POLITICS OF FABRICATION III: November 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.

30.11.11

Reminder of submissions

Next week Friday, 9th of December, you have to submitt to Belinda the following,

2^nd Year:

HTS Essay 1

TS Structures Report

3^rd Year:

HTS Essay 1

TS Structures Report

PP Written Report

28.11.11

W10- Tutorials 2 - Action

Tutorials on the Action will be held next week Friday 2nd of December from 10 to 6pm in Inter Unit 8 space. You will need to bring your drawings and models. If you need to review your frame this will be the best moment to do it before the Final Jury. Come as follows,

10.30 Anand
11.00 Elliot
11.30 Andreas
12.00 Erez
12.30 Fragkiskos

1.00 Hao Wen
1.30 Enrique
2.00 Carlotta
2.30 Camille
3.00 Eleni
3.30 Frederique
4.00 Andrew

25.11.11

W10- Tutorials

Next week Monday we will have tutorials in the unit space on the initial proposals you are doing in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. Models are very welcome. After lunch time we will have a presentation of the Action, the last part of your proposals. Please come in the following schedule,

10.30 Elliot
11.00 Camille
11.30 Frederique
12.00 Hao Wen
12.30 Carlotta

1.30 Presentation of "Action"
2.00 Andreas
2.30 Erez
3.00 Anand
3.30 Eleni
4.00 Andrew
4.30 Fragkiskos
5.00 Enrique

W10-11-ACTION: MATERIAL ORGANIZATIONS

This third stage will provide an initial level of knowledge about material organizations and their activation. This will help to build the different political arguments towards the end of the term. Third year students will start their TS proposals related to their projects that will be presented to TS tutors on the week 10. Intermediate Unit 8 suggests Kinetic, Light and Demountable Structures as possible subjects to be researched.

Please check TS Brief for references and Bibliography.

22.11.11

Information about the site

W9 - FRAME Pin-up

A final presentation of the issue, strategies , research and frames will be in 32 First Floor Front on Friday 25th of November. Please start to pin-up drawings (so printed) at 10.00am to start reviews sharply at 10.30.

20.11.11

The architectures of Action in St Paul

St Paul occupied site (c) Nuria Alvarez Lombardero

18.11.11

W9 - Tutorials

Last tutorials on Frame drawings and analyses are in Inter Unit 8 space on Tuesday 22nd of November as follows

10.30 Anand
11.00 Enrique
11.30 Camille
12.00 Elliot
12.30 Andrew

14.00 Frederique
14.30 Erez
15.00 Andreas
16.00 Eleni
16.30 Hao Wen
17.00 Fragkiskos
17.30 Carlotta

Tlatelolco Complex by Hao Wen

Archive of Mexico

Santa Fe vs Guerrero

17.11.11

Information about Tlatelolco

Rojo Amanecer- "Red Down"- Movie about Tlatelolco Massacre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Et1z0riMOk
Subtitles: http://www.solosubtitulos.com./?q=rojo+amanecer

Tlatlolco Massacre images
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBu8o6AlQlA

Website of Tlatelolco neighbourhood
http://www.vivirentlatelolco.com.mx/

Blog with news of Tlatelolco neighbourhood
http://vivirtlatelolco.blogspot.com/2011/06/tlatelolco-es-la-mejor-unidad.html

Documentary about Tlatelolco massacre (Spanish)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66szmKvqs04&feature=related

In the library self of our unit space you can find the book about Nonalco-Tlatelolco,

Miquel Adriá: Mario Pani: La construcción de la modernidad, Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2005.

15.11.11

W8 - Tutorials 2

Tutorials on the Frame drawings and analyses will be in the Unit Space as follows,

10.30 Fragkiskos
11.00 Carlotta
11.30 Elliot
12.00 Camille
12.30 Andreas

14.00 Eleni
14.30 Anand
15.00 Hao Wen
15.30 Erez
16.00 Andrew
16.30 Enrique
17.00 Frederique

W8 - LECTURE "Postolonial Architecture in Latin-America" by Felipe Hernandez

Felipe Hernandez, lecturer at the University of Cambridge, will present to us his work on Postcolonial architecture in Latin-America. The lecture will be in 33 First Floor Back on Thursday 17th at 17.30.

"Postcolonial architecture in Latin-America"

Inter mediate Unit 8 , Politics of Fabrication Lecture series.

Thursday 17 November 2011 in 33 FFB (Level 1, No. 33 Bedford Square) starting at 5:30 pm

Related to the work of Inter Unit 8 - Politics of Fabrication- this lecture will show how post-colonial discourse can be brought to architecture as a means to analyze and better understand the social and political implications of some architectural practices today in particularly complex socio-cultural contexts. The lecture will introduce the work of some Latin-american practices and post-colonial critics, such as Gary Spivak, Nestor Garcia Canclini or Hommi Bhabha, who have received a considerable attention in the cultural arena in the last two decades.

Dr Felipe Hernandez is an Architect and Lecturer in architectural design, History and Theory. he has worked extensively on Latin America and other areas in the Developing World. He is the author of "Bhabha for Architects" (Routledge 2010) and "Beyond Modernist Masters: Contemporary Architecture in latin America" (Birkhauser 2009).

UNAM Library in Mexico DF by the architect Juan O'Gorman. Picture taken by Francisco Gonzalez de Canales, 2006.

11.11.11

W8 - Tutorials

Tutorials for the Frame will be held in the Inter Unit 8 space on Tuesday 15th of November in the following order,

10.30 Frederique
11.00 Anand
11.30 Fragkiskos
12.00 Andreas
12.30 Carlotta

14.00 Enrique
14.30 Eleni
15.00 Andrew
15.30 Erez
16.30 Hao Wen
17.00 Camille
17.30 Elliot

W8-9-FRAME: SPATIAL-ARCHITECTONIC SYSTEMS

A non contextual second stage will investigate different examples at various scales of neighbourhood integration to metropolitan cities, carefully differentiating terms such as community and association in relation to the construction of contemporary politics. Afterwards these examples will be analyzed in terms of Privacy/publicity, Permeability and Mobility.

Suggested Readings
Bernard Tschumi, Manhattan transcripts, London: Academy Editions, 1994.
Rem Koolhaas, S, M, L, XL, New York: Monacelli Press, 1995.
Pier Vittorio Aureli, The Project of Autonomy, New York, 2007.

AMERICAN MYSTERIES BY DILLER & SCOFIDIO

YIMING HUANG (3RD YEAR)

9.11.11

W7- Urban proposal

The week will be fundamentally dedicated to organize the research imformation collected in the unit trip and to establish a proposal for the site. At the end of the week issue, research and proposal should be presented. This presentation will be on Friday 11th of November in the unit space from 10 to 6pm. after the presentation the next task will be presented.