One Bucket At A Time / Factor Eficiencia + 5468796 Architecture

Architects: 5468796 Architecture, Factor Eficiencia
Area: 100 m²
Year: 2017
Photographs: Jaime Navarro
Manufacturers: Alfil Plasticos
5468796 Architecture Team: Pablo Batista, Sasa Radulovic, Johanna Hurme
Factor Eficiencia Team: Gerardo Salinas, Fermin Espinosa, Jaime Sol, Alberto Salvador
Studio Nyl Team: Julian Lineham, Chris O’Hare, Jeremy Lynn, Travis McLain
Architects-in-Charge: Pablo Batista, Sasa Radulovic, Johanna Hurme, Gerardo Salinas y Fermin Espinosa
Structural Engineer: Studio NYL Structural Engineers
Constructor: Factor Eficiencia
City: Mexico City
Country: Mexico

One Bucket at a Time, by Factor Eficiencia and 5468796 Architecture, is an interactive pavilion created for the 2017 Mextropoli festival in Mexico City. Inspired by the informal occupation of public space by “viene viene” entrepreneurs, who use painter’s buckets to claim street parking spots, the installation features buckets connected by ropes to form a malleable surface. This surface can be reshaped, inviting public interaction and reclaiming of urban space. The project highlights the tension in Mexico City’s urban environment, aiming to empower citizens to reclaim public space, even temporarily, from private control.

One bucket at a time / factor eficiencia + 5468796 architecture

This collaborative project, featured at the 2017 Mextropoli, emphasizes the unrestricted use of public space in Mexico City’s distinct and often contested urban setting.

In Mexico City’s metropolitan area, which has a population exceeding 23 million, 4.5 million daily commuters contend with complex road systems, frequent traffic jams, public protests, and limited parking. The street—central to public life—becomes the stage for these conflicts. Here, “viene viene” entrepreneurs operate outside government regulation, often bribing local police and using painter’s buckets to mark and claim sections of the street. They charge drivers extra fees to access these unofficial parking spots. Each “viene viene” can control one or multiple city blocks with their buckets, threatening anyone who parks without paying them.

Inspired by this appropriation of public (parking) space, One Bucket at a Time uses painter’s buckets as the primary components for an interactive pavilion. The installation features buckets connected by a grid of ropes, forming a flexible surface that the public is encouraged to engage with. This surface, resembling a large carpet, can be adjusted—rolled, pulled together, or reshaped along lines—offering various configurations for people to sit, run, play, stand, or lounge, thus engaging in reclaiming the public realm. Displayed for three days, the installation gradually disassembles, with buckets being released from the ropes and dispersed into the city.

The project uses buckets—symbols of the monopolization of public space—as a means to critique this common practice and to empower Mexico City’s residents to reclaim their public spaces, one bucket at a time, even if just temporarily.