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
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