How has this concept been reflected in the design and operation of the buildings?
Let me explain with the example of Urvita Victoria, which is our building located in the middle- and low-income class neighborhood of Tampiquito. Tampiquito is surrounded by upper-class neighborhoods, and it is home to many craftsmen,gardeners, plumbers or others who service these wealthy areas. We designed the building around a walkway that connects two parts of the neighborhood. A lot of people living in the area use the walkway as a shortcut to take the public transportation, so it?s become like a publicly shared private space. We keep it open from eight in the morning to eight at night. At first, when I proposed to open this walkway up as an experiment, I was told that it would be dangerous to let people walk through our property because this neighborhood is not considered very safe. They told me that people would not respect the walkway and that it would be vandalized. But we haven?t had any problems after three years of operations. People have instead taken good care of the space. We learned from this that if you create something that is valuable to the community, something that is respectful towards them, something that is designed softly towards the street and the neighbors, people will care after it and respect it.
We also designed Urvita Victoria with small terraces where we have meals, hold yoga and dance sessions, and host lectures, workshops, and concerts. I believe that with shared spaces like these, the furnishing and décor is not that relevant to creating a rich place. In terms of the hardware, they only have to be well scaled, well lighted, well ventilated. But what?s more important is the software needed to activate the spaces. Activating a space is a hard thing to do because it requires sustained effort, but it is the most valuable aspect of community building. We use these spaces to inspire and connect the residents both of the buildings and the local neighborhood.
There is a traditional Mexican sauce called mole.It?s a very rich sauce that is made with hundreds of ingredients. Our communities are also like mole because we get richer interactions, richer conversations, and richer exchanges between the people that live in and around them as they get more diverse. A good mole also needs heat, or energy, and people to mix it. That?s the role that the communities? social activators serve. They play an important part in organizing activities, connecting people, facilitating exchanges, and helping the spaces to function. Unlike in poorer communities, where sharing is a necessity because you have to be efficient with resources, when you live in better economic conditions, you tend to have fewer interactions with other people in your community as sharing takes on more and more of a social function. I think this has made it more difficult for us to connect with other people around where we live. Our events and activities are very important in the sense that they help promote these interactions. And in fact, we have seen that even after just spending a short amount of time together at the events, people will start running together, cooking together, and exchanging work opportunities. A lot of things can happen from even the simplest of interactions.

How have the shared spaces been affected by the pandemic?
We have had to implement measures to make some of the spaces safer to use, just for now. I imagine that shared spaces everywhere will be reprogrammed to be used by smaller groups. However, this has been our strategy since the first pilot building. We knew from the start that we didn?t want all those huge terraces that you see filled with people having fun in renderings but end up being empty in reality. I believe that humans need a certain level of compactness; our minds feel safer and relaxed when we are in a well-defined space rather than a huge, open space. This is why we designed Urvita Victoria with many small terraces with different scales and personalities rather than one huge terrace. They are made for small groups because group activities are more enjoyable with fewer than 20 to 30 people. I also think common spaces for four to six people are great, so it is ideal if there are lots of tiny common spaces in and around the building, like secret gardens where people can meet and connect. Our apartments are also equipped with dedicated work desks, so the spaces were already prepared for teleworking. So, while I do think the pandemic has made people more aware of the value of outdoor spaces that are compact but filled with light and fresh air, I don?t think we have to radically change the way we live. We can just use the spaces with more caution until the situation stabilizes, hopefully in a couple of years.