The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the 10th Annual Meeting Conference co-chairs, Robert Corser and Sharon Haar, accepted the paper, “Cross Media Imaging of Latin American Informal Cities,” by Adib Cure and Carie Penabad,for presentation in the “Urban Knowledge in Architecture Education,” paper session to be held March 17-19 in Seattle, Washington. Paper submissions were peer-reviewed and presented papers will be published in the conference proceedings.
The paper focuses on our ongoing research, working with Chris Mader and Amin Sarafraz, from the CCS, on mapping informal cities in Latin America. We believe that gaining accurate data on urban informality is essential to address a range of pressing issues such as housing, healthcare, transportation, economic competitiveness, security, and environmental wellbeing that affect the living standards of city residents. “Carie and I believe that informal settlements are vernacular expressions of a given people worthy of study,” Cure said. “In our view, the informal city has been largely described in social, political, and economic terms, but very little scholarship has been devoted to the study of these cities as works of architecture; and questions of representation —or how to map and record these sites—seems to be missing from the debate.”
In the paper, Cure and Penabad present the work of various interdisciplinary design studios that have sought to strengthen and facilitate local, community-driven efforts by designing a set of innovative mapping practices that serve as the basis for our design decisions. The goal is not merely to provide a technological quick-fix, but rather to create a set of adaptable tools that overcome current deficiencies in mapping and that will enhance modes of development that engage residents of informal settlements as protagonists of social improvement.
“We have attempted to look non-judgementally at the environment, trying to learn from the place. We are interested in knowing if there are universal themes inherent in the building of these cities as well as what is pertinent to each and distinguishes one from the other,” Cure said.
“For instance, we have discovered that Latin American informal settlements develop a clear network of blocks in which buildings always press themselves to the perimeter, clearly defining a street,” Penabad said.“This is arguably the direct legacy of Spanish colonial planning traditions, exemplified in countless cities throughout the Americas. However this is not what we found in the African examples that we studied. There, it was very difficult to discern any legible block structure. Instead, detached structures were organized around common courts, a possible inheritance of the tribal patterns seen throughout that region.”
She continued: “We believe there is great wisdom and deeply rooted cultural traditions that establish these urban and architectural patterns; and if architects are going to intervene in these places in a more informed and sensible way, they need to look and learn before they design.”
