fruitful contradictions

DSGN AGNC

2010-03-21T07:59:00.008-05:00

Fruitful Contradictions was a thesis-specific blog. However, I am continuing to develop some of the ideas and designs first introduced in this blog in a new blog - DSGN AGNC - with a host of other collaborators.

DSGN AGNC (design agency) is a research and design non-profit focusing on the contemporary theories and ideas that can lead to new architectures, landscapes, and urban forms for the world's growing urban peripheries.

GROUNDED! in GSD Platform 2 - 08/09 Exhibit

2009-12-06T16:14:00.003-05:00

GROUNDED! was selected for inclusion in this year's PLATFORM exhibit and publication. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself among the theses of my friends, and Chinatown INSERT! collaborators, Marrikka Trotter and Trevor Patt. We were placed grouped with projects that tackle issues having to do with Authorship, joining Joshua Prince Ramus, Rodolfo Machado, Jose Luis Vallejo and Belinda Tato.

GROUNDED! Presentations

2009-07-12T09:45:00.006-05:00

09/17/09
GROUNDED! presented at Design Activism lecture in Cornell University.
Thanks to D+E|E+D and Barry Beagen for the invitation.
http://cudeed.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/design-as-activism/

06/17/09
I presented my thesis: GROUNDED: Ecology as Frame for an Informal Community in Tijuana at Pecha Kucha 11 in Boston as part of the events for Common Boston '09.
Thanks to Brett Stilwell for the invitation.

GROUNDED: Ecology as Frame for an Informal Community in Tijuana

2009-05-16T16:18:00.018-05:00

First of all, I want to thank everyone that helped me in the final push of the project, many staying with me until the wee hours of the morning for several days.

Big heartfelt thanks to:
Izabela (MLA), Joaquim Mendoza (Architect), Stephanie Tam (MArch), Simon Bussiere (MLA), Melissa Guerrero (MLA), Jonathan Evans (MArch), Neil Freeman (MUP), Pedro Santa-Rivera (MArchII, MAUD), Ilana Cohen (MLA), Darwin Marrero (MAUD), and Linda Chamorro (MLA). I also want to thank Eric Howeler, Teddy Cruz, Shauna Gilles-Smith, Christian Werthmann, and Margaret Crawford for listening and working with me.

This would have been both harder and not as fun without all of you.

+++++

Note: click on any image to see it in better resolution

REGION
Strategies to improve the social condition and clean the water of the Los Laureles Canyon (Haven't really changed since Midterm).

The Following Masterplan is a prototype for the new communities with commercial and social services I am proposing above (All together diagram).

MASTERPLAN
The main issue the Masterplan deals with is WATER. How to control it, channel it, and how to make it a part of daily life. This means you need to be able to see it, your buildings need to react to it, and at times you need to be able to play with it.
Larger Version of this Axo

The masterplan uses a series of terraces to direct water into public landscape areas that run in the opposite direction. This water is channeled into six cisterns that in turn help shape the roofs and ground planes of two community sheds. Houses then plug into the community sheds for their utilities.

COMMUNITY SHED
HOUSING
The Housing is comprised of a cheap and interchangeable system. As with the rest of the elements of the thesis the main purpose is to collect water. The house if self is comprised of an aggregatable 3mx6m module. One is enough for a studio apartment, two are good for a single family housing, and then they can be aggregated into row housing and other typologies.

CONCLUSION
I began with the argument that frames and infills (see the poster) are the best way in which architects can operate in informal contexts. However, often these systems, trying to let anything happen anywhere, have been generic, siteless, and universalist to a fault. My thesis was trying to develop frame and infill systems that are grounded and tied to the natural systems in their site while still allowing for flexibility and change overtime.

This took me out of my comfort zone many times forcing me to understand landscape and urban planning better. I am glad that this happened as I feel that these type of projects need to happen in a holistic, interdisciplinary way. I was happy to have four MLAs, four MArchs, two MAUDs, and one MUP helping me at the end of the semester. This is something I hope to do more of as I transition into professional life.

FINAL REVIEW
The final review generally went well. The jurors seemed to buy the project and its premise. The major question that came up is ownership and how it is dealt in this project. My answer is that I want to continue to develop the concept, but right now I am thinking that people would not own their lot. They would instead buy into the large public infrastructure and own the pieces that make up their house. Afterall, this is a community of migrants into Mexico many of them who are there for only some time. When you leave you can sell pieces of your house to other people in the network of new communities using similar systems all over the Los Laureles Canyon.

MOVING FORWARD
Another aspect that the jury seemed to like is that this is a real need and a real project. I, with Teddy Cruz's support, will begin working with Oscar Romo (the non-profit client) soon. What I designed here may not be 100% what gets built but it will influence that final outcome.

I reposted this in my Archinect blog

FINAL COUNTDOWN

2009-05-08T13:49:00.003-05:00

This trip ends Thursday May 14th @ 11:00 am in the GSD's Piper Auditorium West

thesis title:
GROUNDED: Ecology as Frame for an Informal Community in Tijuana

Critics: Eric Höweler, Teddy Cruz, Nanako Umemoto, Peggy Deamer, Charles Renfro, Maryann Thompson, Joe MacDonald, Paul Andersen

3 weeks to go... update

2009-04-25T11:58:00.013-05:00

There are under 3 weeks until T-Day (May 13th or 14th) and, as you can imagine, I am beginning to get freaked out.

Before I go to final execution mode I wanted to make an update of where things stand.

MASTERPLANNING
I have spent some of my time bringing the work from midterm and the spring break charrette together.

COMMUNITY NETWORK
The program was for a community center but it has really turned into a community network, in black below (the three building all the way to the left are the existing school):
COMMUNITY STRUCTURE 1:
As you can see from the image above there are two larger community structures. To develop their design I am focusing on the new structure on the left and then apply the same language to the structure on the right (accounting for the different programs of course).

1st iteration:
This one is a large roof punctured with water collecting columns and program boxes:

2nd iteration:
Trying to organize the 3 systems described above (roof, program, water).
3rd iteration:
the three systems begin collapsing and become a spatial experience:LATEST iteration:
this latest iteration takes the one above and tries to organize it a little more:

THE FULL EVOLUTION:
HOUSES
This is a simple exploded axo sketch of the housing design... It is about a flexible generic structure that hooks on to the community network. As in the rest of the project the generic structure becomes specific in the way it meets the ground and it deals with water:

New Portfolio(s)

2009-04-05T10:42:00.004-05:00

In preparation for the post-thesis world I also took some time this week to work on my portfolio.

With this economy I am getting ready to show it to the manager's down in starbucks ;)

GSD:ecologicalurbanism

2009-04-04T16:22:00.003-05:00

Week-long thesis break to blog about ecology and the informal.
http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/

Spring Break Charrette - Last Day: Developing a language

2009-03-30T15:33:00.007-05:00

The Charrette is over and I think I accomplished my over all goal: develop the beginnings of an urban, landscape, and architectural language.

I began the last charrette day by retracing the water flows on my existing terrace system. The goal was to develop a system countering the grain of the terraces for secondary paths and housing lots. While I did this I was inspired by BIG's proposal for the Calsberg campus.
For Carlsburg BIG cross references a couple of grids to create a diversity of densities and programs.

Retracing the water flows:
Resulting Density/Circulation Diagrams:
The section was another step in developing the architectural language of sectional changes in terraces, pools, roads, houses, and the community center.
Now on to fully develop these ideas and I want to thank DK, Russ, and Trevor who participated in the charrette and gave me great advice.

Spring Break Day 2-3: Grading +...

2009-03-26T18:05:00.006-05:00

The Second and Third days of the charrette were a bit shorter as I got busy with other things. However, I have slowly made progress developing the sketches from Day 1.
PROCESS

These images also show the process of turning water flows and terraces into a working master plan. In this scheme the green is a continuous path that wraps the entire site. The off-white spaces are the community centers.

The models below put this strategy to the test and begin to think about the architectural language that can come out of the landscape.

SKETCH MODEL

Tomorrow I want to:
-Work out the section of these terraces, streets, etc...
-Take a second stab at the architectural language
-Begin to think about the secondary pattern of paths, gardens and housing

Spring Break Charrette Day 1: Grading

2009-03-24T20:28:00.015-05:00

To keep the momentum going a few friends and I are holding a 4 day charrette during spring break. We meet around 11 tell each other what we want to do and work until pin-up at 6PM.

I chose to spend my first day working on my landscape grading plan.

The first thing I needed to rethink is what, exactly, do I want the water to do. In my midterm scheme I had the water more or less moving away from the site off to be cleaned. Some of it would come back to the site and the rest would go off to the arroyo eventually arriving in the estuary.

RUSH THE WATER?
I experimented with a similar approach (moving water away from the site). However, now the water pools at moments within the site creating the logic for the community centers while affecting the housing layout.

SLOW THE WATER!
Although this scheme works slightly better I have decided that it is the wrong approach. Instead I am now looking into a landscape scheme that tries to keep as much water on the site. To do this, the site needs to be terraced with water pooling in the backsides of the lots.
I then wanted to think about a continuous landscape band that at times bulges to create larger pools and give space to the community centers.
^plan^axo

^final sketch

Tomorrow I plan to do a careful contour model of this version to see how it works on the site.

While I do that I am going to be inspired by a lot of projects. I am specially looking at the landscape design in Kieran Timberlake's Sidwell Friends School. In my project, however the architecture and landscape architecture would be intertwined.
Not a real project, but looking at what I want this project to do it reminded me of Work AC's Program Primer in Praxis a few year's back. Specially the idea of the Swan.
Not sure how to use this part of it yet. However, I am sure this will become helpful as I begin to think about the details of my urban planning and architecture.

P.S. Lots of thanks to landscape architect Shauna Gillies-Smith and Kirsten who graciously helped me see the light on landscape grading.

Visual Inspiration: Patterns + Representation

2009-03-21T19:24:00.007-05:00

Looking at some of the midterm images I find that I am still trying to find the best way to represent my ideas. Traditional architectural documents such as plans, sections, etc... just will not work. First, I am designing a community that is meant to change and grow over time. That change will happen in a project with intricately linked relationships between the landscape, urban, and architectural form. Finally, this project is meant to serve as a menu and guide to the people in Tijuana. For those reasons to find representation techniques that are very clear and transmit the flexibility of the system, while satisfying my critics at the GSD and the clients on the ground.

While I look at better ways to represent ideas the following are images of patterns I am looking at for inspiration:

This image describes the landscape/urban form of my project better than any of the documents I have worked on so far. The terraces are my 3m modules and the channels are where the community center would grow. I need to be able to show this clearly plus...
The pixel-like growth.

Patterns and pattern-making techniques I have been looking at for my studies include:
cell growths

shells, this one reminds me of the landscape image above and begins to include the pixelation idea...

___
Water Erosion Patterns
Weaving and its process...

Critical Activism - DRAFT

2009-03-20T14:53:00.006-05:00

Since the beginning of the year I have been wanting to write something expanding on what I meant by Critical Activism in my '09 prediction. The following is a first DRAFT of an essay I am writing describing what I see as an emerging practice model. Influenced by Allison Smithson's 'How to Recognize and Read Mat-Building', it is partly a manifesto and partly a look at a trend in contemporary practice.

I will not have time to really work on it until after thesis ends, so I wanted to share it while still relatively close to the feature that inspired me to write it. Remember that it is a work in progress

in Archinect

A few weeks ago a senior GSD administrator, after hearing about my thesis and precedent studies, plainly asked me if I wanted to “just be an activist.” I am not sure what he meant but it seemed a clear example of the academic and professional anxiety that still exists around activism. Regardless, the comment made me question what it would even mean to ‘just’ be an activist.

First, I wanted to understand the anxiety around activism. The roots, as is often the case, seem to come from modernism. From Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin, to Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxiom home, to many other proposals, designers promised a brave new design world. This world would be one of egalitarianism brought upon by technology and expressed through urban and architectural design. We now know that this modernist brave new world never arrived. The people who architect’s thought would arise to take their place in an egalitarian modern society instead arose against the modernist housing blocks and moved to nostalgic homes in the suburbs. Thus a period of heavy involvement, even activism, by designers ended. Since that moment, activism in design has had a patina of utopian idealism and even mockable hippieism.

However, we are once again facing some major changing conditions, such as ever expanding suburbs and urban slums. Design professionals that have staked out their positions in those issues have so far been seen as in the periphery of the profession. The best among them, have learned the lessons from earlier efforts and seem to be rethinking the meaning of activism. Looking at designers like Teddy Cruz, Marjetica Potrc, the late Sam Mockbee, Urban Think-Tank, and Elemental Do-Tank you begin to see just such a rethinking.

The work by these and other designers begin to comprise an emerging movement of critical activists. The elements that tie these practices and characterize ‘critical activism’ include: 1) active practices that rely in new funding and organizational structures and collaboration; 2) active involvement in exposing political, social, and economic conflicts; 3) active proximity in the institutions that can help solve those conflicts; and 4) a desire to architecturalize these conditions with active designs that rely on inhabitant participation. The next few pages will take closer look at each of these items.

Active Practices
In the current model of practice the architect waits for a single client with the appropriate funds to give them a project. This leads to a profit driven system making the architect subservient to the myopic whims of the market. This system is simply not flexible enough for architects to engage the built environment in a way that can change it.

The practices identified as part of the critical activism tackle the problem of practice in two ways. First they find a new organizational structure and model of financing. Estudio Teddy Cruz (ETC), Rural Studio, Urban Think-Tank and Elemental are all tied to academic institutions while holding a non-profit status as well. This set-up allows flexibility in the identification, design, and financing of projects. Second, this firms are open and seek active collaborations with design professionals and practitioners from other disciplines.
Marketic Potrc in collaboration with Urban Thinktank

Active Involvement
Often the first step in solving a problem is recognizing the fact that it even exists. The critical activist practice plays that role for the design field by exposing conflicts in the built environment. They show emerging problems and point them as possible places for design inquiry.

They differ, however, in the way they expose those problems. Marjetica Potrc uses the gallery as a place to confront people with the reality for millions of people world-wide. Teddy Cruz tackles two scales, first he identifies a ‘political equator’ that separates the global south and north. He then specifically maps this condition as it occurs in the San Diego - Tijuana border. He does this by mapping the condition as well as a series of other art projects and installations. Urban Think-Tank exposes the conditions in Caracas through videos and books.
Estudio Teddy Cruz, Political Equator

Active Proximity
It is of course not enough to simply expose the problems within the built environment. These practices seek to change the conditions. To do so, [i]critical activist[/i] firms seek to engage the institutions that can bring change to communities in need of it. These institutions include: the academy, government, financial institutions, and the legal system.

Teddy Cruz, for example is involved and partners with developers and social non-profits from the very beginning of a project. He has also lobbied government to change codes when they conflict with designs. Similarly, Elemental engages institutions throughout the design process. However, they also create new institutions that turn inhabitants into ‘active partners’ after construction is completed.

Teddy Cruz, Casa Familiar

Active Designs
The final, and perhaps more important, element that defines critical activists is the active nature of their designs. This activity is mainly expressed through interactive designs that require involvement by inhabitants. Elemental, for example, built only half a house for the residents of the Iquique housing project. Each tenant was then free to finish the other half as finances and time allowed. The result is that all the inhabitants have the basic infrastructure needed in all residences but have the freedom to finish it to their liking.

Teddy Cruz has used similar approaches in projects with Casa Familiar and the Maquiladoras. Urban Think-Tank has gone as far as to propose naked skyscrapers in the Barrio Vertical project.

Iquique Housing by Elemental

related to:
Frame and Infill Study

Also posted in Archinect

Midterm Review Reviewed

2009-03-18T13:26:00.025-05:00

CRITICS
Eric Howeler, Architect (Thesis Advisor)
Margaret Crawford, Urban Planner
Shauna Gillies-Smith, Architect, Urban Planner, and Landscape Architect
Mack Scogin, Architect

MIDTERM WORK
1- Broaden it Up!
The first thing I wanted to do is to situate my site in ts larger context. After all my project deals with the degraded social and environmental systems of the entire Los Laureles canyon. To do that I began by making some maps showing the current conditions.

First of all, it is important to note that the high real estate prices in Tijuana and the maquiladoras located around the canyon are the main reasons that people from all over Mexico Central and South America move there. Although they do this with a lot energy and determination they move to the riskiest most environmentally sensitive areas. This causes risk to themselves, their property, and the larger ecosystem of the Tijuana river estuary.

The main problems are:
1.1- De-vegetation due to building
1.2- Said de-vegetation creates dangerous soil erosion
1.3- When it rains the polluted water full of sediment moves up stream, disrupting the ecosystem of the estuary
1.4- Because of the topography, the risk involved, and the fact a lot of these are illegal settlements the infrastructure and social services network does not have a wide reach.
2- Yo (Cuido) Los Laureles - I (Care for) Los Laureles
To solve some of the problems above at the canyon level I propose:
2.1- Cut from Risk - cut out houses from places of physical and environmental risk
2.2- Move On Up - Increase densities on appropriate areas
2.3- Pixelate New Community Centers - Make community and housing prototypical centers for building experimentation in the Canyon. These centers bring needed social services and provide space for commercial activity.
2.4- Tie it with Ecology - Create a park out of all the environmentally and otherwise risky areas
3- The San Bernardo Prototype
My site and project serve as prototype for the rest of the community centers. It is a prototype ion that displays an attitude and method of working not one design meant to be replicated.

To design it I will use the principles I learned in my study of landscape urbanism and relational aesthetics (1, 2, 3, 4), and my study of frame and infill. My goal is to create a holistic landscape, urban, and architectural strategy that channels and cleans water, re-vegetates the site, brings needed social services, and creates economic opportunities.

All this while always aware that top-down solutions seldom work in this context. The most important lesson from the frame and infill study as that all the designers, from Cedric Price to James Corner to Teddy Cruz, were strategic on WHAT to design. That is to say that designing for conditions that change over time does not mean that design gets thrown out the window. Giving over control over some parts of the design gives freedom to focus on the careful design of other.
4- Yo (Patron) San Bernardo - I (Pattern) San Bernardo
Now on to the design I presented at midterm. Before I get into it, though, it is important to note how I will be using the Frame and Infill concept. Among my critiques of a lot of the designers that have used it is that the frame, although allowing for change within it, is often rigid and static. It is hard for it to recognize new conditions or change as social/environmental conditions change. It is thus that I am using the Frame along side the idea of Pattern. A basic set of rules that can be applied taking into account local conditions.

As OMA and Field Operations' designs for Downsiew Park, design that changes over time is as much a narrative as it is an object, and here is the narrative for San Bernardo.

4.1- Slow the Water
Create ledges and berms in areas around the site to begin slowing down the water flow that passes through it.
4.2- Drain It
Find the places of major water flow and create some swales to drain water away from the site.
4.3- Compost it / Wetland
Begin a composting center close to the school, this will be used to begin repairing the soil on the site. After the soil by the school recuperates the composting area will change into a water-cleaning wetland. The cleaned water from said wetland would be used in the community for irrigation and the rest released into the arroyo that takes it into the Tijuana river estuary.
4.4- 3-meter modules
Inside the site, do contour plowing trying to re-vegetate beginning with 3m intervals and in some areas working in from there.
4.5- Streets
Begin to build up streets in the drainage areas. These streets would be done with permeable concrete tiles.
4.6- Community/Commercial Center
On top of the streets (on the drainage areas) you can begin to build the community center, starting from the southern most area of the site and moving north. The center would have the social services this site lacks such as health and adult education.
Space will also be provided to bring in artists from around the burgeoning Tijuana scene. This will bring people from around Tijuana and even tourists, creating local economic opportunities.
I am designing the bulk of the three community centers (allowing for some flexibility)
4.7- Houses
The houses would then pixelate towards East and West of the street/Community Center and would follow the 3m module set up by the contour plowing. The module for the houses is 3m X 6m and people can build up on them as necessary. I am proposing strategies for three types of housing without designing them fully.
The following are a FEW images from the project. There were of course a lot more including some that take into account the narrative described above and the pixelation of the houses.

COMMENTS:
Seems to have received generally well. HOWEVER, there is a LOT of work to be done. I need to tighten it up all over the place, Shauna graciously invited me to her office to work on grading and tighten up the landscape. Margaret wants me to be specific on who would move here and why. what are economic and social reasons, etc...
They all also agree that I need to tighten up these areas ASAP to get into the architectural design. They like the holistic approach I have taken to the design but all feel I can focus a bit more. As I said in the description above I am designing the bulk of the community center (leaving room for change) and making a list of menus and tactics to be used in the housing.

I will try to have another midterm/pin up in about a month that deals mostly with the architecture. Although I am not sure what it will look like, I am sure that the design of the building will also use ideas of patterns and what I learned from the frame and infill study.

Now on to the fun part...

Fetishism + Patterns

2009-03-01T19:13:00.003-05:00

A couple of things from Archinect today:

Slum+Design=Fetish?
Pretty good article too.

Frame as Pattern?
I think this way of looking at it can be very beneficial and matches with the design work I already began making. The fun part now begins.

First Pin Up

2009-02-15T22:00:00.012-05:00

First time we all get together, color coordinated no less (architects wearing black, what are the odds?). Most of the prep is over and now I have a lot of work ahead of me...
From left: Eric, Teddy, Q.

frame and infill poster
Site + Program

Thanks to DK who took the pics above and Marrikka who stopped by to comment... and now the fun part begins!

THESIS PREP MOCK-UP / DRAFT

2009-02-11T19:23:00.001-05:00

I am almost done with the thesis prep document. The book itself is made up of three sections each with its own booklet. This allows the book to engage with the reader, a foreshadowing of the interactivity what I hope the final design will have. I was of course inspired by Beatriz Colomina's Domesticity at War, one of my favorite books.

The three sections of the book are: places, experiences, and ideas.
Places has geographic, environmental, statistical, and visual information on the contexts of
this thesis.
Experiences is a catalog of on-the-ground information on the methods of construction used in Tijuana and the San Bernardo community.
Ideas is an analysis of the theories and design precedents that will help with the design of this thesis project.

The images at the bottom are of a frame and infill poster. It is a selected lineage of projects that use frame and infills and the lessons that can be drawn from that.

I will update with the final publication and highlights from each section in the near future.

THIS IS JUST A MOCK-UP/DRAFT...

"critical proximity"

2009-01-25T22:04:00.002-05:00

"The challenge at this moment is to pull things apart, to critically understand the way certain institutions operate and generate new models of possibility. Traditionally, though, the notion of the avant-garde has proposed the opposite: that the artist keep a critical distance from the institutions in order to critique these spheres of power from the outside. Today what's important is what I would call a "critical proximity," which in fact is the opposite: it's about us tactically entering the institution in order to mobilize its resources and logics of organization. It is a very different agenda, less this sort of fake protest or rebellion." -Teddy Cruz

“En la Boca de la Cobra.” Modern Painters. November, 2007. Page: 71

Close to Critical Activism? More on that coming...

UPDATE: Critical Activism - DRAFT

Lessons from Medellin

2009-01-04T07:50:00.012-05:00

I just posted this on my archinect blog: Medellin-Infrastructure as Change
Giancarlo Mazzanti's Parque Biblioteca España.

From archinect blog:
I am of course still processing the trip, but I think that I can already say that it seems as though Medellin decided not to formalize the Comunas. Rather the city is in the process of giving people in these communities better services and infrastructure (frames?) and then is also providing them with the tools to improve their conditions (infill?). I talked to a woman in the cable cart who told me how much easier life was since the city began to make some better roads, schools, and the major infrastructural changes (the metro and cable cart). With that work done, she is now in the process of improving her own house with a small loan.

Medellin also shows how landscape architects, architects, and other designers can work in these contexts without sacrificing the quality of design. In this case they enjoy the patronage of an activist mayor that allows them to do it, which makes me wonder what would happen if that was not the case? This is, I think, an important element for designers to find ways to do this type of work in this context without; 1-the need of a strong government, and 2-compromising the design process.
San Javier Library Park by architect Javier Vera Londoño.

Medellin really showed me the power of infrastructure and architecture in these contexts. The libraries have instilled a pride in the neighborhood. The pride was evident through a newspaper that the neighborhood writes to put in the España library (above) as a form of communication with the outside world. The people I was talking to also seemed proud of their cable cart and metro which no other city in Colombia has.

I also think that it is important to note that the importance of Medellin not wanting to formalize the slums. Or at least not in the large-scale modernist way. They are simply providing some patch works of infrastructure that allow people better mobility, cleaner areas, more services, etc... All projects seem to be differently thought for each specific site. The triumph of basic principles applied as per context over universalist solutions.

The lessons I learned:
1- Mobility matters - getting people in and out of informal settlements is key for a thriving community
2- Good design matters - the (contemporary) design value of the landscape, infrastructural elements, and libraries seem key to bring pesos up to the comunas and to serve as points of pride by the local community.
3- Work with it not against it - As I said above Medellin proves patchworks of infrastructure can sing a harmony. A well placed staircase may just be everything a cluster of houses needs.
4- 'Informal' is not a bad word - related to #3 and paragraph above. As I said in the VIEW page, I think the most interesting work happens in the space between the formal and informal, a space designers could be comfortable in.

The questions I now have:
1- Can Designers still do this without a strong government?
2- How careful must one be of Poorism?
3- Once these communities go through their semi-formal processes, will new informal communities arise? Can that even be stopped?

Infrastructure in the Comunas

More Pics in flickr: Medellin Winter 08/09

Page for View

2008-12-21T16:16:00.006-05:00

I just whipped this out for VIEW, the new GSD design 'yearbook'.

Caption:
On-going La Prusia shed design (top of image) by:
Estudio Teddy Cruz (Teddy Cruz, Megan Willis, Cesar Fabela), Quilian Riano, and Simon Bussiere.
Mock ups in Nicaragua by:
Simon Bussiere, Christine Canabou, Aron Chang, and Quilian Riano.
The mock ups and shed are based on principles first codified by the NICAestudio - GSD Spring ’08.
For more information go to: nicaestudio.blogspot.com

Learning from Lagos

2008-12-20T09:47:00.008-05:00

Just finished looking at the Lagos films with Rem Koolhaas 'Lagos Wide and Close' and 'Lagos/Koolhaas' as well as read a piece of the 'Lagos Handbook' that GSD students produced with Koolhaas (Loeb Library special collections). Two things called my attention; Koolhaas' evolving view of planning and infrastructure and the discussion of Makoko as a prototype for the growth of Lagos and other cities.

Discussing Lagos Koolhaas said that he had come with a great apathy towards planning. He then began noticing self-organizations all throughout the city and found them interesting. But the breakthrough came when he noticed that these self-organizations from the informal Alaba Market to the sea of informal traders around the trains and highways are completely dependent on the formal infrastructure of the modernist infrastructure of the 60's and 70's. The informal and formal are not unfriendly binaries but rather careful dance partners with the architect's new role coordinating and synchronizing that dance. Thus Koolhaas' belief in planning was renewed.

Koolhaas also mentions the informal community of Makoko in Lagos as a possible prototype for growth there and in other cities. He is interested by the way the community has grown around the bay to saw, store, and ship lumber. In Makoko we can see an intersection of ecological conditions, commerce, infrastructure, and community. This slum and Koolhaas' reading remind me of the diagram (above) I produced for the NICAestudio. This diagram was meant to say that the new housing in informal settings needed to be embedded with commercial and social activities and then critically set within the landscape. Furthermore, this reading also signifies an evolution of Koolhaas' urban/ecological views from La Villete...

One last thing I found interesting is that Koolhaas said that he was concerned about being careful as a 'white European'. He wanted to neither romanticize conditions nor scandalize them with stereotypical images of despair. I think this critical anxiety is important to recognize as it is something that designers (of all races and nationalities) need to come to terms with in order to work within this context.

(YouTube Video of Introduction to Lagos/Koolhaas)

Back to the Future

2008-12-16T22:03:00.005-05:00

Today I had the weird experience of seeing a possible version of the future for me and my project. This happened during the 2nd year reviews with a similarly framed (pun intended) project. It was a dorm project for Harvard University undergrads, designed as a lose frame in which people lived as they wanted with a small set of infills (bathrooms and moving furnitures as far as I saw). There were no real 'units' but rather people could negotiate the spaces they wanted with their friends.

I was interested in the comments, as I could see a scenario in which they could be said about the project I am trying to do.

The comments:

1 -'Fair' spatial allocations need to be part of ever-changing designs.
Maryann Thompson said something in this regard that I think is one of the biggest flaws in the Nicaragua project: Unless you are careful the bullies that are present in any social structure will control space in an unfair manner. Along with the designs that call for flexibility there is a need to be able to control possible negotiations and write in to the codes of the design ways to make final spatial allocations fair.

2- What of people that do not want something new?
While designing ever changing spaces we need to take into account that there are some people that are perfectly happy with current ownership and living models.

3- Where is the design?
Even in ever-changing spaces there is design, thinking otherwise is fooling yourself. The key is clearly is identifying where the design lies and understanding the consequences of the design in these changing environments. Not having designed it yet, I think that my idea of using frame vs. infill as parametric conditions can help me be very clear on the control by the designer vs. places for change.

4- "Where will people fart, burp, have sex?"
Actual quote by a juror that is probably not a huge concern in my project (all families will not live under one huge open space) but something any designer should consider nonetheless.

I want to thank my fellow student for a thoughtful project that engendered interesting discussion.

Architecture as Bailout

2008-12-14T16:06:00.017-05:00

I want to indulge on a sideline that may or may not ultimately be part of my thesis.

I am looking at this context because I truly think that architects can bring particular thinking and expertise that can help the informal, but I am also looking for an education. I think that informal contexts are uniquely capable of providing that education as they make the processes necessary for building (and architecture?) apparent in a way few other contexts can.

The issues I see as plainly evident in my context are:
-methods - how a structure grows overtime and the labor systems
-materials - a consideration of: availability (global vs. local), function, and effect
-residential programs and their relation with public programs
-ownership models

As you can see there is nothing in that list that different than housing projects in other places all the world. The type of materials and labor processes may change but they are concerns in every project. However, in some contexts one is not always forced to think about ownership models, although usually a silent pressure on the design.

Now that I set the stage on to my sidebar:

Ownership and the Bailout.

I was very happy to see my old boss and mentor Ed Mazria be among the first architect to produce a proposal to President-elect Obama on how to best spend the money his administration is already thinking of using on upgrades and new additions to the government's building stock. This proposal puts architecture in the context of its material, labor, financial, and effectual networks.

And why not? I mean aren't we in this problem because of (a)rchitecture? I know that it is a stretch to call tract housing architecture (even with lower-case a), but they are part of the built environment and thus something architects can and perhaps SHOULD seriously handle.

It is thus that I rejoice in the second piece of good news this week: Obama tapped Harvard GSD alumnus Shaun Donovan as secretary of HUD. Architects and architecture are now knee deep trying to get the U.S. out of this economic malaise.

(12/13/08 Weekly Video Address by then President-elect Obama)

Even with all these moves, I get a sense that we are not pushing this as far as we can. We are today rethinking capitalism and architecture and architects are in the middle of the discussion. As I said above although I think that architects can bring a lot to informal contexts, we can also learn a lot. Perhaps one thing we can learn is how ownership can be rethought to place value on things that usually go without. The traditional model of individual lots and single houses on those lots is not really working, perhaps the non-formal can teach us what can.

Even if you don't see it this way, or it somehow makes you uncomfortable, endulge me as I ask this question: do new ownership models require new architectural articulations?

Política Habitacional: De clientes pasivos a socios activos

2008-12-12T16:21:00.002-05:00

Interesting video on the power of architecture to change and enhance political roles (in Spanish).

Política Stereo: Política Habitacional: De clientes pasivos a socios activos from elementalchile on Vimeo.

Updated Outline

2008-12-12T15:59:00.004-05:00

After I digested the comments my colleagues made on Saturday and an entire semester of readings, this is an updated Outline.

AGENDA
-site, program, thesis statement, and thanks
-framing global changing conditions
The world population is exploding and with it cities around the world are speedily growing, most of that growth happening in the informal sector. Among the largest challenges to architects in the near future is the need to find the right tools to be effective in this volatile and ever changing context.
-architecture as mediator
It is the role of the built environment itself to mediate these conditions, helping provide both the frames that allow for both basic services and a grounding in place with the tools and architectural language for change and self-organization. Along with new forms we need a new practice.
-this thesis...
is about: a list things this thesis deals with.
is not about: because of the context of this site I have to make sure to say what this thesis is not about. I have seen too many projects in non-formal contexts be derailed by jury conversations of poverty. A worthy issue to discuss, but not one I want to to burden this thesis with, the work will hopefully speak for itself.

ANALYSIS
-design in the age of ambiguity: frames to control new conditions
Looking at landscape urbanism discourse a way to deal with ever-changing demographics, broken agencies, low budgets, and generally unforeseen and unexpected conditions.
-expanding the field: design beyond the object
Looking at peripheral emerging practices as a way to look at how design strategies developed to control change can be infused with political, social, and economic agency to try to fill the gaps that formal infrastructures are not.
.-frame and infill: an analytical lineage
a closer look at some of the sources and precedents.

SITE
-geographies of conflict
A short analysis of the geographic conditions and the conflicts residing in each.
-environmental considerations
How the physical, climatic, and environmental pressures on the site can help the design of the frame.
-cataloguing personal experience: programs, materials, and methods
How the personal experiences in programs, materials, and other experiences already in the site can help the design of the infill.

SPECULATIONS
-developing design agenda
-developing social agenda
-moving forward

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

nothing escapes thesis prep

2008-12-11T12:29:00.001-05:00

I just posted this blog entry in archinect: 'last class'.

"Both classes I took this semester have helped me a lot with thesis. With Kwinter I really got into the political aspects of 'relational aesthetics' and Rirkrit Tiravanija's work. My last paper is going to be on Rirkrit's projects and a proposed connection to Teddy Cruz's projects as evidence of the 'New Synthesis' between art and architecture (the theme of the course).

Waldheim's 'Ecology as Urbanism' class was perhaps even more helpful. Through it I was forced to unpack issues I am familiar with (indexical design, parametrics, etc..) from another disciplinary perspective. I come away from it with a renewed respect for the other design fields and what I view as their more inclusive discourse. I am not sure yet what my paper for this class will be on, but it will probably be something directly tied to my thesis research. One thought was to continue a tangent that I began earlier in the semester looking at Koolhaas' La Villette park as a proposal for a new ecology in the context of a pluralistic society (specially when viewed in contrast to Ian McHarg's), and extending it to OMA's more recent urban work."

So to recap, and specifically to do with my thesis, I am looking at the Koolhaas/OMA/Corner/Allen side of things to argue that their design work is a way to deal with ever-changing demographics, broken agencies, low budgets, and generally unforeseen and unexpected conditions. I am then using Rirkrit, Teddy, utt, Aravena, Marjetica, etc... as a way to look at how within those changing conditions the design strategies developed to control change can be infused with political, social, and economic agency to try to fill the gaps that formal infrastructures are not.

Dom-Ino by Rirkrit Tiravanija
photo from: galerie chantal crousel

The Common Thread: Frames and Infill

2008-12-08T13:26:00.000-05:00

At times I have looked at my bibliography and thought to myself what the hell do all these people and projects have in common? This is something that I have been trying to work out (and will be part the lineage section in the outline below).

The thread I see running thorough a lot, if not all, the examples is the constant concern of architecture and other fields frames and infill. The main, difference, I think is the different definitions they place on each. It is a strong lineage that I think leaves a lot of clues as to how to deal with the two most important issues we have to tend with: growth of informal communities all over the world, and suburban sprawl.

At the end, this is what I intend to do with my thesis and design; understand the qualities each one of these projects found for both the frame and infill and try to expand it.

Maybe this is a better way to put it; the frames and infills are basically equations, I want to understand the parameters used by each of this designers and their intended results (if any).

Having already done some of the work, I am interested in two of these groups specifically; the landscape urbanists and the work by Teddy Cruz and similar practices. From the landscap urbanists I like their work making catalogues as infill. From Teddy Cruz and that group or practitioners I want to learn how to expand the parameters beyond the object and into social, political, and economic conditions.

Downsview Park proposal by James Corner and Stan Allen

Teddy at MoMA - image by author

Thesis Presentations + Working Outline

2008-12-07T20:34:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since I posted. What have I been doing? Really, trying to get through that bibliography on the right.

But the highlight of my last few week's has come every time I meet with some friends from the GSD to talk about the issues we are working on. Some of them have their own blogs and are on the right in the 'Fellow Thesis Preppers' section.

After months of wine and conversation, we met yesterday to begin a series of more serious talks and presentations to each other.

These are some of the things that I presented:

THESIS STATEMENT
Expanding the Design Field

The world population is exploding and with it cities around the world are speedily growing, most of that growth happening in the informal sector. Among the largest challenges to architects in the near future is the need to find the right tools to be effective in this volatile and ever changing context. The current discourse around parametric processes in architecture and related design fields has potential to help in this regards. However in Architecture this contemporary concern over process has become an insular discourse over technology and the process of designing objects themselves. In other design fields ideas of process and parameters have taken into account issues larger than technology to account for a series of real-world problems that designers do not always have control over.

However, even the right tools will not necessarily work if applied to traditional practice models, practice itself has become part of the processes that need to be rethought. In these contexts the architect must allow and account for changes to structures across time, while actively engaging with political and economic structures at various scales.

DRAFT OUTLINE:
1- INTRO (expanded thesis statement)
--Statistics to urban growth around the world, identifying the hot spots of activity.

2- Framing Changing Conditions
2.1- Population imbalances, increased mobility, and spreading globalized economic systems are making the migrant condition a norm across the world- from internal movements to urban centers to global migrations from south to north
2.2- These population increases and movements are currently challenging official structures forcing people to take care of services that the state and other official institutions usually provide.
2.3- It is then the role of the built environment itself to mediate these conditions, helping provide both the frames that allow for both basic services and a grounding in place with the tools and architectural language for change and self-organization.

3- Change in the Formal Practice
This is a section that deals with ways that architecture and its related fields have dealt with conditions of change in which they do not have full control, focusing on current Landscape Urbanism theories.
--(One Graph) A Lineage of Expanding the Field:
Mat Buildings-TechnoUtopians-Landscape Urbanism-Parametric Design
3.1- An Evolution of Frames
Case Studies:
3.2- La Villette
3.3- Downsview Park

4- Expanding the Canon
4.1- The 60’s
--Self Help Housing
--A Pattern Language
4.2- New Frames and Practices
Practitioners that are re-configuring the way they and other institutions work to engage political and economic structures with their architectural projects.
--Teddy Cruz
--Urban Thinktank/Marjetica Potrc
--Rural Studio
--Alejandro Aravena

5- Site Analysis
5.1- Learning from Conflict
--Global Conditions
--The Mexico/US Border
--Tijuana
5.2- Learning from San Bernardo - Creating a Language
--Material Catalogue
--Strategies of Growth
--Programs
--- Families and Spaces
---Public Space

6- Conclusions and Design Agenda

Ethics, Business, Design

2008-12-07T15:29:00.000-05:00

I just heard the first installment in a Speaking of Faith ongoing series on The Ethics of Aid. Interested and looking around their site I found a couple of other interviews and radio features that may be of interest to designers including:
-An in-depth look at Rural Studio
and
-Conversations on the Business of doing good

Lebbeus get back to it

2008-11-13T21:54:00.001-05:00

After a contemplative break I am getting ready to re-engage this blog. To begin a process of updates I am going to let Lebbeus Woods say where my thinking is going right now.

Listen carefully from the 6 minute mark on.

(You Tube Video of Lebbeus Woods in Postopolis)

On the Border: San Bernardo Community Center Site

2008-09-12T00:18:00.001-05:00

Finally, the site of my thesis project is in the northwester side of San Bernardo. It is in land that the developer had to donate to the municipality by law and Oscar Romo and his organization are trying to have donated to them. Oscar's idea is to build about 30 houses, a community center, a waste water treatment plant, and a plant nursery. I am thinking of focusing on the design of the community center and houses, while also doing the master plan for the other programs in the 2,500 square meter site. However, I also think it could be more interesting to tackle all the programs holistically.

The site itself is barren, looking like a beach covered long ago and now exposed.Shell and other marine fossils can be found throughout the site

ground on the site
The site from the top.

On the Border: San Bernardo

2008-09-11T23:54:00.001-05:00

The San Bernardo Colony

Oscar tells me that at least five laws were broken by the developer in this community. The Canyon is prone to flooding, the roads are slick when dry and impossible to navigate when wet, and no water, electricity, or sewer were provided. The developer got away with this the way it happens too often in Latin America, cronyism.
Oscar and his organization have helped provide the residents of the community with water and electricity, but he has not been able to get them a sewer system. The sewer run-off and sediment is dangerous for the families of San Bernardo and will eventually land in the Tijuana River and Pacific Ocean.
The lots are about 20 square meters cost a family $30,000 (USD) and they HAVE to pay within 3 years. The costs for this land are high and many families have their homes foreclosed on not too long after finishing their house. Each family builds their house and as you can see above, they use a variety of materials (wood, metal, concrete block), adding and making improvements to the houses as more money becomes available.

On the Border: Tijuana Context

2008-09-11T23:37:00.001-05:00

As with many other Latin American cities the most noticeable feature of Tijuana is its inequality. As we drove we saw McMansions that would be at home in any (North) American suburb.
The View from the top McMansions.

Strip malls dot the 'nice' neighborhoods
When asked if San Bernardo (my thesis site) is a safe area, Oscar says that he actually feels safer there than in the nicer neighborhoods. When inequality is great, fear becomes architecture.

Just on the other side of the hill.

On the Border: US side

2008-09-11T21:26:00.001-05:00

Oscar Romo from the Tijuana River Estuary took some time to take the Missus and myself around the parts of the Estuary that border Mexico. I will break up the information so that I can give each scale its proper commentary. First up: the watershed scale. At this scale the site sits on the northwest corner. Although the site area looks right down insignificant at this scale, it is important to the river because it sits 400 ft high on a Canyon right were the Tijuana river meets the Pacific Ocean.

Tijuana River Watershed
Los Laureles Canyon (Site in Red)
Tijuana River Estuary, Pacific Ocean on the left, Los Laureles Canyon on the right

The problem is that development pressures on the Los Laureles Canyon have created a situation in which sewer, trash, and soil are rolling down the canyon, altering the Estuary's fragile salt marshes (seen above) and ecosystem.
However, solving this problem becomes harder as the border is currently a political football with the calls for 'closed borders' translating into projects that further damage ecosystems and discourage cross-border solutions.

Army Corps of Engineers Sewer Project on the Border (border fence in black)

This project is two unite two hills so that border patrol does not have to drive up and down. The problem is that they are creating a dam that can cause sewer floods on the Mexican side, perhaps worsening the environmental condition of the canyon.

Materials and Structures: Entelligant Constructive Systems

2008-09-11T20:57:00.000-05:00

I am finally back from San Diego and will begin a series of posts to update on some of what I learned while on the trip. One of the first things that my advisor Teddy and I did was to head to Chula Vista to meet with Raymond Daily from Entilligant Constructive Systems. Ray and his crew are working on a holistic structural system that disturbs the site minimally, is easily assembled on site (all the joints are mechanical and can be put together by a single person in a matter of minutes), can be modified in a matter of minutes, can expand horizontally and vertically, and can be completely reused and/or recycled. Think of it as a full scale Lego set.

The system is still being tested and no images are available, this image from Entilligant other systems.

The system is in its infancy, and a bit over designed right now, but it is full of promise. A promise that, according to Ray, is inspired by Buckminster Fuller and ideas of biomimicry, Raymond's degree is in biology before he chose to make his living in the construction industry. Homage to Bucky notwithstanding, what the Entilligant system reminds me more of is Cedric Price's Fun House as the system allows to grow by adding bays or hanging new elements in every direction as new programs arise.

TJ to the Max

2008-08-31T22:06:00.000-05:00

As it stands now, my thesis is the design of a community center in the San Bernardo colonia in Tijuana for the Tijuana River Estuary and Oscar Romo with the strong possibility of eventual construction. The community center is part of a larger masterplan that includes housing, a waste water treatment plant, and a plant nursery. The estuary's larger goals are to protect the Tijuana river watershed and help improve the living conditions of the local community by moving squatters that are currently precociously living in the hills of the watershed.

I am traveling to San Diego Sept 7-10 to see the site and discuss the program in detail with Oscar, but at this point I am considering designing the entire project (all the programs I describe above) as an academic exercise while participating with the larger design group to make sure that my solution can be scaled down adequately.

The plot I will be working within is that little piece of land in the northernmost part of the site. More pics coming next week....

about the name

2008-08-31T21:32:00.001-05:00

Fruitful Contradictions comes from a quote by Antoine Picon as he discussed Buckminster Fuller's work. Picon's point was describing that as Bucky tried to subvert the object with ever-expandable systematic structures and ideas he could never quite succeed and came back to a strong architectural object, his work stronger thanks to that tension.

It occurs to me that this idea can also be carried to the site of my intervention. Tijuana and San Diego stand as inherent contradictions to each other but it is ultimately there were architecture and design can be the most helpful.

This blog will hopefully help me identify many other contradictions and expand on them until they reach fruitfulness.