Featuring: Zaickz Moz

Article
By Ollie Nicholas
03/06/19

Subtitle

The unfulfilled promises of the Bicentenary Cities

Contents

1. Zaickz Moz

2. The Bicentenary Cities

3. Non-Social Interest

4. Public need vs Private gain

5. More unfulfilled promises?

Non-Social Interest by Zaickz Moz

Focusing on social issues of the Bicentenary Cities, architectural photographer Zaickz Moz, presents his photo-essay, ‘Non-Social Interest’ (2018), which displays a collection of back views of Tecamac´s housing settlements, a municipality of Estado de México which was selected as one of the key population centres of the Bicentenary City program.

Subtitle

The unfulfilled promises of the Bicentenary Cities

Contents

1. Zaickz Moz

2. The Bicentenary Cities

3. Non-Social Interest

4. Public need vs Private gain

5. More unfulfilled promises?

Focusing on social issues of the Bicentenary Cities, architectural photographer Zaickz Moz, presents his photo-essay, ‘Non-Social Interest’ (2018), which displays a collection of back views of Tecamac´s housing settlements, a municipality of Estado de México which was selected as one of the key population centres of the Bicentenary City program.
1. Zaickz Moz

After some years of studing architecture and a natural interest in the city as a subject matter, Zaickz Moz (1994) has found a way through photography to explore the spaces, dynamics and social conflicts around him. Partly because of her mother interests, partly because of the passion he saw in a vocational counsellor at high school, Zaickz decided he wanted to become an architect. He easily went from understanding and designing spaces, and soon, with his sharp eye and self-starter attitude he built a name for himself. At the same time, he started his career as architectural photographer, where he undertook different projects in which, more than just capturing an image, he developed the critical view that shapes his style and voice today.

Living in Estado de México, it was during his university stage as an Autonomous National University of Mexico’s student, commuting every day from one city to another, that he became aware of the circumstances in which many people live their daily lives. The strength and the artistic essence of Zaickz’s photos emerge from his interest in understanding how each community interacts with space and creates particular aesthetics out of personal meanings and specific functions.

What is the identity and community sense of peripheral settlements? What was the process of rebuilding houses after the 19s earthquake? How is it possible to include ecotechnics into educational programs for basic schools? These are just some of the issues that Zaickz has approached as an architectural photographer.

We first came across the work of Zaickz when we featured the Love Futbol project earlier this year. His aerial shots perfectly captured how humans can use space within urban areas by portraying the stark contrast between the newly built Deportivo El Coyolito football pitch and the surrounding shantytown like housing settlement. In Non-Social Interest, Zaickz has again produced a powerful depiction of a struggling human settlement that has adapted within the confines of a unique but troubling space and social environment.

Deportivo El Coyolito by Zaickz Moz

Deportivo El Coyolito by Zaickz Moz

2. The Bicentenary Cities

In 2005, as a way to increase its competitiveness, the government of the border state of Mexico City, Estado de México, launched a development program called “Bicentenary Cities”, which made reference to the two hundredth anniversary of Mexican Independence. 

This program proposed land-use planning and the creation of a state structure that could support key population centres. These population centres were selected on the basis of location, capacity to receive population increase, potential to host infrastructure and strategic equipment, and the possibility to create adequate communication lines to enable regional, statewide and national integration. 

Initially this sounded like a great idea, which could connect people and promote economic prosperity. There were ambitions to create a self-reliant labour force and the establishment of an urban settlement with sufficient services; medical, educational and recreation. However, unfortunately these all became forgotten promises of the Bicentenary Cities program. Neither the state nor the private developers fulfilled their commitments. The explicit aim of building a model city, self-sufficient, well planed and highly competitive, got lost between a change of governments and the uncontrolled growth of housing. 

Non-Social Interest by Zaickz Moz

3. Non-Social Interest

The shots from Non-Social Interest, taken from the México-Pachuca highway, portray the actions of the inhabitants who through self-construction, have adapted their houses to meet their living needs. You can see the changes to the original buildings, the overlapping, and the quick fixes that defy any concern for safety standards. Vertical expanding, variation of materials, exposed stairs, security fences, the list goes on.

The housing disorder captured by Zaickz Moz´s photographs is the result of serious disarray, where public needs and private interest remain confronted. The photos show two sides of a story: Inhabitants are forced to take their welfare into their own hands in an attempt to battle an absent, detached or just incompetent government that still even use the back walls for their political ads and campaign promises.

Non-Social Interest by Zaickz Moz

Non-Social Interest by Zaickz Moz

4. Public need vs Private gain

Recent statistics have revealed a population crisis in Tecamac which is facing a serious level of overcrowding. Within a total area of 153.42 km2, Tecámac ́s population went from 11,971 in 1960 to 446,008 in 2019. This growth has not been supported with there being few opportunities for employment, no infrastructural improvement, yet the government are still giving out building permits to private investors with 55 new housing developments authorised at the start of 2019. Clear disparities between public need and private gains are plunging the people of Tecamac into ever deeper chaos and uncertainty. New housing attracts people to the area but there is nothing in place to support them when they get there.

Unsupported population growth and overcrowding create conditions for crime and according to municipal data, in 2018 7,814 crimes were registered, which gives a total rate of 1, 752 crimes for every 100,000 inhabitants. There is not enough water, the drainage system fails, there are no local jobs and the means of transport are insufficient. This leaves people with few options to either leave the area completely or stay and struggle and potentially be forced to pursue criminal activities to support their families.

Non-Social Interest gives a voice to the people that have been condemned to a lifetime of struggle

5. More unfulfilled promises?

Current municipal president Mariela Gutierrez who rules with the motto; “Thriving and Secure City”, is attempting to establish a development plan that can begin to fulfil some of the promises that were once promised to Tecámac. With regard to the organisation and sustainability of the municipality, she recognises that one of the biggest issues the administration faces is the urban sprawl, and she aims to update the Urban Development Plan and redefine the boundaries of urban expansion in order to create a more compact city, with higher population density and more economical activity. Within her development plan she proposes to work for sustainable housing from the economic, ecological and social dimension; committing herself to ensure that everybody has access to a house with adequate basic services, to ameliorate slums and to provide “security with citizen approach”.

However, since the release of Gutierrez’s development plan, a controversial presidential decision has sparked some debate in the area: The proposal of a new international airport construction in the military air base in Santa Lucía, surrounding the Tecámac and Zumpango ́s municipalities. While Mariela Gutiérrez views the project as a means of creating opportunities for well-paid employment and plenty for the Tecamaquenses, communal authorities and other civil groups are using legal resources to submit the disposition to public consultation. They are against the project because of its environmental impact and because of the impact it will have on water and other services, not only during the construction but for the everyday operation of the airport. Resources are already stretched in the area without the need for an international airport. The concerns of the public are fully justified, how are they to know that this is not just another broken promise from the government?

This issue has gone far beyond just being concerned with the housing development. Its complexity is growing and, as often happens in Mexico, multidimensional solutions probably will remain as unfulfilled actions. The effects and the dangers of this situation are not just numbers in a development plan or a news story, they concern people that are living and fighting everyday to overcome their circumstance.

Non-Social Interest by Zaickz Moz

  • Featuring: Zaickz Moz

Bibliography

Non-Social Interest by Zaickz Moz (www.zaickz.com)

Social

Zaickz Moz (@zaickzstudio)

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