The new campus for environmental studies in Acatitlán, 140km west of Mexico City will trigger a local regeneration process, reinforcing communities throughout the region. The project’s design for the Universidad del Medio Ambiente is locally attuned, self-sufficient regarding energy and water, promotes on-site food production, and will be realized with low-impact materials to minimize the architecture’s ecological footprint. Rather than promoting efficiency for efficiency’s sake, the authors frame the university curriculum based on local knowledge: “It’s not about the campus, it’s about a community”.

Erected in three phases, the buildings are organized around a series of courtyards. Construction assemblies include stone foundations, wooden structures and wall finishes made of soil. The result is a sustainable and regenerative project, a “living classroom” that could readily be replicated. 

The project seeks to achieve two very ambitious goals: resource self-sufficiency and system regeneration – and aims to deliver this via local talent, local materials, accessible technologies and at a cost no greater than USD 400/m2. This is possible by using an innovative design process that prioritizes learning over efficiency, and by taking time to learn from local knowledge. The result will be a sustainable and regenerative project that most neighbors will be able to copy. The campus will be a living classroom for anyone who wants to replicate the methodology.

The campus will be built in a rural community which is currently under great urban development pressure that is driving farmers off their land: forest is being cleared, access to water is being compromised, and insecurity is rising. The project engages with its neighbors in several ways: a storytelling project raises local identity, open-day events with neighbors enable the project to be presented, offering scholarships to students willing to work with the community, creating a nursery in order to collect and classify local edible seeds, the cultivation of an edible forest that can be replicated, encouraging non-motorized mobility, and supporting families interested in lodging students.

These initiatives intend to bring about a stronger economic, social and environmental condition to the area, empowering the community to drive its own path of sustainable development, ultimately reversing the degenerative process that has been gaining momentum in the area.

The economic resilience of the project is supported by three main actors: Universidad del Medio Ambiente will generate the monthly income to sustain it, a real estate investor owns the building and will lease it to the university, and the community will be involved in offering services and products. This broadens the range of stakeholders that benefit from operations of the campus. As for the building itself, the project is based on local materials and artisanship, complementing it with solutions that support the learning process of the students. The learning spaces are open to the environment to encourage observation, dialog and creativity.

It is anticipated that the sustainable, regenerative, economic, and constructive ideas will expand at different scales in different contexts. This campus must not end at its physical boundaries, it must expand itself by sharing knowledge, learning from its neighbors, and proposing a new way of constructing communities together.