The Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) has selected Represo Colosio Park in Heroica Nogales (Mexico) by Taller Capital as the winner of the 2022 MCHAP Award for Emerging Practice, an honor given by the Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago).

Outside Nogales, a Mexican city that borders with the state of Arizona, ‘Containing the Flood’ comes under a larger program conducted by SEDATU (Secretariat for Agrarian, Land and Urban Development) to regenerate degraded low-income neighborhoods in the country. Surrounded by informal settlements, the park takes up 5.8 hectares of land. Based on a careful reading of the context and a hydrological analysis, the project creates a public recreational space and restructures the low part of the riverbed and dam, curbing the usual inundations of rainy seasons through a system of retaining walls made of stone gabions. These platforms also incorporate a multipurpose facility under a large pitched roof, sport amenities, children’s playgrounds, an outdoor auditorium, and walking trails. There are zones that will flood yearly but are designed to accommodate specific programs when the water subsides.