Staff Report
UNM School of Architecture and Planning Assistant Professor Tim Castillo has received an honorable mention from the Paris-based group e2 for his work on improving urban parking problems.
"In my project, PARK(ING), I look critically at the blacktop surface as unused space," Castillo said in a UNM press release.
Castillo's submission addresses the "reprogramming" of blacktop surfaces into common space. According to the press release, Castillo's work is in response to the "glitch" of urban parking in strip malls.
Castillo said he has discovered a technology that allows grass to grow on blacktop surfaces.
A component of Castillo's submission is moving parking spaces to the tops of structures such as shopping malls, and then converting portions of the old parking lot into community space such as baseball fields or skateboard parks.
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Castillo graduated from UNM in 1991 and received his master's of architecture at Columbia University in New York.
He has taught at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the University of Arizona and at the University of Colorado.
Castillo is the founder and design director of Denver's Hybrid Environment, a company that explores new forms of spatial habitation. His work also addresses other urban spaces such as alleys and areas below bridges.
The e2 competition is titled "exploring the urban condition." It is an international competition open to young architects and students studying architecture.
According to e2's Web site, the competition examines the exploration of the in between.
