Building a Slum

Slum construction:
I think it demonstrated us that architecture not always can be designed.

Slum Construction

Deconstruction:
It is something to make a reflection about if we realized that the real slum dwellers built and turn down these settlements many times before establish them.

Slum Deconstruction

Photography Workshop

Impressions:

“The City is the stage for daily life”
I don’t remember who said it but I know someone did it.

And Henry Cartier Bresson said:
“Photography is a 125 part of a second when daily life becomes art”

Something I will never take a picture of:


The only things I can think is something inside a place without any light, because it will not appear on the picture, like the key inside my pocket. Everything else is worthy to be photographed.

A bad picture:


From my point of view there is only one type of bad pictures and that is when the image doesn’t create a reaction on the observer. In photography there are many rules about how to manage light and composition but all of them can be broke.

Sequences and distance:

How to prepare a cigarrette


Elevator


Distance


In general, this week was full of experiences each one of them very interesting.

I RECOMMEND

I strongly recommend this Movie to Everyone:

“City of God”
“Cidade de Deus”

Year: 2002
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Language: Portuguese with English subtitles

It is based on real facts and it is a story that takes place in one of the biggest Slums in Río de Janeiro. I think it will help everyone to understand a little bit more the life inside these neighborhoods.

IMPRESIONS

EXPERIENCING SPACE
I have always thought that Architecture is the understanding of the relation between space and human beings. Most of the people do not really experiment the space, do not really live the space, as architects I think that we should not forget to do that.

Jorge Luis Borges said:

“Todo escritor se jacta de los libros que ha escrito. Yo me jacto de los libros que he leído”.

…Every Writer is proud of the books he has written, but I am proud of those books I have read.

As architects I think we have to read the space and be proud of those spaces we were able to read. In our search for understanding we must look different approaches to the space that surround us. The moment we closed our eyes I was able to understand the space in which we were. Different sensations came into my mind and every part of my body was looking for a space where people were part of it.


PLANET OF SLUMS
During the seminar it was an attempt to define what actually a slum is. In my opinion, it can be compared with a biological organism which grows according its own necessities. Are we able to understand it? I think we are not, but I am sure we are able to learn from it. And in order to do that we should be aware of the fact that there are hundreds of conditions that provoke hundreds of consequences for the establishment of these neighborhoods that are seeing by their own population as different communities inside a city.

MOTIVATION

EL COMITE EL PUEBLO
This is one of the biggest informal settlements in my home town (Quito – Ecuador). It started as an illegal occupation of private property during the early 1940’s. In 60 years it had grown until it became a very big part of the city. During the year of 1999 I worked as an art teacher for children between 5 to 13 years old in the communal house. In that period I realized how these people live and all that they do in order to organize themselves to have those things that the municipality does not give them, such as security, roads communal spaces, etc... I realized that the same children I used to teach were those that sell roses in the corners during the nights.

This place has no quality in any type of space whether it is public or private. Public space is reduced to a single soccer field for the entire area, a one hundred square meters communal house built by the same inhabitants and to the streets, very narrow streets that divide the blocks that are conformed by houses, at least ten houses in a space big enough for 5 or less. The front doors of the houses go out directly to the street, in the cases when there is a front door. Hard working people lived here surrounded by criminals. To avoid crime and to acquire services these people get together and organized themselves into a very strong community.

This is an everyday reality in my country, it is something that had been there for at least 60 years and it continues growing. Only in Quito there are more than 10 of these Slums and I am pretty sure that there should be something to do in order to give some quality in these spaces. Here the work force already exists, people is ready to work in order to improve themselves. However what is needed is not only the will, it requires commitment of different persons (institutions, professionals, municipalities). But above all, it is needed someone to plan the right questions in order to search for solutions.

This was my first motivation to enroll into the program of Urban Body. Out of the two sites that the program offers the one that I find more interesting is the one in Mumbai, not only for the similitude I find with my own country but also because that the people will really get involved from the inside. It is really different to know the problem by experiencing it than to know it by learning about it in conferences or seminars. I think that the fact that we will live for three weeks in one of these places will really open our eyes, not only about space, but about life itself, because the spaces in places like these are completely filled with life even though they do not have any studio behind. The experience I had in my home town made me see things in a different way, it made understand that people is always willing to help each other, it made understand that the poorest person can be the wiser too. I just cannot wait to see what I can learn as a person and as an Architect by immersing myself in this environment.