Iztapalapa: UTOPIAS - Units of Transformation and Organisation for Inclusion and Social Harmony

The UTOPIAS are a strategy of social and urban transformation to transcend the structural socio-territorial inequality of the urban peripheries, through the regeneration of deteriorated public spaces and the construction of a system of large integral public facilities of high quality and impact, which promote human rights and wellbeing of the communities, and revalue public space as a treasure and community asset, with a focus on equitable distribution of public goods and a 15-minute city. Aesthetic spaces of great architectural quality, innovative, sustainable, freely accessible, inclusive, of proximity, that provide free social, cultural, sporting and recreational activities and services, open to people of all ages and genders, with active citizen participation, are living schools of citizenship. 

12 UTOPIAS, built in 4 years, have recovered more than 540,000 m2 of degraded public space, and serve more than 100,000 people a week. With the Utopias, not only are urban spaces recovered, but we are also committed to the reconstruction of the social fabric, community cohesion, and the participation, exercise of rights and appropriation of the communities near these projects. 

The UTOPIAS were planned under the approach of justice and territorial proximity, seeking to guarantee the right to the city, access to the exercise of rights and integral development for all people, based on transforming existing underused and degraded public spaces, under the premises ‘the poor first’, ‘the best for the poor’ and ‘for the poorest, what is far away does not exist’. For the implementation of the UTOPIAS, the involvement of citizens through community participatory processes that responded to the needs of the territory and allowed for the planning and subsequent implementation of the projects was strategic. 

Coexistence in the UTOPIAS is creating a sense of dignity and belonging, of the expansion of the commons and revaluation of the public heritage; it generates social and intercultural relations that strengthen the exchange of knowledge, identity and collective empowerment and community cohesion, where all people develop values, knowledge, skills and abilities to exercise and defend their rights and freedoms, promote mutual respect, care for people and the environment, in favour of their lives and their communities. 

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