What is Inclusive Architecture (Landscape Architecture, Urban Design)? ARC3020Y F Instructor(s): Elisa Silva Meeting Section: L9107 Synchronous Tuesdays, 9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm <p>Inclusion was not precisely part of modern architecture’s agenda (other than perhaps the provision of housing). It may have been too soon to foresees the way habitat and livelihood in a significant part of the western world, Europe and North America, would become transformed by the dominating forces implicit in a market-centered capitalist system. The evolution of urban centers has been defined by their ability to accrue wealth, making it very difficult for segments of the population unable or uninterested in participating in this singular dynamic to compete and find their own space. To say the least, this hegemonic and monolithic mode of spatial production has had profound effects on cities and the built environment in general.</p> <p>Housing was an obvious recourse for architects after the 20th century´s two world wars to address inclusion in cities (ie. Le Corbusier´s Unité d´Habitacion in Marseille). Later on, the architects of Team Ten, in the 60s and 70s sought to address the disengagement from the street and the lack of space for community gathering they critiqued in the model they inherited (ie. The Smithsons’ Robin Hood Gardens in London). The next transformation, ostensibly explored in the name of inclusion came with postmodernism, through its emphasis on a more “universal” architectural language. By relying on combinations of neo-classical and vernacular formal gestures, the legibility of architecture would be improved and be considered more inclusive (ie. Charles Moore´s Piazza d´Italia in New Orleans).</p> <p>But there are very significant economic and political forces that challenge inclusion in our built environment and go far beyond architecture´s formal complicities. These forces can be clearly seen in the evolution of cities of the Global South during the 20th century. Industrialization and urbanization occurred rapidly but did not benefit everyone. As people poured into the city, simultaneous modes of spatial production were forged, a formal and an informal one. Neoliberal policies arrived in the 80s and further accentuated these two modes of production, with its laisser-faire attitude toward the evident social dynamics that were absorbed by informal urbanism. Today anywhere between 30% and 80% of the population in cities of the Global South live in barrios, villas or slums.</p> <p>Roughly over the same period, Sweden experienced important economic growth in the mid 20th c. Rural migrants also came to the cities, but this time the housing demand was met by the Million program which produced one million homes between 1965 and 1974 throughout the country, (mind you for a population that was 8 million then). The participation of women in the labor force was essential to meeting the work demand, but also effectively enlarged the public sphere and contributed to the country´s evolution toward a highly inclusive society. That mentality permeates the way planning is approached, evident in the design of public spaces for demographic segments found to be excluded, or with scarce participation, such as teenage girls and young women.</p> <p>But putting Sweden aside, the developing and developed world has witnessed a progressive evolution of inequality, and its territorial manifestations. <strong>What if anything can architecture and design do to counter or contest this trend?</strong> What are the current forms of spatial production that represent or give a voice to marginalized demographic population segments that do not participate in the dominant capitalist model? Can they be considered effective paths of resistance, significant enough to address the negative spatial and social effects of inequality? Or do they simply hold the tide? Are they at best, reactionary and futile measures against a force too significant to contest?</p> <p>In order to arrive at some answers, the studio will look closely at the issues that define today´s inequality through the findings of economists Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty and Donna Haraway. We will study part of Marx’s theory in terms of how capital operates as well as the works of Marxist thinkers such as Henri Lefebvre, Hannah Arendt and David Harvey. We will then become familiar with alternative forces of spatial production evident in historical precedents that can be considered inclusive such as the English Commons (a vestige of Pre-Norman land use patterns), Mexico´s communal land and the informal settlements of Ciudad Neza in Mexico City and Villa El Salvador in Lima Peru. We will also look at actively managed spaces including the Art Center Centquatre in Paris, the Teatro Oficina, and the SESC centers in Sao Paulo Brazil, Proa in Buenos Aires Argentina, the Taller Jacobo and Mariángeles in Oaxaca Mexico and the Institute for Nonviolence in Chicago. Others initiatives such as the work of Public Architecture, Tiuna El Fuerte in Caracas and the Favela Maré in Rio de Janeiro will be discussed with the architects that led these initiatives. Finally, we will analyze the demographic, social and economic structure of cities selected by the students through their interests, research and available information to identify existing initiatives that are addressing either the causes or symptoms of inequality.</p> <p>Each student will forge a project that builds (or discovers) a strategy of spatial production, including a site, an evolutionary consolidation process and a plausible management model. They will rehearse not only the design of a piece of inclusive infrastructure but more importantly an inclusive process that produces the space and once built and operative, continues to act as an agent of inclusion.</p> <p><em>Other information about the course</em></p> <p>The research component will be structured in 6 blocks of readings, conversations with invited speakers and student presentations. We will try to coordinate class time and deskcrits on Mondays. And if possible we will travel to Sweden, specifically Stockholm and Umea, to visit examples of inclusive public space and the Million Program. Please write me if you have any questions about the course.</p>
