If we were able to take as the finest allegory of simulation the Borges tale where the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up exactly covering the territory (but where the decline of the Empire sees this map become frayed and finally ruined, a few shreds still discernible in the deserts — the metaphysical beauty of this ruined abstraction, bearing witness to an Imperial pride and rotting like a carcass, returning to the substance of the soil, rather as an aging double ends up being confused with the real thing) — then this fable has come full circle for us, and now has nothing but the discrete charm of second-order simulacra.

Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or substance. It is the generation of models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory — PRECESSION OF SIMULACRA — it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there, in the deserts which are no longer those of the Empire but our own: The desert of the real itself.

Jean Baudrillard, “The Precession of Simulacra”

1- México Population. 2009 / Población de México. Censo 2009.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process/ Proceso Mapeo.

2- México 32 States and Municipalities. / 32  Estados México. & Municipios .
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process/ Proceso Mapeo.

3- México Geography and Latitudes. / México Geografía Latitud.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process/ Proceso Mapeo.

4- México Topographic. / México Topográfico.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process/ Proceso Mapeo.

5- México Roads & Access. / México Carreteras & Accesos.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process/ Proceso Mapeo.

6- México Climates. Mapping Process / México Climas.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process/ Proceso Mapeo.

6.1 México Natural Hazards. / México Riesgos Naturales.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process/ Proceso Mapeo.

6.2 México Volcanic. / México Volcánicas.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process/ Proceso Mapeo.

6.3 México Anthropocentric Risks. / México Riesgos Antropicos.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process/ Proceso Mapeo.

6.4 México  Forest & Biosphere Risks  / México Zonas de Regiones de bosques & biosfera.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process/ Proceso Mapeo.
6.4.1 México  Watershed areas and Natural Regions /México Zonas de Regiones Naturales Vertientes.
6.4.2 México Agricultural Zones Natural Regions / México Zonas de Regiones Naturales Agrícola.

7- México Natural Disasters / México Catástrofes Naturales.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process/ Proceso Mapeo.

·       México Dates of natural disaster./ Fechas de catástrofes México.
·       México Geographic Position / Posición geográfica México.
·       Catastrophe Category./ Categoría de Catástrofe México.
·       Catastrophe Type.  / Tipo de catástrofe México.
·       Number of Victims.  / Cantidad de Damnificados & Víctimas México.

7.1 Tsunamis. / Tsunamis.
7.2 Floods.  / Inundaciones.
7.3 Volcanic Eruptions. / Erupciones Volcanes.
7.4 Earthquakes. / Terremotos.
7.5 Hurricanes. / Huracanes.
7.6 Cyclones. / Ciclones.
7.7 Tornados. In México does not have tornadoes / Tornados.

8- Map of proposed areas of Bamboo” in México / Mapa de propuesta zonas de  Bambú en México.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process / Proceso Mapeo.

9- Suppliers of raw material & costs, “Proveedores de materia prima & costos.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process / Proceso Mapeo.

10- Simulacrum “Urgent City” / Simulacro  “Ciudad Urgente”.
© Urgent Architecture 2009 Mapping Process/ Proceso Mapeo.