CIUDADES PARALELAS/ PARALLEL CITIES
JUNE 27, 2025
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
Key Takeaways from the Forum
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The first panel addressed the current challenges of producing dignified housing in cities like Mexico City and Los Angeles, highlighting obstacles such as high land costs, construction expenses, lack of accessible financing, and restrictive urban regulations.
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Panelists proposed rethinking how, with what, and where housing is built, calling for a profound transformation in urban development models and greater collaboration between the public and private sectors.
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The second panel emphasized the need to build equitable cities, with access to services, dignified housing, safe public spaces, and active community participation in urban decision-making.
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Speakers acknowledged that the urban environment is the result of many social struggles and that the shared goal must be to guarantee equitable access to universal rights for all citizens.
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The role of architects, urban planners, and decision-makers trained with an inclusion perspective was highlighted as essential to ensuring equal opportunities in the construction of the urban fabric.
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“Parallel Cities” was conceived as the first step in building networks and alliances between key actors on both sides of the border, with the goal of advancing joint projects with high social and urban impact.
CIUDADES PARALELAS / PARALLEL CITIES:
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Edgard Mercado
Founder of Solviing:“Acquiring a home in a good location with quality services has become a privilege that few can access. At Solviing, we aim to transform the housing market by offering innovative financing solutions for affordable housing in Mexico.”
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Salvador Arroyo,
Co-founder of Arroyo Solís Agraz“When we address housing from a design perspective, we must comply with city building codes. However, we must keep in mind that these regulations and codes are not the end goal of our work as designers, but the starting point.”
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Enrique Norten,
TEN Arquitectos“The main problems cities face today are the result of years of designing for the automobile city—an approach that replaced public space with wide avenues and parking lots. Therefore, the first step in addressing these issues is to design with the goal of turning today’s city of distances into a city of proximity.”
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Mariana Campos,
WRI México“Participatory design workshops have taught us that we are all part of one or several communities, and that only by listening to all voices can we guarantee the right to the city for everyone.”
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Guadalupe Morales,
C-LAB ITESM“From academia, we work to ensure that everyone has equal conditions and opportunities. C-Lab seeks to understand the needs of communities and the characteristics of their environment in order to transform cities through the practical application of knowledge.”
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Alfred Fraijo Jr.
Founder and CEO, Somos Group“Somos was born out of a desire to break away from traditional approaches to urban development. Our context has helped us build a transdisciplinary and binational platform that connects architecture, law, design, public policy, and community engagement to deeply transform cities.”
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ABOUT
A Binational Conversation with a Shared Vision
Ciudades Paralelas / Parallel Cities was born as a platform for dialogue and exchange between two contexts that—despite their political and cultural differences—face common urban challenges: the affordable housing crisis, pressure on infrastructure, inefficient public transportation, climate change, and the urgent need to build more equitable and resilient communities.
On June 27, Somos Group—a multidisciplinary team of experts that creates effective solutions to build and sustain urban resilience—organized the Ciudades Paralelas / Parallel Cities forum, a binational gathering between Mexico and the United States that brought together leaders in urban development, housing, design, and academia to collectively reflect on the shared challenges faced by cities in both nations.
The event took place at the University of California's Casa in Mexico City and opened with a keynote lecture by Pía Taracena, an expert in the domestic and foreign policy of Mexico, the United States, and Canada. In her talk, Taracena emphasized that in the face of today’s crisis, binational gatherings are invaluable for exchanging perspectives and imagining solutions to the issues cities are up against.
Upcoming Event
October 30, 2025
ASU California Center
Time: TBD
1111 S. Broadway Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90015
State of the Worker Summit
The Summit is hosted by SAFER (Somos Accelerator for Economic Resilience) the non-profit. affiliate of Somos Group. SAFER focuses on providing support and technical assistance to mission-driven organizations that seek to use land and real estate to promote economic development, good jobs and social equity for historically under-resourced communities and the society at large.
This will be an opportunity for you to engage in conversation with some of the foremost labor, policy, and business leaders in the state on some of the most critical issues of our time.