In this episode, architect and urban designer Loreta Castro Reguera joins Petri Burtsoff at Paimio Sanatorium to discuss her practice’s work with water-sensitive urban design in Mexico. She describes how small-scale pavilions grew into larger public spaces where water functions as both infrastructure and a social connector. Castro reflects on her bottom-up approach of starting with questions rather than images, and how design can foster community, accessibility, and resilience. At Paimio, she draws parallels to Aino and Alvar Aalto’s vision of architecture as a tool for healing, and reflects on how spaces can also help heal communities.

Loreta Castro Reguera is a Mexican architect and urbanist specializing in water management and resilient urban design. She co-founded Taller Capital and has worked on notable projects like the Chapultepec Park regeneration and Hydric Park La Quebradora. Castro’s efforts in sustainable urbanism have gained international recognition, and she is a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

This conversation was recorded at the 2024 Spirit of Paimio Conference, hosted in the iconic Paimio Sanatorium — Alvar and Aino Aalto’s modernist masterpiece from the 1930s. Discover more at www.paimiosanatorium.com.