaning Glyph Column skewed to Templo Mayor's 7°36', alongside tezontle, the tequesquite table, and walls layered from salvaged and freshly laid stone, each material carrying memory and reclamation.

A projected future where the chinampas become cultural ground for markets, lantern festivals, and daily life on the water, so the lake is not only restored but passed on.

Scale 1:200

Scale 1:200

Scale 1:100