m²: 1000000
Location: Guzman, Jalisco, Mexico
Year: 2009

Guzman is a small and very picturesque historic city an hour south of Guadalajara and was selected as the official venue for Rowing and Canoeing in the 2011 Pan-American Games because of its proximity to a large lake. Like most cities in Mexico, Guzman has been gradually growing in size and population with no apparent strategy or planning. With the excuse of the Pan-American Games and the construction of a new Rowing Facility on its lake, the government decided it was time for the city to have a Master Plan.

Guzman has a huge potential to become a destination city because of its many attractions: its undeveloped and almost virgin-like lake, the historic center with its cathedral and many churches, the ten universities and the conglomerate cliffs of the nearby mountains. We identified these specific areas as quiescent spheres waiting to be roused to interact with each other, like atoms in a dormant state before a chain reaction transforms them into energy. The concept behind the master plan is to take advantage of the intervention of the Pan-American Games to trigger the potential and the interaction of different areas of the city.