Project description

San Diego is a city next to the US-Mexico border, which makes it an ideal place for Mexican immigrants to settle down in the US. Among these people, many of them are young people searching for jobs in the US to earn money for their family members in Mexico. These people usually live in affordable housings and have low-income jobs. The current organizations in San Diego to help them settle down do not have enough space to hold everyone, and sometimes people have to live in tents. Away from their family and isolated in the foreign world, they often suffered from loneliness and nostalgia.

Therefore, we decide to choose a site in San Diego to build a community for these Mexican immigrants. After researching about the Mexican immigrants' daily needs, we set up criteria to score the potential site for this community. The site with the highest score is selected. The design of the chosen site should satisfy people's daily needs, be affordable for the Mexican immigrants, and have traditional Mexican elements to relieve their nostalgia. Besides, the community will also serve as a center of Mexican culture. The residents there can hold Tianguis (open market) on weekends and celebrations for Mexican festivals on certain days. Local San Diego residents can come to this community to experience Mexican culture. These activities can also provide potential works for the residents and earnings to support the community.

Additionally, the buildings and landscape of the site is designed to be sustainable. Learning from Mexican traditional ways of water conservation, passive cooling/heating, and seismic resistance, our community design is intended to be an environment-friendly niche and self-sufficient community.