Aesthetics of spontaneous architecture as a code to decipher the urban phenomenon

On building their city, human beings are always looking for appropriation. His settlement on a given space won’t be real until he reaches a level of identification with such place, until he leaves his own footprint and starts developing a relationship with it, by means of housing and use of public space.

If the settlement is not previously planned, but a product of spontaneous use of a given space, there is more room to improvisation and, consequently, original solutions in architecture and urbanism might be expected.

On the outskirts of the city of Lima (Perú), for the last 50 years, the city has been built by the people who came to live in it from their hometowns all over the country. State intervention has been scarce. Therefore, this new peripheries – that originated with cheap houses and now constitutes an important percentage of the city – constitutes a unique example of a city that grows.

Beginning with the aesthetic aspects of such a spontaneous architecture “without architects” it is possible to develop an approach to the relationship between the people and their city, based on both the individual and social aspects. Such relation might give us useful tools to understand the contemporary urban phenomenon on the peripheries, from the people’s point of view.

20th Century Peruvian Architecture (1900-1945)

Images from the Seminar on Peruvian Architecture II; Magister Science in Architecture - Theory, History and Critics, UNI (Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería)

Semester 2009-02

Period 1900-1945

Made by Cristina Dreifuss Serrano.

20th Century Peruvian Architecture (I)

Images from the Seminar on Peruvian Architecture II; Magister Science in Architecture - Theory, History and Critics, UNI (Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería)
Semester 2009-02

Periods and Writings

Made by Cristina Dreifuss Serrano.

Flexible Mapping (abstract)

It is agreed that the study of the city should begin with individuals and groups, and it should keep its focus in the inhabitant that dwells on it. But, since cities are also physical phenomena, with a defined shape and characteristics and, moreover, they are the object of study and intervention of architects and urban planners, a practical approach should be taken. If lived experience is more important than the physical form of the city, then, the last one is bound to be a response to the first one.

The research in urbanism aiming to the development of new urban models, projects and solutions should begin with the study of the event – the experience, the everydayness – in the urban tissues, and how both develop different types of relationships, conflictive or less so. From the spontaneous (almost chaotic) experience of going to a street market or taking non-formal 15 passenger vehicles for public transport to the actual use of services provided by government institutions, the user’s approach and its own particular point of view is a pivotal element in urban research.

It is hereby proposed a new approach to research in situ, beginning in the architecture classrooms that combines the students’ actual using of urban spaces with the adjustment of existing information gathering and mapping methods. The product of this kind of research would be, thus, the combination of the experiences in the said everydayness and the particular characteristics of that specific urban space.

Due to practical reasons, we cannot pretend to create out of scratch new mapping techniques for every urban space we are facing. Methods proposed by the cathedra should begin with being flexible and therefore, susceptible to variations in situ, and they should be subject to a constant evaluation process through their use during field research.

Students themselves are a very important mapping instrument, since their approach to the subject tends to be less biased, without the mistrust or artificiality in the relation that professionals tend to provoke while doing field research. Students become then part of the event occurring in the urban space they are studying.

Presenting as case study the experience of this year Encounter of Architecture Students in Peru (CONEA 09) in which such a study took place in a neighborhood in the suburbia of Lima, different mapping methods are analyzed, as well as their results featuring students as tools in urban research.

Everyday Architectural Criticism (II)

Everyday Architectural Criticism

Is architectural criticism just for us architects? Or is it meant for the common citizen, the one who dwells, lives and dreams inside architecture?

If we are to agree that architectural criticism is written just for a relatively small group of professionals and academics, there is hardly anything to add to the matter. We can assume then that we are members of a guild of sorts and we can carry on with our debates.

If, as I hope, we sustain that architectural criticism – as architecture itself – is meant to serve people, then we are forced to see there is an ever growing gap between it and its intended public. From the words we use to the examples we posed, it seems that architectural critics purposely tried to scare away their intended readers.

Meanwhile, when most readers think about architecture they picture two very different things: those great buildings made by recognised architectures and, as if it were something entirely non-related, their own houses, the shops they go into and their places of work or leisure.

Architecture criticism should be a bridge between architects and users, between our profession and everyday architecture, for there is architecture that we architects are not aware of. For instance, what the user does to a finished building after moving in or, more dramatically, when it is the user the one who designs and builds without an architect help or counsel.

While it is unquestionable the role of criticism when it is applied to those great creations, we have yet to focus our efforts on a responsible critic of that every-day architecture, that is also friendly to the public.

Using the case of the peripheral architecture in Lima (Perú) and some examples of architectural criticism, we will propose a line of action for what we call everyday architectural criticism.

Abstract for the Symposium Writing Architecture, Birsbane, August 2009.