ArchShowcase Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Acapulco Bay Bridge in Acapulco, Mexico by BNKR ArquitecturaApril 15th, 2011 by Sumit Singhal
Can architecture salvage the broken link of a city that has been fractured and is forever growing apart? Can it make it regain its lost glamour and reposition it on the world map where it once stood as focal point but has been fading ever since?
The first settlements in Acapulco were established on the northern side of the bay on what is now considered the “Old Town” or “Old Acapulco”. The decision to construct the international airport on the middle of the strip between the “Tres Palos” lagoon and the ocean has encouraged the city to expand ever-further south. The urban growth past the Puerto Marques Bay has been named the New Acapulco or Acapulco Diamante and is comprised of luxurious high-rise tower apartments on the beach front. The tall mountains divide the city in two and the main connecting routes, the coastal avenue around the bay and the scenic highway, have soon become overloaded, engendering huge traffic problems and literally mutating into linear parking lots. The municipal government does not have the resources to build a three-kilometer bridge and never will. By transforming its supporting structure into habitable spaces, private equity can be invited for its construction. This way, developers can acquire and sell on prime seafront real estate and the city solves one of its chief problems. Architecture as a city problem solver. The project was presented to the local authorities for its approval. Due to the scale, the titanic investment required for its construction and their shortage of vision, it was discarded as a utopian unviable solution. Although they did mention that if we could get investors interested in the project they might consider its viability. So far our presentations have been received with enthusiasm. BNKR Arquitectura Bunker Arquitectura is a Mexico City-based architecture, urbanism and research office founded by Esteban Suarez in 2005 and partnered by his brother Sebastian Suarez. In their short career they have been able to experience and experiment architecture in the broadest scale possible: from small iconic chapels for private clients to a master plan for an entire city. Bunker´s unconventional approach to architecture has continuously generated public debate with projects such as a three-kilometer habitable bridge that unites the bay of Acapulco and an inverted skyscraper 300 meters deep in the main square of the historic center of Mexico City. Contact BNKR Arquitectura
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