Projects of Care

Alessandra Cireddu

acireddu@tec.mx

Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico

Karen Hinojosa

khinojosa@tec.mx

Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico

Zaida Muxí Martínez

zaida.muxi@tec.mx

Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico

For this issue, we have curated a selection of projects that support and promote shared caregiving in the urban and architectural context through various scales and approaches. We aim to offer a broad and diverse overview, encompassing everything from targeted and temporary interventions to initiatives incorporating a gender perspective into urban planning.

The Mamífera project by Equal Saree, which normalizes and raises the visibility of breastfeeding in public spaces, provides a safe, open, and permeable space where breastfeeding is affirmed as a free and natural act. This allows such a vital caregiving action to be recognized and valued within the urban context. Mamífera transforms the experience of breastfeeding into a visible, respected, and collective act, challenging social and cultural norms that typically confine breastfeeding to private, isolated, or marginal spaces. It is a call to create community and provide support.

It is essential to consider or incorporate children into the caregiving city. Therefore, two projects focus on this critical stage of life. One is the development of a play street in the Kings Crescent social housing project, a space designed by muf architecture/art with and for children, providing a safe and accessible place for play. It can serve both as a communal park for residents and as an open public space for the city. This project creates an urban space on a domestic scale where children can play freely, promoting social interaction, a sense of community and creating a more livable and friendly environment for everyone.

The Mustakis Foundation in Santiago, Chile, is another inspiring example of how urban spaces can be repurposed to foster child development. A former factory in Recoleta was transformed into a structure that stimulates children's intellectual and creative growth through playful experiences, emphasizing creativity and play as essential development components. Cristian Undurraga's project demonstrates how the reuse of existing structures can serve new purposes that benefit the community and promote inclusion and well-being from early childhood.

The Interactive Observatory OIHFRA, in Iztapalapa, Mexico, as part of the UTOPÍAS community social program, exemplifies how urban spaces can promote environmental awareness, honor historical memory, and recognize the value of caregiving and caregivers. The Observatory, a project by Estudio RX from the UNAM School of Architecture, directed by Gabriela Carrillo and Loreta Castro, integrates learning and reflection areas focused on geology, water, and the subsoil. It aims to raise awareness and build social responsibility, enrich community life, and contribute to a better understanding of environmental, urban, and territorial processes.

We aim to highlight the necessary reflection on housing and collective and community living by placing relationships and caregiving at the center. For this purpose, we selected the cooperative housing project by Proyecto Habitar. This project resulted from the collaboration between an architecture collective and a teachers' cooperative to design a housing model based on social values for the use of space, capable of adapting to future conditions. The courtyard is a central space for social interaction and community building. Along with various filters and transition spaces, the social program can materialize by creating meeting spaces and fostering interaction among the building's residents.

Finally, we included a regulatory framework project that outlines how to incorporate a gender perspective at different scales of urban planning, using Valencia as an example of the necessary tools for mainstreaming these criteria. Furthermore, this work was carried out by Eva M. Álvarez Isidro and Carlos J. Gómez Alfonso from the Universitat Politècnica de València, with which we showcase the vital role of academia in driving this reflection forward, employing innovative teaching, design, and research methods that incorporate diversity and attention to care.

With this selection, we seek to inspire and challenge thinking beyond the traditional and falsely naturalized convention of design, architecture, and urban planning. By showing how shared caregiving can be integrated across all levels and scales of architectural and urban intervention, we aspire to promote a more comprehensive vision of architecture and urbanism centered on inclusion and the well-being of all individuals.