Situated in mercado de san cosme, mexico city, “cover to cover” reimagines hybrid housing as infrastructure for public trust and economic empowerment in informal urban contexts. By exposing, extending, and sharing market utilities, the project creates two active gaps: a vertical alley reframed as a commons for vendors and residents, and a horizontal walkway that connects homes to market amenities.
These spatial intersections enable a new typology of storefront housing, where ground units can flexibly shift between domestic, commercial, or communal uses. Informed by the logics of fondas and makeshift roofs, the project challenges the divide between front of house and back of house, making labor, care, and infrastructure visible and collective. “cover to cover” proposes that the gaps between programs are not voids, but grounds for redistribution—of space, resources, and agency.
