Visits
The influencer and financial mentor revolutionizes commercial urban planning with his new avant-garde proposals
RAFAEL SUAREZ
Carlos Munozfinancial mentor and undisputed reference for the stars and for many within the entrepreneurial and Real Estate ecosystem in Latin America, once again bursts into the architectural and urban conversation with Node a project that proposes to rethink the meaning and function of the contemporary shopping center.
Known for challenging traditional models in his conferences, books and business initiatives, Muñoz explains that the idea of Node It emerged far from Mexico: during a tour of Seoul, where he visited the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, conceived as a cultural laboratory rather than as a conventional sales space.
“There I understood that a shopping center does not have to imitate the American model. It can be a living organism: a space where things happen, where architecture dialogues with culture,” he says.
A second reference appeared in London, with the Boxpark in Shoreditch, an example of flexible urban retail that mixes gastronomy, local design and cultural events. Both experiences consolidated an idea: the consumer does not come only to buy; seeks to belong, participate and experience.
CARLOS AN UNMATCHED VISION
Muñoz maintains that most Latin American shopping centers were trapped in a functionalist and repetitive structure: corridors, light boxes, endless rows of identical stores. A model that, according to him, is beginning to show signs of obsolescence.
“Malls were thought of as brand containers, not as public spaces. And in many Latin American cities, they are just that: our new public spaces.” Nodo then emerges as a cultural response rather than an architectural one: a commitment to placemaking, where the space invites us to live together, create and stay.
What you propose Node: A live market as a platform for entrepreneurs and emerging brands. An open outdoor space, oriented towards experiences, entertainment and weekly programming. A hybrid integration of uses that includes retail, offices, light industrial offices and flexible spaces. Muñoz describes it as an ecosystem in permanent evolution, where design and function respond to social behavior, not the other way around.
FROM SPEECH TO WORK
With more than a decade studying real estate trends, author of books on commercial urban planning and creator of business communities, Carlos Munoz He sees in Nodo the opportunity to materialize a thesis that he has repeated for years: the future of commercial spaces belongs to those who understand that the experience economy is no longer the exception, but the rule. “Nodo is not a real estate project. It is a statement: the places where we buy must become places where we want to be.”