Future100: Mateo Mantilla Designs for Sustainability at a Human Scale

The Savannah College of Art and Design grad student’s ecologically sensitive, people-oriented projects speak to ways design can engage its public.

By: Marianela D'Aprile

Mateo Mantilla doesn’t shy away from complexity. In his work, problems created by climate change, sea-level rise, and dense city living become opportunities to imagine new ways of not just designing and building—but also living. For example, a design for an urban development in New York City’s Hudson Yards incorporates systems for rainwater and gray-water collection while interweaving plant life with pedestrian and bike paths. But the proposal’s most compelling component is a full-page diagram that imagines how visitors might use the space, including mundane questions they might ask, like “Where are the bathrooms?” and “Can I park on-site?”

While the development’s form—undulating towers intersected by amoeba-like floor plates, interwoven with plant life and covered by an indistinct off-white material—is attention-grabbing, it’s the human considerations that demonstrate Mantilla’s understanding of how people engage with the built environment: not as design, but as destination.