“The Tec District is a pedestrian priority area, with accessibility to commerce, equipment and services, vibrant and quality public space, and a diversity of efficient means of mobility. It has a combination of land uses from single-family, multifamily housing, commerce, and services, in accordance with the citizens’ proposals. Its infrastructure is oriented towards environmental, economic, and social sustainability, and its operation involved citizen participation, to form a resilient and socially inclusive community. It generates a shared value through a city model based on urban regeneration and the co-responsibility of its inhabitants. It offers a dynamic, safe, and inspiring community that attracts and retains talent and drives the development and positioning of Monterrey as a city of innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability.” DistritoTec, Comprehensive Urban Plan.

DistritoTec’s regeneration is an ambitious project initiated by Tecnologico de Monterrey that invites the exploration of Mexico’s historical and regulatory background on urbanization to understand the current context and issues faced by municipalities in terms of providing inclusive and accessible urban spaces to residents. Housing, therefore, appears as a pivotal element of the urban fabric: it indeed offers more than shelter to its inhabitants, rather it structures their everyday lives and establishes socio-spatial contexts in which they are either integrated into the urban system or isolated. Housing, therefore, crystallizes social, economic, and environmental inequalities between urban dwellers. By acting at spatial, environmental, economic, and social levels, urban regeneration transforms existing local configurations and determines new access conditions to infrastructure, housing, spaces, and services.