Emerging Markets: Puebla Mexico
April 3, 2009
Morten Jensen
Today Ed and I are on the road to the city of Puebla, located roughly 100 kilometers southeast of Mexico City. Like many of the locations for our projects, Puebla is an emerging market. In the United States there is 20 square feet of retail space for per capita; in Mexico, as in much of the rest of the world, at 2 square feet per capita, this is a fraction of that. Designing in emerging markets requires special skills as well as important responsibilities, such as cultural sensitivity and respect for existing local businesses. Over the years, our firm has been intensely involved in the creation of retail in these emerging markets. From our roll-out of international branded retail throughout Europe to north Africa, each emerging market requires an understanding of how to serve a rapidly emerging consumer base with retail that is currently unavailable in the region.
It is interesting to contrast our design approach for our project in Puebla with our project in another World Heritage Site city - Marrakech, Morocco. Puebla and Marrakech are both Unesco World Heritage Sites. Whereas Marrakech grew organically from 12th to 16th without planning, Puebla was thoroughly planned in the 16th century according to the Spanish colonial practice of precisely dimensioned and parcelized city blocks surrounding a central Zocolo or city square
In Marrakech and Puebla, our job was to complement the existing retail both economically and experientially. Both cities are expanding at a rapid rate, requiring the construction of new retail. In both cases we studied the local traditions to understand how to best engage customers in ways that affirm the positive identity that they have for their community, as well as how to meet expanding and latent demand for merchandise that complements existing offerings.
In Marrakech the customer base is primarily visitors or owners of second homes who travel to the country in search of a particularly "Moroccan" experience. In Puebla, customers are more likely permanent residents who are looking for their shopping experience to reaffirm their place in the larger international community. As a result, our architectural approach for the two cities is very different--our project in Marrakech is more traditionally styled and our project in Puebla is more modern.
Welcome to Our New Website
April 1, 2009
Morten Jensen
Oakland and Mexico City. After a lot of hard work, we are pleased to launch our new completely redesigned website. This new website is designed to work as an online publication rather than as a static "brochure." In this sense our website reflects our unique work methods and our company philosophy of constant engagement with our team members, collaborators, and the general public. Like many firms these days, we will be keeping a web blog where we will post observations from our travels as well as updates of our projects. We envision an informal exchange of ideas and encourage our JRDV team members to make frequent postings of their personal observations on the practice of architecture, urban design, and development in ways that are both fun and of interest to the larger community.
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| 04.03.09 | Emerging Markets, Puebla, Mexico |
| 04.01.09 | Welcome to Our New Website |