Via Stephen Smith, a concept for a 35-story underground building in Mexico City:
Demand for new infrastructure, office, retail and living space is currently not being met, but with Federal and local laws preventing the demolishing of historic buildings, and height regulations limiting new structures to eight stories, the only solution is for architects to build downwards.
The only solution? How about the city government designates a set of aesthetically valuable historic buildings and then lets the rest of the land be filled with tall modern structures to meet the demand for space? That sounds like it could be awesome. Living underground is a dystopian scenario for when the surface of the earth becomes uninhabitable, it shouldn’t be a go-to response to a regulatory mandate for short buildings.