POLITICS OF FABRICATION III: October 2011

Recent demonstrations in public spaces of our cities are confirming a profound crisis of political institutions worldwide. While citizens are claiming a change in national political agendas to ask for more focus on their own everyday life concerns and less on global finances, public squares are emerging as places of political discussion. Moved by this contemporary interest, Intermediate Unit 8 have worked on redefining what constitutes a public space today, which is the role of the architect and the agency of people, and how innovation on fabrication methods might serve as fundamental tools for constructing a city of the commons.

This year the work of the unit has been located in the city of Mexico, a metropolis developed under neoliberal rules for the last two decades. The particular site for the unit work has been the massive modernist housing complex of Tlatelolco, and more specifically, the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. This urban square is well known not only for the mixed presence of Aztec, Spanish Colonial and Modernist constructions, but also for its past political life including the students’ massacre before 1968 Olympic Games. Based on a confrontation with the everyday life in the city, students have researched on the most “mundane” contemporary issues, including insecurity, informal economy, drug cartels, social segregation or cultural repression. These issues are the ones employed as alternative micro-agendas to inform the public space of today. After intense research and reflection on the realities of the city, students have proposed different material and programmatic tactics, reflecting on how traditional construction methods can be used to generate new fabrication techniques in which citizens have a more active role. Therefore, social participation and public action are considered a fundamental part in the definition of new political spaces as an endless process of contestation, negotiation and transformation.

28.10.11

W6 -UNIT TRIP to MEXICO DF

During the unit trip (28th October to 7th of November) diverse activities will be planned for developing a good documentation of it. This involves presentations, juries, visits,and small trips.
Before going you can check: http://wikitravel.org/en/Mexico_City
Info about Mixquic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Andr%C3%A9s_Mixquic

Saturday 29th- Site & Buenavista

Sunday 30th - Zocalo

Monday 31st - Free day for research
Tuesday 1st - Day of the Dead - Xochimilco & Mixquic

Wednesday 2nd - Coyoacan & San Angel

Thursday 3rd - Site & Barragan's Houses

Friday 4th - Presentation in UNAM & Site
In our unit trip with AA students (Inter Unit 8) we visited the Universidad Iberoamericana, where students presented their work to a group of architects, academics and experts in urban Mexico City: Diego Ricalde, Jose Luis Cortes, Humberto Ricalde, Tatiana Bilbao and Derek Dellerkamp.

Several issues were discussed , such as the problems of social and physical segrgacion generated by public transportation, the possibilities for an urbanism based on everyday items such as the taverns, the conflict generated by the flea with the privatization of commercial sites and the relationship between different cultural traditions in relation to the subject of death. The debate ended with a presentation by the student Elelni Tzavellou on the absence of democratic space in the city of Mexico.

Thanks to all students, guest critics and tutors, and specially to Diego Ricalde who organized the event.

Saturday 5th - Free day for research
Sunday 6th - Piramids of Teotihuacan

Monday 7th - Polanco & Soumaya Museum

22.10.11

W5 - Presentation

Next week Tuesday 25th October you should present your work in groups to the rest of the unit in the unit space, starting at 10am.

Videos about Site
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBu8o6AlQlA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX6Wur4T8as&feature=related

21.10.11

W5 -EXPLORING THE SITE

The week will start with a collection and visualization of information on the specific site of Plaza de las Tres Culturas or Tlatelolco Square in Cuauhtémoc District. The work will be in groups divided by the different scales you will look to the Mexico building environment with a result of an archive of drawings for the common use. Drawings, models and all the material produced should be submitted in person and printed on Tuesday 25th of October at 10am.

Groups for the Archive
XL - Mexico DF
Fragkiskos
Andrew
Erez
L - Metropolitan area of Mexico
Frederique
Eleni
Carlotta
M - Four Boroughs around site
Hao Wen
Andreas
Elliot
S - Plaza de las Tres Culturas
Camille
Anand
Enrique

Afterwards you will use these materials to be critical about the role of the buildings and its residual open space in relation to the city of Mexico. Before going in the unit trip you should have a first draft of your urban proposals on the site given. The experience derived from the first workshop on Morwell Street and the issues researched should be useful to construct new ideas for this controversial “political”space.

Suggested Readings
Miquel Adriá: Mario Pani: La construcción de la modernidad, Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2005. (SITE)
John Friedmann: World City Hypothesis, 1986. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-7660.1986.tb00231.x/pdf
Craig Calhoun, Habermas and the public sphere, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1992. Introduction.

PDF_Presentation and Brief: http://issuu.com/nuria.lombardero/docs/pf3_site_w5

17.10.11

W4 - Presentations of Issues

Next Friday 21st of October from 10 to 6pm in 38 Second Floor Back there will be a presentation of the different issues you have selected to research on Mexico. Minimum 6 A2.

15.10.11

W4 - Tutorials

Next Monday 17th of October we will have tutorials in our unit space as follows,

11.00 Erez
11.30 Elliot
12.00 Anand
12.30 Camille
13.00 Fragkiskos

14.00 Andreas
14.30 Enrique
15.00 Frederique
15.30 Hao Wen
16.00 Andrew
16.30 Eleni
17.00 Carlotta

18.00 Movie Amores Perros

Please be on time with your drawings and work about your issues. 4A2 minimum.

Suggested readings
Michael De Certeau: The practice of Everyday Life, University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 1984. Part three- Spatial Practices. Chapter 7. Walk in the city
Henri Lefebvre: Critique of Everyday Life, London: Verso, 1991.

12.10.11

W3 - Tutorials

Next Friday we will have tutorials in our unit space as follows,

10.00 Frederique
10.30 Eleni
11.00 Hao Wen
11.30 Camille
12.00 Fragkiskos
12.30 Carlotta

14.00 Anand
14.30 Andreas
15.00 Erez
15.30 Andrew
16.00 Elliot
16.30 Enrique

17.00 Lecture by Adam Kaasa (information in previous post)

Please be on time for the tutorials with your drawings and the topic selected.

8.10.11

W3-Lecture: ‘The Architecture of Citizenship: Mexico City in the 20th Century’ by Adam Kaasa

Adam Kaasa (LSE) will give a lecture about Mexico DF for us next Friday 14th of October at 5pm in 36 Bedford Studio 2 (2nd floor). Adam has work extensively on different urban questions related to this city taht will be part of his Phd Transatlantic Dialogues: The Architecture of Citizenship in Mexico, 1928-1959. http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/VIDEO/lecture.php?ID=1641

Mexico City

W3 Presentations & Lecture

Next week Tuesday 11th of October it will be held in our unit space the lecture "Public space & politics" by Nuria Alvarez Lombardero. Afterwards you will start your group research presentations.

Tres Culturas Square

2nd of October of 1968, Mexico DF

7.10.11

W3-4 ISSUE: FINDING OUT ABOUT URBAN CULTURES: WAYS OF LIVING

In this initial approach to our site, you will start exploring the vast Mexico DF urban culture. This first research will be divided in two sections. First, a detailed investigation about the different cultural customs and the spatial characteristics where they take place. Second, a reflection on how citizens’ everyday life activities construct politics in this multicultural city.

The work starts with a series of explorations about everyday life issues in groups of two from a list that we will suggest you. Continuining with individual researches that will be presented on Friday 21st of October.

Readings

Bruno Latour, Reassembling the social, An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005

Hannah Arendt, “The Public and the Private Realm”, in The Human Condition, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998, pp.22-78

Hannah Arendt, “Introduction into politics”, in The Promise of Politics, Schoken Books: New York 2005, pp. 93-200

COFFEE CULTURE
YIMING HUANG (3RD YEAR)

W2-8 REASSESSING DISCIPLINARY TOOLS

The next four weeks you will be engage in reconsidering architectural means of representation in relation to politics. They will serve as to construct the first schematic designs in Mexico DF. (8 Weeks- Analysis & Research)

5.10.11

W2 Jury - Workshop on Immediate Governance

The final presentation of this First Workshop on Immediate Governance will be next Friday 6th of October in North Jury Room. We will start at 9.30am and finishing @2pm.The visiting critics are Daniel Ayat & Catalina Pollack. Please be on time.

Enrique & Andreas

Hao Wen & Camille

Eleni & Fragkiskos

3.10.11

W2 Tutorials_2

Next Wednesday from 5.00pm there will be more tutorials in our unit space. Concepts and design decision should be done to start a conversation about the adequate means of representation needed to express better your ideas. Each group will have 30 min per tutorial