The changes in the last fifty years have left the United States with unsustainable energy needs and a disproportionate share of the world’s emissions: someone living in the U.S emits five times more than the average person. However, when it comes to the development of cities there is a globalized trend to match the American standard. Because of this paradox (how to achieve those levels of progress without really achieving them) society is pressed to focus for viable futures in the preservation of our life on Earth. However, developed countries still think that they must save the poorest developing countries from their inevitable social and environmental collapse by directing and controlling their practices of development. This has been informed through a history of globalization, imperialism, and colonialism… yet, First World countries forget to realize the role of the "developed" world in the mass-destruction of our planet. In other words, like many environmental activists and scholars have put it in the past five decades, the drastic changes in climate since the dawn of industrialization have produced a unique challenge that resulted not from our failures but from what we thought were our greatest successes. In "Small is Beautiful" E.F Schumacher makes a valid realization:
"It is clear that it is the richer nations that "are in the process of stripping tile world of its once for-all endowment of relatively cheap and simple fuels. It is their continuing economic growth which produces ever more exorbitant demands."
He goes even further point out that “[t]here are poor societies which have too little; where is the rich society that says: "halt! We have enough"? There is none.” In fact, communities around the world have been increasingly designed on western modernist design principles and implemented largely by specialists, not by the people living in them, constructed on the ideas of specialization, standardization, and mass production from the industrial age. In “Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change” Peter Calthorpe argues that the absence of sustainable powerful regional governance results in local development patterns that fail to consider the overall environments and economic implications of piecemeal growth and ad-hoc community systems that are often times very significant in cities of the Global South. And, with the growing attention to sustainability as a more pragmatic cultural movement, a trend is emerging among business leaders boiling down to this: “If you plan to talk to me about sustainability, show me the money or don’t bother…." Where does that leave citizens in the creation of the city and their communities? Where does that position the sustainability movement? In my research I write a manifesto that empowers not only architects, but people, to take urban space into their own hands and rethink how sustainability can be applied to the creation of the globalized city.
Sustainable practice and theory must realize that sustainability encompasses more than the environment. It encompasses more than people. Sustainability is the infrastructure of a social paradigm shift, not the shift itself. I place emphasis on both infusing methods of sustainability into design for humanitarian impact, and as framework for social policy. What I hope to bring to the discussion is a call for action that redefines our current ideas of sustainability and urbanization by looking at different histories and cultures as drivers of sustainable change. The main active green strategies pursued in Western countries, most of which are embraced through Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and other smart-technological systems, like solar panels and efficient energy systems and appliances, have made the sustainability movement more passive in that it has simply become an economic business model for urbanization and not a paradigm shift that empowers people.
Even if the current sustainable approaches do “good” in a social way, they are not enough. Most of the current green strategies that are considered “The Solution” in the Western World have a high premium that make them inaccessible and inappropriate in the developing world; green corporate campaigns are mere green washing strategies that ride the sustainability wave without providing new economic models that embrace its values. Being sustainable is about the sharing economy, about trust and equity, the decisions we make every day and the ways in which we interact with the city. These design principles aren't new. Jane Jacobs, author and activist, postulated traditional values of civic space, human scale, and diversity as key aspects of urbanization in her landmark work “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.”
My preposition with this project is that you can precisely find instances in which these values are being embraced in the Global South through informal settlements and grass-roots initiatives that are giving way to equity, mobility, and accessibility. Through a manifesto I link how approaches from “developing” countries could serve as successful design solutions to problems in the developed word. Sometimes they provide useful lessons which we can take as part of our culture's political framework; other times they highlight the absurdity in the process of imperialism and western-centric thinking in sustainability. But, overall, they provide a meaningful space for cultural retrospection. Can we learn from them as much as we want them to learn from us? Could it be possible to consider that the grass might be greener on the other side of the border?
"It is clear that it is the richer nations that "are in the process of stripping tile world of its once for-all endowment of relatively cheap and simple fuels. It is their continuing economic growth which produces ever more exorbitant demands."
He goes even further point out that “[t]here are poor societies which have too little; where is the rich society that says: "halt! We have enough"? There is none.” In fact, communities around the world have been increasingly designed on western modernist design principles and implemented largely by specialists, not by the people living in them, constructed on the ideas of specialization, standardization, and mass production from the industrial age. In “Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change” Peter Calthorpe argues that the absence of sustainable powerful regional governance results in local development patterns that fail to consider the overall environments and economic implications of piecemeal growth and ad-hoc community systems that are often times very significant in cities of the Global South. And, with the growing attention to sustainability as a more pragmatic cultural movement, a trend is emerging among business leaders boiling down to this: “If you plan to talk to me about sustainability, show me the money or don’t bother…." Where does that leave citizens in the creation of the city and their communities? Where does that position the sustainability movement? In my research I write a manifesto that empowers not only architects, but people, to take urban space into their own hands and rethink how sustainability can be applied to the creation of the globalized city.
Sustainable practice and theory must realize that sustainability encompasses more than the environment. It encompasses more than people. Sustainability is the infrastructure of a social paradigm shift, not the shift itself. I place emphasis on both infusing methods of sustainability into design for humanitarian impact, and as framework for social policy. What I hope to bring to the discussion is a call for action that redefines our current ideas of sustainability and urbanization by looking at different histories and cultures as drivers of sustainable change. The main active green strategies pursued in Western countries, most of which are embraced through Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and other smart-technological systems, like solar panels and efficient energy systems and appliances, have made the sustainability movement more passive in that it has simply become an economic business model for urbanization and not a paradigm shift that empowers people.
Even if the current sustainable approaches do “good” in a social way, they are not enough. Most of the current green strategies that are considered “The Solution” in the Western World have a high premium that make them inaccessible and inappropriate in the developing world; green corporate campaigns are mere green washing strategies that ride the sustainability wave without providing new economic models that embrace its values. Being sustainable is about the sharing economy, about trust and equity, the decisions we make every day and the ways in which we interact with the city. These design principles aren't new. Jane Jacobs, author and activist, postulated traditional values of civic space, human scale, and diversity as key aspects of urbanization in her landmark work “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.”
My preposition with this project is that you can precisely find instances in which these values are being embraced in the Global South through informal settlements and grass-roots initiatives that are giving way to equity, mobility, and accessibility. Through a manifesto I link how approaches from “developing” countries could serve as successful design solutions to problems in the developed word. Sometimes they provide useful lessons which we can take as part of our culture's political framework; other times they highlight the absurdity in the process of imperialism and western-centric thinking in sustainability. But, overall, they provide a meaningful space for cultural retrospection. Can we learn from them as much as we want them to learn from us? Could it be possible to consider that the grass might be greener on the other side of the border?
Using the Legend
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Indicates the timeframe in which the project was implemented .
The amount of money, in US dollars that was spent realizing the project. Stakeholders involved. What aspects of sustainability the project fulfills according to the "Triple-Bottom Line" of environment, economics, and social equity. The project's architectural elements and qualities. Any new or innovative models that are expressed. |
When specific metrics are missing from the project profile a bar type symbol signifies the degree of "amount" that the project portrays.
For example: ██ ██ low ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ high |
Methodology
Projects and pictures are curated from popular architecture databases and do not belong directly to me or the project itself. Featured are architectural projects with a focus on Latin America that have received attention as worthy architectural projects. Presumably, buried between other projects from mostly Western and Global North perspectives, these projects from Latin America have a lesson to teach about history and politics that go beyond their architectural framework.
None of the images belong originally to this project. Links to original materials and more information are provided at the end of the project profile.
If there are any questions, issues, or comments please contact Rene Cuenca at [email protected]
None of the images belong originally to this project. Links to original materials and more information are provided at the end of the project profile.
If there are any questions, issues, or comments please contact Rene Cuenca at [email protected]