It´s going on
Imagined Latin American cities, communities, and borders around the world
This is a new phase of the research project called “Urban Imaginaries”, directed, and initiated by Armando Silva in 1998.
This project started in 2021 and has been coordinated by FLACSO Argentina and the National University of Colombia, more than 30 Latin American cities were convened. We wanted that the urban imaginaries studies results from the research could contribute to the government conceptualization of public spaces from the point of view of citizen urbanism, so that this project could help to the improvement the quality of life in the cities involved.
Nowadays we are working on four publications:
- Studies of each of the cities, communities and borders that are part of the research.
- The first encyclopedia on latinities.
- A set of essays, written by international experts who reflect on the question: How can urban imaginary studies contribute to the design of cities?
- A free public web platform where the archives of the cities, communities and borders will be available, including data not only from the current research but also from the previous one related to the project. It will also provide access to bibliography and other resources.
In addition, creative programming is being worked on to publicize its results.
For further information, please contact:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PAzklpS0ShxqveZhHrTx-8oIgsGvdgV3/view?usp=drive_link
Barrio Abajo (Barranquilla, Colombia)
Due to an alliance between the Federal Polytechnic School of Zurich ETH (Switzerland) / Chair of Architecture and Urbanism, and the Universidad del Norte (Colombia), we have had the opportunity of conducting research in Barranquilla, Colombia specifically in Barrio Abajo, where new techniques of The Urban Imaginaries Methodology have been applied. This allows a deeper analysis of the city’s information because there is a multidisciplinary team of urban planners, architects, engineers, biologists, economists, and anthropologists working on the research. These professionals and technicians have been working on the site for several years, interconnecting several layers of knowledge that involve different areas of expertise, in order to obtain a more holistic understanding of the city, which will lead to more effective public urban planning proposals that are closer to the needs of citizens.
This transdisciplinary study intends to provide other perspectives for the design, construction and deconstruction of public spaces in the city. In this way, we seek to examine the paths of the radical imaginary, thereby understanding the effect of collective thought on material reality.
Further information:
Imagined Europe
Architect Hubert Klumpner of Urbanthinktank_next (UTT), and his team at his ETH Zurich Chair of Architecture and Urban Design (in South America and Europe), have set out to bring the Urban Imaginaries methodology to different European cities where they are working.
In 2021, Christoph Thun-Hohenstein Director of the Vienna Biennial For Change (inspired by Urban Imaginaries) commissioned UTT to create a sample for the exhibition, which was presented as “Designing Urban Imaginaries”, a concept that means examining the multiple crises emerging in Europe through an archive of practical metaphorical projects, presented from three contemporary perspectives: urbanization, digitalization and greening.
Because of this reason, several cities, such as Vienna, Shenzhen, Sarajevo, Tirana, Belgrade and Madrid among others joined the project, working alongside the cities that had been working on the investigation, since the very beginning.
The evolution of the methodology of urban imaginaries
Armando Silva, alongside a team of collaborators, is currently working on two new concepts that are being included in The Urban Imaginaries Methodology, and will show its evolution from research to intervention:
Radical imaginary:
(radicalis: that made new roots) It is understood as an emerging social force that transforms a place, a site, an object, a story, and increases democracy and the common good. For example:
We can perceive a radical imaginary emerging in a new social space, when in a city, there is a migration of populations who have cultures that are very different from the original inhabitants of the city.
Imaginary disruptions:
these are those actions that, due to their aesthetic-performative force, create a breaking point in everyday life due to their high affective and symbolic value, becoming lodged in the collective memory of a city or region. For example:
This is the case of the “Marches of Resistance of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo” in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which arose as a demand for the alive reappearance of their disappeared children, whose whereabouts were unknown during the argentinian military dictatorship in the 1970s. These gatherings have been taking place every Thursday since then.
Another example is the attack on the Twin Towers in the United States, which has been commemorated since 2012, as many others worldwide events which could be mentioned.
We are currently working on an archive that accounts for these two concepts.