MAGAZINE ARQ 53 Political Discourses

Readings | Works and Project | Essays and Documents | Recent Architecture

Culture and politics / Monserrat Palmer
From the house to the mall / Mauricio Baros
Theory of Rumors / Arturo Torres
The medium and the message / Rodrigo Pérez de Arce
Spires / Alejandro Crispiani
Destroying buildings / Rodrigo Tisi

What is it that makes space political?
Of all the activities of a human community, only two are considered necessary for what Aristotle called bios politikos: action and speech, thus completely excluding all that is merely necessary or useful. The architect’s actions and discourse imply the conception of the architectural project as a political act, taking into account the fact that forms are ideologically neutral, and only acquire meaning according to the way they are used.
Five articles introduce from different perspectives the problems pertaining to architecture’s sphere of action from a political point of view. Culture, the city, and the architectural work are the paradigms that we present throughout this issue devoted to our everyday life in a given society..

Civic Center project, Concepción / Smiljan Radic + Eduardo Castillo + Ricardo Serpell

We show here in detail the development of a project for Concepción’s Civic quarter, resulting from a public architectural competition. This project is considered to be of central importance in the context of this city’s urban renewal, as it is proposed by the “Plan Concepción”. This building, both by its dimensions and by its architectural quality, should become one of the greatest architectural works brought about by the Chilean state in this century.

Covered square in Dominican Republic / Sebastián Irarrázaval

The Dominican Republic’s weather makes it necessary to produce shadow for many everyday activities. A great covered square would not be surprising then, even though it contradicts our usual conception of outdoors public spaces. This project is part of a set of proposals produced by architectural studios all around the world, commissioned by the local government in order to renew the face of Santo Domingo.

Televisión Nacional de Chile, Santiago / Gubbins Arquitectos + MSGSSS Arquitectos

At a time when the control over images implies the power to shape social behavior, a building for the state’s TV station can become the institutional site for a fourth power, conveying an image as convincing as the ones it broadcasts. Or else it can be nothing but what it actually is: a container located on a specific site, structured according to the needs of a TV station.

Aomori architectural competition, Japan / Alejandro Morales

It seems paradoxical to commission nearly 900 proposals from all around the globe in order to create a regionally identifiable architecture. Orient, however, by means of a large number of architectural competitions, assumes as a global problem the needs of a specific place. This award-winning project is the result of such a renewed and foreign outlook on the housing policies of a local government.

Palacio de La Moneda lighting competition, Santiago / Karina Stuardo + Javier Aránguiz + Juan Carlos Cárdenas + Maximiliano Echeverría

In its fourth version, the Philips “Lighten up your ideas” Contest proposed the lightning of the nation’s most important institutional building, the Moneda Palace. The winning project presented here is characterized by solving the complex problem of giving a new image to the government’s house through a simple decision. A light belt all around the building and the stresses on the vertical rhythm generated by the pilasters give to the Moneda a renewed nocturnal image, generating a new relation between citizens and the building.

The court of the itinerant judge: space for a political choreography

The Justice Court room is chosen as an example to cast light on the relations between architecture and politics. This article’s proposal, derived from a master’s thesis, avoids charging the building with political and ideological readings, and rather chooses to examine the spatial relations among bodies, mediated by objects, following a political rite organized according to power relations.

Formal or informal?

According to the modus operandi of ancient Rome, Mussolini transformed buildings and the city as the materialized body of the Fascist ideology. This article, derived from a doctoral dissertation, examines his relations with contemporary architecture, which he granted a place traditionally occupied by Classical architecture.

The last monument / Wren Strabucchi

According to the modus operandi of ancient Rome, Mussolini transformed buildings and the city as the materialized body of the Fascist ideology. This article, derived from a doctoral dissertation, examines his relations with contemporary architecture, which he granted a place traditionally occupied by Classical architecture.

Civic Square: Plaza de La Constitución, Santiago / Andrea Masuero

The present aspect of the Plaza Constitución does not necessarily reflect the forms and uses that this space has had since its foundation. This place has once again become the most important site for political manifestations after the return to democracy. The history of this site and the sucessive projects that have shaped it are the subject of the thesis presented herein.

Mirror
Francisca Labbé + Felipe García-Huidobro
Santiago, Chile, 2002

Exposition montage: "Huellas en mi rostro"
Teodoro Fernández + Danilo Martic
Temuco, Chile, 2001

B-B House
Cruz & Browne Arquitectos Asoc.
Santiago, Chile, 2002

Las Quemas House
Marco Beovic
Puerto Montt, Chile, 2002

Enrione House
José Luis Ugarte
Machalí, Chile, 2001