San Antonio Bio Park

The San Antonio Bio Park was a project of the UNAM Department of Architecture in cooperation with Federal Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARANT). As a Social Infrastructure Project, the challenge was to replace a landfill most filled with rubble left after the 1985 earthquake. The area was also a challenge for the natural runoff that was collecting in the area from a number of cliffs and gullies. The park today includes:

• A lake
• Sports and physical activity areas
• Parking area
• An educative area
• An area for contemplation
• Community forum
• Service areas

But maybe most interesting, the park includes a solar panel farm in the parking lot, and runs on all it’s own energy. All the waste water used or re-used in the park. There are even bio-digesters to treat water before it’s sent back into the subsoil through absorption wells.

The park is an important reason the surrounding areas suffer far fewer flooding incidents than other comparable neighborhoods in the city.

The San Antonio Bio Park is used for sports, cultural, and recreational activities as you’d expect of any good city park. But as much of the land is un-develop-able slope, the challenge was to make the property both attractive and useful to the entire surrounding area.

Easily accessible from the San Antonio Metro, the park has proved a boon for property owners in the area, but it’s a public treasure and area of green for all the residents in the area too.