How to Cite: Sánchez Arias, José Andrés and Andrés Felipe Martínez Motta. "Transgress: Alternative Practices in the Production of Cultural Facilities in Self-managed Territories. Casa Guadua, Altos del Pino. Soacha". Dearq no. 38 (2024): 53-63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18389/dearq38.2024.05
José Andrés Sánchez Arias
Collective urbz Colombia
Andrés Felipe Martínez Motta
Received: April 14, 2023 | Accepted: October 12, 2023
This article delves into a study subject, the creation of a community space, aimed at enhancing memory and fostering community cohesion in the context of self-built habitat. With a transgressive approach, rooted in the peripheral production of knowledge, the design process diverges from the globally hegemonic architectural production. Instead, it horizontally explores alternative and collective processes based on subjectivity. During the construction process, the involvement of an international organization allowed us to evaluate the effects, tools, and dynamics between vertical and hierarchical production and horizontal production based on a dialogue-creation processes.
Keywords: Dialogue-creation, emerging architecture, community architecture, community cinema, memory, bioconstruction, self-built habitat.
Access to urban land for the low-income population in Latin America and in most of the countries of the Global South has been through self-built settlements. We can define these territories as the space within the city where migrants and the economically vulnerable population progressively consolidate their housing, spaces, and infrastructure. In these long-standing processes, mutual support and self-management serve as essential tools for shaping their environment, adapting it to individual and collective needs within the constraints of available resources. Over time, these forms of spatial production lead to a strengthening of social networks among the inhabitants, generate a community bond, and consolidate a strong sense of belonging to their territory.
Each self-built neighborhood has its own identity and a particular environment, which changes, transforms, evolves, and re-signifies itself over time. Memory in these territories is a spatial practice in the present, rooted in place and landscape, related to the past and the future (Courtheyn, 2022). Taken together, this combination of practices that proved effective for the consolidation of self-built territories, configured social identities with their own traits, narratives, symbols, and rituals.
It is in this context: production of self-built habitat, identity, and collective memory, that we reflect on our actions and professional practice in the production of space. This reflection has primarily been linked to the evaluation of tools, approaches, and procedures available in academia and in the professional field of the formal production of architecture, and their validity in these contexts that differ in their production dynamics. The experiences of collectives such as Arquitectura Expandida and Ruta 4 in Colombia in the consolidation of community projects with guadua (bamboo) construction techniques, and Comunal Taller in Mexico in processes with a gender focus and the production of tools for participation in rural areas, are examples of alternatives in architecture that have strengthened our reflection.
In this professional flânerie, at the beginning of 2016, we had the opportunity to approach and converse with the community of Altos del Pino. This neighborhood located in Comuna 4 of the municipality of Soacha borders the locality of Ciudad Bolivar, in the southeastern side of Bogota, stands one of the largest self-built territories in Colombia. Immersing ourselves in this context allowed us to understand its dynamics of consolidation, strengthen our theoretical and practical approaches on the production of self-built space, and initiate a process of deconstruction of the practice of architecture, to finally explore alternative forms with the community that lives there.
Figure 1_ Aerial photo of Altos del Pino neighborhood, Soacha. Author: Aaron Blakke.
Figure 2_ Altos del Pino neighborhood, Soacha. Author: Maria Camila Morales.
Altos del Pino began its formation in the late 1980s, through the illegal purchase of plots of land and a few instances of land invasion. Over the course of more than thirty years of community work, the neighborhood's residents have been able to consolidate their housing and infrastructure. However, the most significant achievement has been the development of a strong sense of identity and bond among its inhabitants. This territory is also abundant in cultural activities such as audiovisual production, folkloric dance, music, rap and graffiti.
Since 2014, several organizations and collectives have been linked to the artistic, audiovisual, and pedagogical processes of the Altos del Pino neighborhood, and since 2016, with our arrival, we have articulated and complemented these processes from the field of community architecture and urbanism. We have done so by deconstructing the professional practices, tools and approaches learned in academia: we decided to act from what we experienced in our approach to Altos del Pino and progressively build a constant dialogue, valuing respect for the diversity of thoughts and ideas. Based on this approach, we asked ourselves: How can we generate and articulate alternative and horizontal processes in the production of architecture, founded on the dynamics of self-built habitat (spaces) development in Altos del Pino?
We were inspired by the self-built habitat, and in collaboration with the Fundación Proyecto Escape, an organization founded by a family from the neighborhood, we reinterpreted processes grounded in mutual support. This allowed us to value the capabilities, skills, knowledge, and resources, present in both the territory and of the individuals who support the organization's goals and proposals. Simultaneously, we recognized that the objectives promoted by the world-system, rooted in capitalist, modern, colonial, patriarchal Christian-centric principles, as cited in the terminology of Grosfoguel 2022, linked to the economic capital model from the exploitation of being, were not applicable in a context where we wanted to build a counter-hegemonic ideology based on subjectivity and solidarity (Grosfoguel 2022).
The journey we've undertaken in these years with the Fundación Proyecto Escape has helped us realize that the different social groups in the territory share a common vision of the world. This vision is linked to their aspirations for a place within the city, the improvement of their living conditions, their dreams, and their response to the difficulties of everyday life. These elements serve as a social foundation that finds in the built spaces the locus for experimentation, lived experiences, and social cohesion, all aimed at consolidation. These shared aesthetic and ethical values become architecture and are nurtured by feelings of bonding with the place, which is perceived as the spatial support of a true community within its social meaning (de Villanova and Rose Duarte 2012). In this context, we aim to showcase the consolidation of these experiences and collective knowledge linked to memory, identity, and resistance to the dynamics of the world-system. We use the Casa Guadua project as a pretext, as its process allowed the strengthening of alternative forms for a collaborative social architecture.
Figure 3_ Collective construction in Altos del Pino. Author: Proyecto Escape Archive.
Figure 4_ Casa Guadua, Altos del Pino, Soacha. Author: Proyecto Escape Archive.
To make architecture is a human instinct (Rudofsky Bernard. 1976), a natural quality of being that, due to the specialization of work and economic interests, has been taken away from individuals. This exclusion extends to their participation in the decision-making processes related to the creation of their city, territory, and home, relegating them to the role of passive agents. In this context, architecture has become an activity aligned with the real estate market, where generating solidary and collective processes is the exception and not the rule.
Unlike formal production, the process we have undertaken has not been linear and it is important to emphasize that the forms of production, cooperation, and experimentation we have carried out are a continuous unfolding of complex realities, the result of spatial needs around specific activities, daily actions, and emotional bonds based on collective values. We are not framed by a single theoretical concept, or a pre-established approach structured by an avant-garde, and the processes we have developed have not been "invented" or baptized with the name of an individual. Our forms of production are part of a broad family of perspectives that respond to different contexts and particularities in the field of self-built habitat (Ramnath 2012). Thus, in our endeavor, the dynamics of space production have hinged on various factors related to the experiences of its inhabitants. These individuals share a homogeneity of objectives but possess a heterogeneity of vital social characteristics that contribute to the stimulation and cultural growth of the space.
The methodology has been adapted depending on a) the dynamics of the territory, b) the needs of the inhabitants, c) the actors involved (collectives, national and international organizations, universities, professionals from different areas, students, and people motivated to help) who contribute from different areas at different times, d) the availability of both social and economic resources, and f) external variables such as the pandemic. We can establish that the tools at the professional level draw from a broad spectrum of knowledge areas, including anthropology, sociology, ethnography, and architecture. However, these tools are intricately linked with popular knowledge through informal networks and knowledge derived from life experiences.
In the realm of collaborative tools, involving processes and procedures built jointly with the community, we have conducted information surveys on the socio-spatial structures of the neighborhood. We have also organized bio-construction workshops that combine the use of natural materials with handcrafted construction techniques. Other initiatives include collective meetings, dialogic-creative processes, open calls, collaborative activities with national and foreign universities, community cooking, collective construction days, and production of undergraduate and graduate theses.
Every participant in this journey has contributed on a voluntary basis driven by a spirit of solidarity and collaboration. None of the projects were pursued with the sole purpose of economic gain. This approach allows us to challenge and question the prevailing hegemonic environment of capitalist production in architecture, where all work done must be monetized. Instead, we value profits in the form of diverse knowledge, solidarity networks, individual and collective learning, academic productions, and appraisal of professional experience.
These diverse tools and their reflections are presented through a study subject conducted from 2019 to 2023 for the consolidation of the Casa Guadua project. This project, spearheaded by the Fundación Proyecto Escape, is intended to build and strengthen a cultural space that fulfills various functions for the community.
Figures 5_ Bio-construction workshops, Altos del Pino. Author: Maria Camila Morales.
Figures 6_ Bio-construction workshops, Altos del Pino. Author: Proyecto Escape Archive.
Film and audiovisual production, in general, serve as creative tools for preserving memory. With contemporary advances, audiovisual production has become more accessible and inclusive, allowing a broader population to use it. This enhances the way in which memories are generated, and it adds audiovisual self-documentation to the spectrum—a tool employed in self-built contexts where cultural expressions flourish. This allows for the capture of images and the preservation of life stories, portraits, and events. The inhabitants of Altos de Pino have found in these audiovisual production processes a tool to recognize, re-signify and transmit their life stories. This engagement has initiated a collective dialogue between generations, employed a nourishing and necessary retrospective of their lives.
The participation and community process around audiovisual production have promoted this form of expression and introspection in Altos del Pino, especially among young people and children. Over a period of more than fifteen years, this ongoing process in the neighborhood consolidated the project for the construction of a community cinema through dialogue, inspired by collectives such as El Dorado Films that promote pedagogical tools for documentation and production around art, memory, and neighborhood history. Building upon previous experiences with bioconstruction and collective construction workshops developed since 2016, the community enriched its understanding of sustainable construction techniques. This allowed them to channel their expectations and motivations towards valuing these learnings in this great project. At the end of 2019, at the annual closing meeting of the Fundación Proyecto Escape, it was decided to initiate the design of the community cinema to establish a safe and appropriate space for the creation, production, appreciation, and discussion of all kinds around cinema.
Figure 7_ Annual closing meeting 2019, Altos del Pino. Author: Proyecto Escape Archive.
The decision to move forward with this project coincides with the production of an undergraduate thesis in architecture at Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Martinez, 2020). This academic endeavor provided an opportunity for reflection and enrichment, allowing us to draw from academia insights into the process, methodology, and considerations around the production of architecture in self-built contexts. This academic production sought to reflect on the conception and production of architecture from the periphery of knowledge, moving away from the verticality and rigidity of academia. In our consideration for the role of the architect in these contexts, we sought a more subjective and holistic vision to dynamically generate knowledge that could complement and nurture the architectural profession.
This determination led us to connect the processes in Altos del Pino with this academic exercise. What initially seemed like a unidirectional research endeavor, aiming to provide the necessary tools to understand the forms of space production in the self-built neighborhoods, would result in a process of dialogue-creation, improvement, and consolidation of the environment. It became an integral part of a multidirectional and horizontal approach to learning.
Thus, initiating this project made it possible to link academic knowledge, popular knowledge, critical theoretical reflection, and the savoir-faire of architecture from a peripheral and alternative sphere of spatial production.
Together with the community, it was decided that, in the architectural field, the cinema would be a cultural hall, a 72 m2. box built with guadua and arranged over a pre-existing space self-built by the community in 2008, the Casa Botellas. Various sessions of dialogue-creation led to the initial plan for the space being transformed to meet the emerging needs.
Figure 8_Dialogue-creation process. Author: Proyecto Escape Archive.
Figure 9_Imaginaries, Casa Guadua. Author: Andrés Felipe Martínez.
In the architectural and structural projection of the cinema, the tools navigated between the dialogue-creation processes and technical consultation sessions with experts, consistently looping back for feedback from the community. In this process, information was collected about the community's desires and dreams for the future space, and graphic and inclusive imaginaries were built. Learning workshops focused on the construction material, in which we sought to consolidate the guadua technique as the main material for the community cinema in a hands-on and sensory manner. This approach drew on the experiences with this technique implemented in other projects.
Ensuring a responsible and efficient project at a technical level was crucial for us. To this end, we consulted and received support from professionals in architecture and engineering. Their expertise contributed to enhancing the technical design, focusing on aspects such as thermal comfort, the structural system, and electrical engineering.
The design process, unfolded in the year 2020 within the context of the pandemic, required us to explore new tools and approach technological platforms. This posed a challenge since our dialogue with the community typically occurred over coffee, breakfast, walking around the neighborhood, or casual conversations at the entrances of their houses.
Figure 10_ Meetings in the neighborhood Altos del Pino. Author: Proyecto Escape Archive.
We adapted to the circumstances, and the cinema or Casa Guadua was consolidated as a multipurpose space that would begin to be built in early 2021. Initially, we thought of a self-management strategy, based on the experience of previously self-built spaces. To progressively advance this project, we proposed, methodologically, to involve people eager to participate in the construction of the Casa Guadua. These individuals expressed a desire to learn and apply bio-construction techniques. Financially, we suggested gathering contributions for the materials through the registrations for these construction workshops. For the volunteers involved, was not only the hands-on learning experience but also the satisfaction of contributing to the construction of a community project.
While we made progress on technical, management and organizational issues, we concurrently devised self-managed dissemination strategies to promote the project in a horizontal manner. In this process, we designed a presentation booklet, established a web page to manage registrations for the construction workshops, and produced audiovisual material to present the project components.
These alternative and self-managed approaches to architecture were integrated throughout the design phase. Together with all parties involved, they culminated in a definitive proposal that transcended the limits of a community cinema, enriched by the collective thoughts and contributions from everyone involved.
Figures 11 and 12_ Final design Casa Guadua. Author: Andrés Felipe Martínez.
At the beginning of 2021, after a year of work and with the project in an advanced design phase, it was selected for construction by an international non-governmental organization. The NGO sought to support emerging projects in territories with high migratory impact, providing support in the restructuring and construction of projects that stood out for their low economic and environmental impact, and high social and cultural significance.
Between February and April 2021, we collaborated with the NGO to collaboratively consolidate the technical feasibility of the project. This involved refining designs, structural reinforcements, and making architectural adjustments. Throughout this stage, the spatial design was adjusted without losing its essence, until we found the optimal result that facilitated construction.
During this process, the NGO decided to award the construction through bidding to an external company that would oversee one hundred percent of the execution. This ruling out of the possibility of self-construction and the methodology proposed by us, although efficient in reducing time, initiated the disarticulation of the collective process. The participation of the inhabitants in its consolidation and their engagement in decision-making significantly decreased. Despite the NGO conducting some workshops with the community to strengthen various aspects, a rupture emerged in the construction process and in the participation systems surrounding the architectural project. This was exacerbated by the lack of dialogue and reception channels established by the NGO towards the people of the neighborhood and us as professionals.
These production logics, typical of the capitalist institutional practice, have been a recurring theme in the Colombian territory concerning the production of popular space. The assumption that communities lack the capacity to self-manage projects, and that it is preferrable to work under a hierarchical model to finance community initiatives, is welfarist and does not dignify or recognize the processes and knowledge of the communities.
This logic, evident in the Casa Guadua project, resulted in the loss of community autonomy over the construction process and served as a pivotal point of reflection on the forms of production used so far in decision-making. However, it is important to recognize that, thanks to the support of the NGO and the resources provided, complex structural reinforcement processes with the pre-existing space, the adaptation of guadua as a natural material to the materials that make up façade and architectural solutions around child safety were overcome.
Finally, after a long process, the project was inaugurated in November 2021 with a large community sancocho (community lunch), musical exhibitions, urban painting, film screenings, and discussions about community work.
Figure 13_ Model discussion of the project. Author: Andrés Sánchez.
Figure 14_ Construction of Casa Guadua. Author: Andrés Felipe Martínez.
The inauguration did not mark the end of the constructive process, and the project was handed over by the NGO. We have resumed the autonomy and processes based on mutual support. Although we know that the journey will be long, it is not the linear time brought to us by the West, where speed represents efficiency and economic gain that guides us, but the organic time that allows us to consolidate collective memories and continue strengthening our identity; something that the self-built habitat has taught us.
Although the Comuna's children and young people are already using the space, there are still some interior finishes pending. The community was able to manage the donation of the floor and is making progress in the management of resources for the missing elements. Through small workshops during 2023, we have made progress in the construction of enclosures, experimenting with different techniques.
Figure 15_ Guadua enclosure workshop. Author: Andrés Sánchez.
As complementary projects we have advanced in the consolidation of the public space, the community bathrooms' project, and the adaptation of the community library. Despite being a simple space in the eyes of hegemonic architecture, for us it implies deep reflections, friendship bonds, and the constant rethinking of our path as individuals and as a collective. Now we ask ourselves: shouldn't architecture be a profession that helps to reproduce these values?
The abstract, mercantilist and elitist universalism of architectural production has established vertical relationships and hierarchies in its design and production processes. We can place the self-built habitat in its production dynamics in the place of non-being in the face of the relations of domination and exploitation of capitalism (Grosfoguel 2022). The knowledge that we can produce there is that of common sense that does not result from a specific practice or specialization, but is spontaneously reproduced in everyday knowledge and is based on the need to transform their survival strategies through innovation, creativity, and transgression (De Sousa Santos 2009).
The collective production of a space such as Casa Guadua has taken us through a transgressive process rooted in subjectivity. It involves the articulation of knowledge, ongoing dialogic processes, and the perseverance required to construct counter-hegemonic architectural processes from the periphery of knowledge.
We do not define this process as bottom-up, we consider it a horizontal process, which, with its successes, mistakes, and challenges, has served as an ongoing learning process, in the sense that we all contribute our knowledge and life experiences, starting from the place where we look at the territory. This journey has prompted us to reflect on the political role of the architect. It envisions the architect not merely as an observer of the self-built sectors' reality but as an active participant in their transformation. It aspires to be an amphibious professional, a term used by Fals Borda to describe the skill of moving between popular knowledge and academic research and between activism and scientific rigor (Briceño Ayala et al. 2020).
Amidst globalized production models, the architecture stemming from popular and collaborative experiences emerges as a counterpoint, emphasizing local production. The production of Casa Guadua and the insights gained from the production dynamics of the inhabitants of Altos del Pino has led us, within the professional field, to share and value these experiences. This involves organizing collective meetings, workshops, and talks with universities, collaborating with other social organizations and supporting the production of academic theses. It constitutes a political and social endeavor that transcends the objectives of hegemonic architecture, transforming into an emotional process. This emotional journey is shaped both individually by the heterogeneity of motivations, and collectively driven by the homogeneity of goals in the improvement of the neighborhood. This is manifested in the commitment to change the imposed limits, redistribute popular knowledge, and diversify life experiences at different scales both individually and collectively.
Figures 16, 17 and 18_ Inauguration of Casa Guadua. Author: Maria Camila Morales.
To the Zambrano Guerrero family, for opening the doors of their home to us, motivating changes through collective processes and planting hope in the transformation of the territory.