February 20th marks a new edition of the World Day of Social Justice. The theme, "Overcoming barriers and unlocking opportunities", is a perfect occasion to reflect on the importance of equity in all areas of society - and especially from architecture and urbanism. And yes: they both have a fundamental role in building accessible cities and are important tools for addressing the challenges of economic inequality and social exclusion.
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Equity and Architecture: A global problem for everyone
"Equitable cities need equitable voices," says Naomi Hoogervorst of UN-Habitat. Architecture and urbanism can be used to address social exclusion and promote integration by designing diverse and participatory public spaces. In Latin America, the region with the greatest inequalities on the planet, there are some interesting examples.
In Mexico, there is the Fresnillo Park designed by Rozana Montiel (Estudio de Arquitectura) and Alin V. Wallach: "The canal had a big barrier: an inaccessible bridge that blocked the canal, we worked with the idea of making something more than a bridge, having as a result, a universally accessible connection with integrated games and an esplanade below, transforming the space into a meeting place, generating a livable place with lighting during the night".
In Peru, the KNOW: Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality project sought to consolidate the generation of a care network that overcomes multidimensional gaps through a participatory methodology and horizontal articulation among actors. So far, pilot projects have been carried out in the district of San Juan de Lurigancho, in peripheral neighborhoods in Lima, where spaces have been designed to host community practices for food security and to co-produce more inclusive ways of managing and maintaining infrastructure.
In Ecuador, the installations 'La Puta Carra Loca' and the 'Archivo Vivo de las Luchas Sociales' designed by Al Borde and La Cabina de la Curiosidad, presented architecture as a vehicle of resistance against hegemony. Through dialogue and reflection with collectives, they made visible the struggles of minority groups (sex workers, members of the GLBTIQ+ community, peasants, ethnic groups, the disabled, the elderly) in the face of discrimination.
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Uncomfortable realities of social housing in Latin America
"The city is conflict, just as society is conflict, but what conflicts are shaped and expressed in each city speaks to what each city is like," says Maria Cristina Cravino on the right to the city in Latin America. Urban planning can definitely fight the conflict of access to affordable housing.
In a growing context of cities with gentrification processes, where high land and housing prices are driving out low-income residents, the new Maestranza Ukamau neighborhood in Santiago de Chile proposes an interesting example that has much to tell about possible ways to access public housing.
The project located on the grounds of the former Maestranza de Ferrocarriles San Eugenio, downtown, between Santiago Watt and Exposición streets in the Estación Central district, was not only designed by architect Fernando Castillo Velasco in the last years of his life and continued by his son Cristián Castillo together with Elías Becerra and Pamela González, but also by the community of families organized in the assemblies of the Ukamau Social and Popular Movement, where they deliberated and discussed step by step their next homes. There are almost 3 hectares of land, 424 apartments.
In Argentina, the Castelli 3902 collective housing project is the result of an experience between the Proyecto Habitar organization of architects and urban planners and COOPTEBA SM/3F, a housing cooperative of education workers from the Province of Buenos Aires, San Martín, and Tres de Febrero. In a world where inequalities in access to urban goods and services determine the lives of a large part of the population, the authors of the project sought to work in a collective and interdisciplinary manner in order to confront existing social and spatial injustice.
However, architecture and urban planning often perpetuate social injustice. Not only through defensive architecture that creates uninhabitable cities - even with spikes to prevent homeless people - but also through the exclusion of certain groups or the concentration of wealth. For these reasons, it is important to take these challenges into account and address them proactively to achieve a more just and equitable society.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on February 28, 2023.
