This past 26th of October marked the start of the XX Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism of Chile, where the DPU’s MSc Building & Urban Design in Development (BUDD) programme was invited to participate along with more than 150 architects, researchers, activists, universities and political institutions from across the globe.
Following the biennial’s theme of ‘Dialogos Impostergables’, the BUDD team aimed to show the pedagogical intersection between urban design, critical theory and design research –particularly in the programme’s Urban Intervention Studio (BU3). The submission focused on student work from the past two years, which has explored the border-making practices at play in two contested cities, Medellin and Beirut.
This prestigious Biennial is organised by Chile’s Chamber of Architects, and this edition urged participants to address the ‘unavoidable’ engagement that architecture and urbanism have with socio-political and environmental concerns. This gave an opportunity to share BUDD’s pedagogical ethos of theory-into-action, where alternative modes of action research, social engagement and urban design interventions are grounded in the principles of social and environmental justice.
The video produced for exhibition at the Biennial featured a selection of design proposals from the studio programme, organised into four overarching themes. These touched upon different design approaches to address the contested urban environments of Beirut and Medellin, and the possibilities of materialising imaginative ‘resisting border-making practices’ that could help reimagine different trajectories towards an inclusive urban transformation.
The BUDD academic team (Catalina Ortiz -module leader-, Camillo Boano, Giorgio Talocci, Giovanna Astolfo, Camila Cociña, Ricardo Marten and Fani Kostourou) would like to thank all students for their work and their commitment to the programme, hoping that this brief video captures at least part of the hard work and critical design that goes into each project.
(Video production by Fani Kostourou and Ricardo Marten, with collaboration from BUDD staff and students)