PILARES is an urban project of social impact developed by the Government of Mexico City that aims to generate community centers for citizen encounters. Pilares are strategically distributed in vulnerable areas of the city that lack cultural infrastructure. The project is located in the Colonia Presidentes de México, Iztapalapa, one of the most densely populated municipalities in the city. The program includes a cyber school, arts and crafts workshops, sports facilities, a dance and yoga room, a vegetable garden, and rooms for entrepreneurship and job training. Since this area lacks public spaces, Pilares was designed as an inclusive and multifunctional space that replaces the idea of barriers for meeting platforms. The main entrance is a fundamental part of the project as it connects the community center with the street activity through a green plaza delimited by an open sequence of columns that invites people to enter and inhabit the space. In the attempt to generate abundance from scarcity, only two materials were used: striated blocks and concrete tiles in a reddish tone and steel profiles in the same color palette. This materiality brings an iconic identity to the site and produces a series of textures of light and shadow that enables an interpretation of the space in different layers and depths. Concrete is re-signified to produce lattices that ventilate and tiles with changes of texture in the pavement. The architectural program distributes the forums and halls over two floors that are interconnected by a system of platforms, landscaped patios, bridges and corridors. The sequence of spaces maintains its connection with the exterior. Pilares seeks to become a recreational cultural oasis that, despite being located on a very small site and in an area of insecurity, its interior experience gives the sensation of openness and diversity. The project produces a formative and pleasant atmosphere that reactivates and strengthens the social fabric of the neighborhood.

PILARES was designed for the people of the Colonia Presidentes de México –especially children and adults from Iztapalapa and its neighboring areas who have dropped out of school or are illiterate or vulnerable. In a place with a low socio-economic level and high rates of violence, PILARES is a community center where people from all ages can participate in free courses, classes and workshops that seek to replace idle time with educational activities that have the potential of positively transforming the social fabric of the neighborhood. The project is part of an integral in-fill urban strategy with an important social impact in Mexico City. The program includes a cyber school, arts and crafts workshops (serigraphy, jewelry, plumbing and gastronomy), sports facilities, a dance and yoga room, a vegetable garden, and rooms for entrepreneurship and job training. The building includes a vegetated public plaza that addresses the lack of public space in the area. The plaza is an accesible space that is open 24/7 for all. PILARES Presidentes de México offers to the community a quality public space enhanced with a public program that guarantee the activation of the space through citizen encounter.