Urban Acup­unc­ture

Tecate is located in the far northwest of Mexico, directly on the border with the USA. The Centro Depor­tivo y Cultural El Mayab was built on the peri­phery of the city in 2025 as part of the national Urban Impro­ve­ment Program. The program utilizes targeted public cons­truc­tion projects in districts with social and infra­struc­tural defi­cits to create new momentum for the neigh­bor­hood. The archi­tects refer to this as a form of “urban acup­unc­ture.”

There was a very specific reason for this in the El Mayab district: American foot­ball has a strong local tradi­tion here, but suitable sports faci­li­ties were lacking. The new center ther­e­fore places a regu­la­tion playing field at the heart of the complex, but expli­citly does not limit itself to sporting use. The stadium, cultural venue, meeting point, and public open space are unders­tood as a cohe­sive infra­struc­ture.

The true archi­tec­tural quality of the Centro Depor­tivo y Cultural El Mayab emerges at the edges of the playing field. Instead of a conven­tional spec­tator stand inde­pen­dent of the terrain, Taller de Arqui­tec­tura Miguel Montor deve­loped a sequence of terraces, stairs, squares, stands, and covered areas.

Large, slightly inclined roofs lie over these diffe­rent levels. They provide the shade essen­tial for the local climate and simul­ta­neously form a spatial connec­tion between the playing field and the rising terrain. As a result, the archi­tec­ture appears less as an indi­vi­dual buil­ding and more as an arti­fi­ci­ally extended land­scape.

The open­ness of the complex is remar­kable. The stands are not just spec­tator areas for orga­nized sports. Stairs and terraces can also be used for sitting, meeting, or obser­ving. This ensures the center remains part of ever­yday public life even outside of games and events. Accor­ding to the archi­tects, this multi-use capa­bi­lity was part of the concept from the very begin­ning.

The choice of mate­rials also follows the connec­tion to the land­scape. The predo­mi­nantly used exposed concrete was pigmented, its reddish-brown hue picking up the earth and rocks of the surroun­dings. It is comple­mented by natural stone sourced directly from the site. Archi­tec­ture and land­scape thus share almost the same color palette.

This stra­tegy becomes parti­cu­larly visible from a distance. The low struc­tures, walls, and terraces continue the lines of the terrain, while the darker roofs lie above them as a hori­zontal layer. Even the large foot­ball field appears less as an isolated green space and more as part of a sequence of arti­fi­ci­ally modeled levels.

The enga­ge­ment with the land­scape also has a cultural dimen­sion. The archi­tects refer to histo­rical forms of sett­le­ment and land use by the Kumiai, the indi­ge­nous people of this region. This is expli­citly not about the formal repro­duc­tion of tradi­tional archi­tec­ture. Rather, it adopts the idea of not trea­ting the ground merely as a buil­ding site, but making its topo­graphy the starting point for the spatial order.

Plat­forms, terraces, and squares follow this idea. The roofs and supporting struc­tures, which are slightly inclined towards each other, also break away from a strict ortho­gonal order. Rain­water manage­ment, shading, light, and views of the surroun­ding moun­tains become inte­gral parts of the archi­tec­ture.

However, the project’s signi­fi­cance lies not only in its formal quality. The Centro Depor­tivo y Cultural El Mayab was desi­gned as a freely acces­sible public space. Accor­ding to the archi­tects, the faci­lity is now used inten­si­vely both on weekends and during the normal daily routine. Sports, leisure, family life, and commu­nity acti­vi­ties overlap.

In this way, the project fulfills an ambi­tion that goes far beyond provi­ding a foot­ball field: sports become the occa­sion for crea­ting public space. The archi­tec­ture does not create a spec­ta­cular soli­tary form for this, but rather a walkable land­scape of playing fields, stands, roofs, paths, stairs, and squares.

This makes El Mayab parti­cu­larly inte­res­ting for Euro­pean sports faci­lity cons­truc­tion. The boun­da­ries between sports faci­lity, park, spec­tator stand, and neigh­bor­hood square are largely dissolved. The result is not a closed-off sports venue, but a piece of the city.