mini articulo sobre los conceptos contextuales que preocupan a generica . generica es la oficina de arquitectura que inicie en 2000 con la intencion de crear una practica alternativa de la arquitectura por medio de proyectos e investigacion. este texto - es un borrador -para el catalogo de la bienal de california 2008 organizado por el orange county museum of art y Lauri Firstenberg, directora de LAX Art en Los angeles.

Tijuana’s haunt

“In Tijuana everybody seems to be a poet or a painter.”

Anthem magazine, 2004

At the end of the 20^th century economic and socio-political dynamics have encouraged the creation of countless “alternative” artistic praxis within the city of Tijuana. Artists have been involved in the reflection of contemporary issues pertaining to the volatile life of the US/Mexico border. The most considerable experimentation with alternative versions of art practice has taken place in the realms of literature and visual arts. A search for an understanding of border identity has produced conceptual versions of the city from writers and academics alike, that span counter culture narratives to post modern theory. The challenges that the region presents form part of a necessity to reach a general or open definition of “border” urban and social space. Nestor Garcia Canclini became an important influence in the re-reading (or impossibility of a congruent reading) of social and urban space produced by an incongruent visual urban system created by cultural hybridity of constructions and their users. In his text Hybrid Cultures, hybridity is an important concept through which we can understand the process that composes the social and spatial conditions of the border city. In the space of the contemporary city, the lack of urban regulation and the hybrid culture of architectures form a mismatch of styles, together with the interaction of monuments and advertisement, situates in heteroclite networks the visual order and memory of the city. Canclini explains tensions of de- territorialization and re-territorialization; the loss of innate relationships between culture, geography and social territories and at the same time territorial relocations of new and old symbolic productions (Canclini, 1990).

Tijuana then is an example of this great hybrid experiment where the notion of authentic culture and identity is no longer credible within its urban form, the city mixes desires and symbols that have a relation with a simulated history of the city itself. Tijuana defines its identity as a simulation that requires the production of hybrid readings. Its geographical location and abstract codes has put in place the symbols and mechanisms for an art to emerge. Heriberto Yepez, a young writer and philosophy professor from Tijuana has his doubts and remarks that Tijuana has not been defined by hybridity, but more importantly, since its origins has made a parody of the simulated hybridism (i.e. the donkey painted to resemble a zebra = zonkey) taking place in the border region. For Yepez, the concept of hybrid culture is a neo-liberal trap, a hegemonic discourse that intends to erase differences and realities of the border. In his book Made in Tijuana, Yepez continues his disarmament of the hybrid stating that it fundamental basis lies on a Hegelian synthesis that intends to fixate and surpass the same identities that produce the mix. The hybrid culture concept is no more than a metaphor, while the realities of the border are asymmetrical and in constant tension. The border region for Yepez is defined by economic and cultural disparity, fission of cultures rather that the consolidating concept of fusion that has been an ally of the hybrid discourse. “To understand the border we must de-hegelize ourselves”. (Yepez, 2005)

In both cases Canclini and Yepez endorse important artistic practices that somehow have included the discourse of identity and culture of the US/Mexico border. Some of these practices have promoted the fusion of language, cultural traditions, cross-cultural identity and other urban representations of post modernity as in the case of Guillermo Gomez Peña. While in Tijuana the artists Marcos Ramirez “Erre” and Jaime Ruiz Otis have formed practices dealing with conflict and respond to the disparities and tensions in the realm of culture, labor and bi-national politics.

Century 21, created by Marco Ramirez “Erre” in 1994, is a project that has been important and popular concerning current conceptualizations of the border region and current phenomena of immigration, impact of globalization and other factors that have been critical to the development of the Tijuana/San Diego urban binomial The artist recreated a dwelling typical to the ones built in the informal settlements of the city on the esplanade of the Tijuana Cultural Center, designed in the late 70’s by the renown Mexican architects Pedro Ramirez Vazquez and Manuel Rosen Morrison, a building that represents the institutional modernism of the PRI party that ruled Mexico for more then 70 years. Century 21 intended to de-contextualize both structures by making apparent and visible the formal and tempo-spatial tension inherent in the large context of the city and realizing that the concept of border is illustrative of the inherent antagonism that haunts not only the US/Mexico region but is prevalent within the local urban space of the city of Tijuana. This tectonic confrontation found in Century 21 is analogous to the many paradoxical effects within the city and in the architectures of dyslexia that never intend to integrate into a synthesized form or space (hybrid), but engage in a violent dialogue temporarily resolved through a series of negotiating acts that are necessary for survival and coexistence.

Century 21 foto: insite 94/Marcos Ramirez -erre

The work of Erre brings to the forefront interesting issues and questions for architectural/urban practices to consider. Can we consider an urban model for the hybrid/fission counterparts? If these two primordial elements of the conceptualization of the border region and the city of Tijuana are trajectories of contemporary city life, can they produce spatial environments that are not only theoretical, but also physical and reproducible? There has been much intent to reproduce specific urban developments such as squatter city organizations and tectonic assemblies of informal constructions built by recycling construction material and other non-traditional building materials. Yet, somehow these intents have not been based on a profound study of the economic and social tensions that form and produce these urban settlements. In the past decade we have witnessed mere simulations and creation of a myth of a system that is inherently filled with plurality and spatial heterogeneity and that it seems to mythically work and become prescriptive once it is de-contextualized - an exemplary post modern idea. The issues of hybridity and other conceptualizations of the border are part of a political discourse, yet difficult to interpret as prescriptive urban organizations or architectonic assemblages. As Nezar AlSayyad mentions,

The assumption that hybrid environments simply accommodate or encourage pluralistic tendencies or multicultural practices should be turned on its head. Hybrid people do not always create hybrid places and hybrid places do not always accommodate hybrid people. All that can be hoped for at the beginning of the 21^st century are environments that harbor the potential for growth and change and peoples who may find the possibility of adapting and adopting otherness as a legitimate form of self-identification. (AlSayyad, 2001)

In the last 8 years the Tijuana based architectural firm of Generica has been experimenting with a sort of bottom up theoretical field where the practice expands and contracts as it absorbs urban implications. Located in the border, the mechanism of critical practice such as the access to new forms of technology (be it material, computational or academic) are not always available or economically feasible. What is at hand is the social and cultural dynamics of the border and its urban space. Generica, as a practice tries to integrate methods of analysis that can therefore react specifically to a varied realm of conceptual and real circumstances. In many cases the process of production includes many non architectural techniques such as film, multidisciplinary research, site specific installation and writing. It is between these alternate and/or alternative mediums that the firm integrates conceptual dialogues, such as the ones already discussed, with the intent to identify the concepts that best describe the urban situation of the Tijuana/San Diego urban border. In a project entitled Contain(mex)3=Contiene(mex)3 Generica tapped into two sources of production; one industrial and the other conceptual. The installation was part of the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition Strange New World Art and Design from Tijuana and was constructed of laser cut wood modular panels designed with the familiar curl of residential security window and door metal screens. The objective was to use the technological apparatus found in the manufacturing industry of the free trade border zone and employ a facility with a digital laser cutter used for producing mechanical parts for the different assembly plants across the border. A direct implementation of skills and technology reserved for foreign industries taking advantage of cheap labor. The pattern laser cut on the panels was derived from a study of the urban proliferation of security screens in residential and commercial constructions throughout the city. A symbol of fear as well as an aesthetic element that has now become a standard architectural feature recognizable by all. The final configuration of the piece did not intended to mimic and de-contextualized a house inside the San Diego Museum emulating Erres Century 21, but became a cube whose configuration adapted to the visual, atmospheric and spatial constraints of the gallery. The result was not blatantly political, but intended to reconstruct, at least in a phenomenological sense, the space of border threshold.

Contain(mex)3=Contiene(mex)3 foto: Pablo Mason/MCASD

The concept of hybridty has become an important discussion in the history of postmodern border art. Artist have intended to discuss issues of identity and multiculturalism though ideas in favor or against it and recently writers like Heriberto Yepez have critically engaged the tactics of border art and their urgent dilemmas within the realm of asymmetrical globalization of the border. In regards to urban and architectural practice I would like to think they exist or they might be mere fantasy in a city of myths. Tijuana is a city where 50% of all residential construction in the city is of illicit origin and self constructed (Alegria 2005). In the last twenty years the east side of Tijuana has grown beyond its critical mass, housing conditions have moved from being self built favelas to a phenomena of overnight density – drag and drop suburbs are becoming the normative housing strategy for the working class. What is fascinating is the determination of the population to appropriate urbanism and model it through their own idiosyncrasies.

Villa Fontana, Tijuana. foto: Rene Peralta

Architects have had a passive role in the construction of the urban realm. Major urban developments have been made through forceful intervention, foreign and national; in the name of de-codifying the Mexican border with a national modern style or as a place of architectonic de-contextualization such as the Agua Caliente Casino designed in a Moorish/Mission Revival style for the mob by a San Diego teenage draftsman named Wayne McAllister in 1928 (Nichols 2007). Since its conception, this city that border created, has had episodes of urban consolidation as well as instances of rampant and irregular development. Art practices have evolved much efficiently within the codes and concepts that intent to define the urban border. It seems that urban spatial practices still need to mature into elaborate multifunctional networks that can find resources and mechanism for a sense of criticality and adaptation. It might be that in Tijuana everybody is [only] a poet or a painter, at least for now.

Rene Peralta

Works cited:

AlSayyad, Nezar. Hyrbid Urbanism Praeger Publisher. 2001

Alegria, Tito. Legalizando La Ciudad Asentamientos Informales y Procesos de Regularización en Tijuana. El Colegio de La Frontera Norte, 2005.

Canclini, Nestor Garcia. Culturas Hibridas. Grijalbo. 1990.

Montezemolo,F Peralta,R Yepez,H. Here is Tijuana. Black Dog. London. 2006.

Nichols, Chris. The Leisure Architecture of Wayne McAllister. Gibbs Smith. Utah. 2007.

Yepez, Heriberto. Made in Tijuana. ICBC. Mexico. 2005.

Tijuana to be Continued

El proyecto de cine que estoy realizando con el director Les Bernstien va lento – la investigación en proceso para unir Las Vega y Habana con Tijuana es difícil. Hace un mes viaje a Cuba y pude platicar con el musicólogo Leonardo Acosta – persona que se ha comprometido en documentar la historia del jazz de Cuba por más de 50 años. Músico y escritor con varios libros sobre el género en ese pais. Una persona respetable y frágil por la edad. Platicando con el, en su modesto apartamento en la zona de Vedado, me explico la historia de lugares y grandes músicos norte americanos que tuvieron una gran influencia en la hibridación de los ritmos afrocubanos con el jazz moderno de Estados Unidos. Es impresionante como los cubanos han documentado su historia musical. Me dio un poco de pena ajena ya que nosotros los tijuanenses no podemos documentar nuestra historia cultural antes de los 70 y mucho menos tenemos una historia musical de los años 20 a lo inicios del rock en los 60. Con la excusa que Tijuana se hace a diario y que cambia de una forma acelerada- no tenemos la disciplina para poder documentar nuestra historia tan original a las demás ciudades de México. El urbanismo y arquitectura de la isla paso por procesos diferentes – La Habana antes de la revolución es modernista y también su arquitectura con obras de los mas grandes arquitectos de esa corriente. Después de la revolución las construcciones son parte de una ideología socialista donde la individualidad no ocupa un espacio en el quehacer arquitectónico. Castro prefiere la prefabricación soviética y crea grandes edificios de vivienda. Lo interesante es que la sociedad actual de Cuba no representa su ciudad. Tiene conflictos de representación – a Kafka le encantaría la Habana como alguna ves lo menciono el arquitecto Wolf Prix. Sin embargo los cubanos saben que tienen una historia arquitectónica que funciona económicamente, es un paraíso de la ciudad moderna y por eso la visitan miles de extranjeros diariamente. Y aquí en Tijuana solo borramos la corta historia que tenemos (toreo, hipodromo, agua caliente, centro, revolución etc.) no es nostalgia lo que necesitamos, si no un sostén económico que pudiéramos tener de estos espacio que crearon unas de la ciudad mas interesante de la frontera entre México y Estado Unidos. Sigo trabajando en crear una historia de las épocas tempranas de esta ciudad para poder generar un capitulo digno de nuestra historia.

Aquí subí unas imágenes de la arquitectura modernista de la isla – movimiento arquitectónico que también nos pertenece y que existe en algún rincón de la zona centro. To be Continued.

In the manner of Kaprow

foto: Angela Carone, KPBS radio

El viernes se celebro la cena de apertura del Museo del Niño en San Diego. Ese noche el arquitecto Rob Quigley platico sobre el trabajo arquitectónico/conceptual del proyecto. Después invito al público a dar un tour del edificio. Su platica la realizo dentro del espacio que diseñe para el museo – un escaparate para teatro, espectáculo o para observar las sombras de la caja con el patrón geométrico basado en las proporciones de Fibonacci. El domingo se abrió el museo al público y la fila para entrar le daba la vuelta a la manzana. Los niños se divirtieron y los adultos presenciaron obras artísticas interesantes. Unas de mis favoritas fue la obra Harmonichaos del artista/compositor Frances Celeste Boursier Mougenot. Utilizo varias maquinas aspiradoras y en el tubo de succión le conecta una armónica que fue intervenida para que tocara ciertas notas. Las aspiradoras están conectadas entre si y se activan cuando un sensor reconoce cierto sonido (ruido) dentro del espacio del museo, esto hace que se active la aspiradora por uno o dos minutos y succione el aire causando que la armónicas suenen por un tiempo. El sonido que logran juntas crea una sinfonía atmosférica muy dramática.

El concepto del museo tiene dos interpretaciones; es un museo de arte para público infantil o un museo del niño que se especializa en las artes plásticas. El titulo del trabajo curatorial es “Childsplay” que se inspira en el arte instalación y perfomance del artista Alan Kaprow. El mismo Kaprow que para Insite94 instalo maquinas que producen y avientan humo, de bajo del minarete del viejo casino agua caliente.

Mi hija Angela Peralta (blusa rosa) y mi sobrino Ivan Medina. foto: Angela Carone, KPBS radio

Uno de los gemelos de mi amigo Jose Parral. Foto: Angela Carone, KPBS radio

Agua

Este verano a principios de Junio estaré dirigiendo un curso para estudiantes de la Maestría en Diseño Urbano de Washington University, St. Louis. El curso de 8 semanas lo organice junto con Andrea Dietz, maestra de la facultad de arquitectura en Woodbury University y John Hoal director de la Maestria en Diseño Urbano de Wash Univ. El tema del curso trata con la problematica del Agua y su relación con el desarrollo urbano. Las diferentes políticas binacionales como también la relación entre cuencas, topografías y asentamiento humano en las diferentes etapas del crecimiento de la región Tijuana - San Diego. Mi interés con el tema del agua es poder ver y conceptualizar la ciudad fuera de la representaciones tradicionales - socioculturales - y iniciar desde un concepto natural y orgánico - para despues volver a organizar la. De alguna forma ver las cosas con vista Deleuziana y en ves de preguntar, que es? preguntamos, que es lo que hace?

En el transcurso del curso se llevaran acabo dos seminarios y varias presentaciones por personalidades de la ciudad:

Fiamma Montezemolo Antropologa
Tito Alegria Prof. e Investigador COLEF
Oscar Romo Arquitecto Coord. Estuario Tijuana
Teddy Cruz Arquitecto, Maestro USCD
Michael Dear Jefe del Dept. de Geografia USC
Ted Smith Arquitecto y Direc de la Mastria RED
Jose Parral Arquitecto y Maestro de Woodbury
Stan Berthaud Arquitecto y Maestro de Woodbury
Hadley Arnold Arquitecto y Mastro de Woodbury, LA
Paulette Singley Filosofo, Woodbury Univ. LA
Adriana y Marcel Sanchez Arquitectos

En cuanto inicie el curso y tenga material para mostrar subo las imágenes, por lo pronto este es el texto de introducción.

Fluvial Cartographies

Since the demarcation of the US/Mexico border, the actual limit and physical edge between these two countries has gone through several processes of speculation, bartering and “transaction” that have defined the planning and cultural mythologies of its urban regions. Within these interchanges and contradictions, the geography of the region has been participant in the incessant dialogues of political and territorial debate. Historically, geography did not play an important role in the urbanization of the border, the contiguous geographical context has created asymmetrical bi-national urban pairs; cities on the Mexican side of the border have experienced an accelerated growth compared to their US counter parts. Urbanized sections along the border have experienced an unprecedented and dramatic transformation due to migration and economic factors that began with the industrialization of the region in the middle of the XX century. As urban and industrial development increases in the name of modernization, through relaxed environmental laws and policies, ecological systems are at the brink of collapse. The subjugation of formal and informal development, of which in the last 20 years have reached their critical mass, demands an urgent revisit to the topographical and water reserve sustainability of the region.

Water, in most parts of the US/Mexico border region is a shared preoccupation since the Colorado River supplies a significant amount of cubic meters to the urban regions of Mexicali/Calexico and Tijuana/ San Diego. Tributaries that bifurcate from the river extend and cross national borders throughout their trajectory. Similar to the exchange of goods and labor, the issue of water rights and treatment has been subjected to bi-national politics that affect the future development and growth of these cities. In the city of Tijuana, water and topography are part of the violent process of development as witnessed in informal and squatter communities that demand the local government for infrastructure to access to the precious liquid. While these demands are made possible, topography is engaged in a continuous battle with private housing developers who cut and grade canyons and water sheds for higher profits in the name of social housing. This constant ecological battle is also staged at the institutional level through the constructions of grand urban projects that channel the Tijuana River through concrete canals that divide and incise the urban landscape of this border city. To the north, San Diego’s relationship with topography and water has been one of a simulated symbiosis. Large extension of territory buffers the county from its distopic neighbors, Tijuana to the south and Los Angeles to the North. The green and thirsty lawns of suburban sprawl gated communities, a semiotic element of the American Dream, consume 70% of a household daily water use. In the 70s, Kevin Lynch created a report titled Temporary Paradise, describing the possible links between community development and inland topography as well as ocean front and urban development. The San Diego coast line has been reshaped and enclosed by the naval industry making difficult the possibility of San Diegans to have a natural relationship with their coast and creating their earthly paradise. As we move back and forth across La Linea (the line) the relationships and strategies between geography and urban development is dealt quite differently due to structural differences between both regions and countries. In the border cities of the US, national policy determines development while in the Mexican side; border localization is a dependent factor. The border is a space of paradoxical encounters, far from achieving synthesis. Within the structural paradigms, students will engage in the production of research and the conceptualization of development patterns that surge from these volatile and informal acts of urbanism.

Welcome to LA LINEA.

SINCE 1979



Me acabo de enterar que el 31 de mayo, después de 29 años, la liberaría Triangle Bookshop cierra sus puertas . Ubicada en el sótano del Architectural Association (AA) de Londres, esta librería por mucho tiempo fue una de las más importantes en Europa por su gran selección de libros sobre arte, arquitectura, filosofía y cantidad de revistas difícil de encontrar. Cuando estaba estudiando en AA, guardaba mis centavitos para poder ir a comprar los libros de mis materias como también otros denominados libros de eye candy arquitectónico. Ahí fue donde compre mi primer Roland Barthes, Deleuze y SMLXL 1era edición de Rem Koolhaas entre otros libros que envié por barco al nuevo mundo por falta de dinero y la gran cantidad de cajas que ocuparon. Al entrar uno se topaba con celebridades de la arquitectura como Ben Van Berkel, Rem, Zaha, que también iban a surtir sus bibliotecas. Un lugar pequeño y acogedor que de alguna forma se convertío en la segunda biblioteca de la escuela, los viajes a Londres no serán igual sin la visita a Triangle Books.

Para mas info ver: Stars’ campaign forces rethink on AA’s Triangle

Pythagoras Tune

The new shape of music: Music has its own geometry, researchers find from PhysOrg.com

The connection between music and mathematics has fascinated scholars for centuries. More than 200 years ago Pythagoras reportedly discovered that pleasing musical intervals could be described using simple ratios.

[...]

Pecha Kucha night coming to Tijuana

Pecha kucha es un evento inventado por el dúo de Astrid Klien y Mark Dytham directores de Klien and Dytham Architecture en Japon. La obra de KD puede llamarse alternativa dentro del discurso de la praxis crítica arquitectónica. Su obra oscila entre la creación del espacio plano mediático (super-ficie), la instalación artística y arquitectura. Me han llamado la atención desde hace tiempo, especialmente los proyectos que trabajan la superficie y patrones en 2d. El trabajo arquitectónico no es, en mi opinión, lo mas fuerte de la oficina ya que se ve demasiado influenciado por una estética (aun que muy limpia y perfecta) japonesa de neo-modernismo actual. La instalaciones y superficie como espacio mediático es el trabajo mas fuerte del dúo, como lo muestran en una de sus obras mas conocidas - el Bloomberg Ice.

Pecha Kucha se traduce en chit chat en ingles o cháchara en castellano y yo le agregaría cotorreo en Tijuano. El evento de Tijuana se llevara acabo el jueves 15 de Mayo en la Antigua Bodega de Papel y como explica el organizador Marco A Vasquez consite en:

Pecha Kucha Night es diferente a otros eventos por su formato de rápida presentación: cada orador tiene solo 6.40 min (20 slides x 20 seg.) para exponer su idea ya sea en powerpoint o keynote. La audiencia experimenta una increíble diversidad de presentaciones en un breve período de tiempo.

Marco me invito a participar en este gran evento y espero poder reducir lo que voy a presentar en pedacitos de 20 segundos.

Para más info visitar la página de Pecha Kucha y el blog de Pecha Kucha en Tijuana.

La inmigracion en TJ

EL Dr. Tito Alegria me paso esta informacion del seminario que se llevara acabo este Lunes en Colef.

Aprendiendo a ver

Imágenes de hoy de algunas maquetas construidas por alumnos de las diferentes escuelas de TJ que formaron parte de la 4ta Feria Tijuana en la Historia.

Les grandes personnes ne comprennent jamais rien toutes seules, et c'est fatigant, pour les enfants, de toujours et toujours leur donner des explications.

Le Petit Prince (1943) Antoine de Saint Exupery

y que no falte la MONA BICHI!

The 90's generation

Aquí esta una charla que se llevo acabo vía Internet para la revista ArcCA, publicación del colegio de arquitectos del estado de California. Las preguntas y edición la hizo Peter Zellner. Una versión editada se publicara este mes. Esta versión es la original, sin edición.

Peter Zellner, “California: State(s) of Practice, ” arcCA- the AIA California Council Journal

Introduction

What are the opportunities and challenges facing young architects across the State of California? What is the meaning of architectural practice to individuals trained in the 90s and emerging now as architects? How does practice today differ from practice yesterday and practice tomorrow?

Conceived as a one week online forum State(s) of Practice invite 9 young practices from across the State to address, debate and explore a variety of issues. Addressing the the state of the physical environment (built and natural), social change, politics, cultural and economic conditions, technology and professionalism this forum was conceived as a means to map the forces shape young practitioners today.

Participating Firms

Bay Area: Lisa Iwamoto, Brian Scott / IwamotoScott

Thom Faulders / Thom Faulders Architects

LA: Joe Day, DeeganDayDesign

Thom Wiscombe, Emergent

Marcelo Spina, Georgina Huljich / Patterns;

Gail Borden/ Borden Partnership

San Diego/Tijuana:

Teddy Cruz / estudio Cruz

Rene Peralta, / Generica

Lloyd Russell / Lloyd Russell Architects

“California: State(s) of Practice, ” arcCA- the AIA California Council Journal

Peter Zellner

Question 1.

How will architectural practice as we understand it today transform in the future?

What are some of the changes that this generation of architects should anticipate relative to how we structure our architectural practices?

Gail Borden

The trajectory of architecture has changed enormously over the past fifty years. Older models of practice and the discipline are almost unrecognizable today. Newness and complexity primarily surrounding information have changed the playing field making innumerable new disciplinary models and methodologies valid. Architects now operate under different circumstances and as such have to set new agendas and find new ways of working. Materiality, representation, technology, digital information management, fabrication, firm organization, and even project typologies have forced the model for practice has to change. Clients are truly national and international. Collaboration is essential. For us at the Borden Partnership it makes collaborations across art, architecture, material possible. Slowly we are moving towards a brick and mortar practice focused on the production of buildings which is always the hope, but the need for flexibility, invention and adaptation is essential.

Joe Day

It's been an astounding decade for both the discipline and the profession of architecture, and I think many of us are still coming to terms with our good fortune, even as those fortunes are probably about to change dramatically. Those entering the field between 1995 and 2005 have enjoyed a constant surge in construction, consistently rising property values, and a broad renewal of interest in modern/contemporary design. At the more advanced and micro-practice end of the design spectrum that this group represents, it has also been a decade of unprecedented opportunities to teach at far more schools. The whole idea of recent graduates migrating by various routes towards a 'brick and mortar' practice - if in fact they choose to migrate - rather than being encased in one headed by far more senior practitioners for a decade or two, is revolutionary.

Stephen Slaughter

This prompts two critical questions; why in a time of unprecedented architectural expansion is it advantageous to either work for a master or be insulated from what has been described as a “brick and mortar” practice within academia? And, how has teaching or the opportunity to produce for the gallery or to participate in an avant-garde architectural discourse not available to most practitioners or to elaborate and disseminate one’s architectural agenda within the academy, situated our generation with regard to the built environment?

Peter Zellner

We have all raised interesting perspectives that I believe point to an increasingly unavoidable conclusion. Is there a schism developing between architecture as it is practiced by the profession at large versus architectural practice as it is being currently re conceived within the academy. It is too often the claim of professional practices today that many graduates are under trained for a professional environment while conversely it may be said that many professional offices have been too slow to take advantage of emerging design approaches and technologies (one thinks here of time based modeling, fabrication and BIM) that are being investigated and promoted by young "academic-architects."

Rene Peralta

New types of practices are becoming more flexible in the type of work they produce in some cases blurring research with office projects. This entails the constant expansion and contraction of staff, which in most cases is made up of students or recent graduates. I believe smaller office now have more of a chance to participate in work that was once meant for larger firms. New technologies from management to design to construction admin are now easily available enabling smaller staffed organization to accomplish more tasks. I believe in the near future it would be possible for small firms to network efficiently and produce work at many scales. As I mention, and as Joe comments as well the demographics of architectural staff is changing. Young architects and recent grads are now better trained in variety software applications that range from web design, video editing to 3d modeling. This means practices can perform a variety tasks including branding, marketing and publication of their own works that where outsourced before.

Within new structures of practice I believe research and self initiated work such as housing prototypes, urbanism, material research etc. are an important part of the work, yet funding for this rubric is tied to the economic mechanism within the firm’s context. In TIJUANA we do not have the instruments or in most cases funding for this type of task is very limited because they don’t fall under the traditional view of an architectural practice. Working bi-nationally allows us to tap into resources not available in Latin America.

Gail Borden

I absolutely believe there is a schism between the profession and the academy. I believe this happened during the formal and conceptual backlash to modernism. The intellectual ideals of the academy and the actualities of the practice diverged and exploded later with the advent of newer technologies [digital, material etc.] that placed a massive divide between what the profession and the academy. I believe that smaller practices closely linked, or even rooted in academia have the opportunity to bridge the conceptual and the actual. These in combination the academic access to a relative financial stability [providing selectivity in client and project opportunities], and hard resources [access to technologies, representation, fabrication tools etc.] provide the laboratory model that actually takes the idea of the “new” to the next level of implementation. Such infrastructure is only possible at the extremely large firms [100+] that can handle the investment and overhead. This model is able to be at the cusp of technology, material, media, form, theory and ultimately practice. This condition of flexibility and fluidity allow such a model of practice to provide integrity and opportunity simultaneously.

Rene Peralta

I agree as well that new technologies plus access to financial stability as Gail mentions is extremely important for alternative practices. Yet I believe beyond the latest technology of fabrication or sustainability we are faced with the issue of how to be politically active. How does the "new" engage in a socio-cultural dialogue. If we consider architecture a cultural practice, then we must envision the involvement of smaller practice into the social realm.

Joe Day

Rene's account sounds like an accurate description of most 'emergent' practices today: flexible staffing by young, transnational workforce employing advanced modeling/visualization techniques, merging of academic and 'real world' workloads.

Craig Scott

There's no denying major shifts in architectural practice are underway, but I feel the nature of this shifting landscape is still rather murky. Along with the positive changes to practice mentioned above, we've seen the rise of both the construction management industry, and the sense largely fostered via the media and internet, that anyone can be a designer or at least constructively creative. Paradoxically this notion has been promoted alongside the phenomenon of the starchitect. In this country the profession is still dominated by bigger, more commercial offices. While a number of small offices have indeed made serious inroads into the emerging design approaches and technologies mentioned (advanced modeling, fabrication and BIM), North America may never offer the same opportunities to younger architects that we see in Europe or Asia. Thus for the foreseeable future it may very well be the pairing of an experimentally-oriented practice with a career in the academia that will allow the small offices to hold their own against the instabilities of the design marketplace...

Peter Zellner

What is the difference between an academic posture and a professional position? Is the strategic posturing or political positioning of a young practice crucial to its survival today? And if so how are posturing (not used pejoratively here) or political positioning translated into tools for practice?

Lisa Iwamoto

While it is unfortunate that the majority of the construction industry, manufacturers, and a good segment of the population are reluctant to invest in new ideas at the scale of building, this divide has also been extremely liberating. It has enabled the small “academic” practice to focus on architecture as a form of applied research -- investigating tools, technologies, and techniques for design that have the capacity to influence the profession as a whole. The past 5-10 years has already seen wide dissemination of design technique knowledge that will no doubt accelerate in the coming decade. Small practices need to leverage their specialized areas of research as a marketable commodity.

Stephen Slaughter

My initial question wasn’t so much about “how will the situation play out” as it is questioning what the potential benefits would be from propelling oneself into practice from an academic paradigm? What are the effects, on the practice of architecture as a whole, of a generation of talented architects focused on research rather the market place? And finally how when the authority of architects continues to be threatened, can we use the knowledge gained in the academy to change for the better the practice?

Joe Day

I think three priorities will shape this discussion over the next 10 years: globalization, new media/digital techniques and ecological priorities. Not that these are new concerns- the first two have underpinned the last 10 years' work - but their fast-changing terms will both fuel and limit experimentation in architecture. I think the political, in our field, will be approached through each or all of those lens, and I think it will be a less apolitical decade than the last, esp. as green/sustainable/eco impact questions come to the fore. We are all the profound beneficiaries of globalization, in terms of clients, students, a much enriched discourse, etc., but its downsides will likely dominate the next decade: global warming, transnational credit problems, border hysteria, you name it. Already, most of the issues we associate with architecture and urbanism gone wrong - sprawl, urban blight - are being described not in terms of fairness and quality of life, but in terms of their chemistry: air quality, soil depletion and carbon loads. For the most part, eco issues have so far been taken as a pretext for innovative solutions, esp. in the academy, but in practice, these issues will limit possibilities as much or more than, they enable them - more stringent and complicated compliance regulations for a start. It's going to be a tougher decade for Formalism, both in theory and practice, and that's before any diminishing returns on digital innovation.

Lisa Iwamoto

I think we are in a unique position where in the U.S. where design IS the marketable commodity. It is not uncommon now that we are attracting young practitioners from around the globe who want to be in a climate, as Gail said, fostered by the financial stability and demand for creativity that our academic institutions offer. This will necessarily include how to think through issues of ecology as a, if not the, design imperative in coming years. I agree that any positioning we do – culturally, socially, environmentally or otherwise – needs to be economically viable. I am not sure that the goal is to change the practice and gain authority here however. It may need to happen globally before the U.S. eventually feels the pressure to make the design of buildings a priority.

Craig Scott

Agreed: most architects focusing on research are ultimately also aiming at the marketplace. The question of politics is interesting in relation to all of this. If a political stance can break through the common socio-cultural barriers that challenge small experimental practices in the US -- the bottom-line mentality of much public and private work, the expectation of an established track record, and the strongly tradition-based construction industry -- then more power to political action.

Joe Day

In terms of innovation within the discipline, and importantly, in terms of career flexibility, though the EU and Japan lead us in terms of building practices and execution.

Rene Peralta

I believe that a young practice has the opportunity to engage a dialogue in regards to policy, it's not always a matter of design. Therefore the instruments for affecting policy at a community level are ones of research and public empowerment. Design then comes in to formulate a view of possible futures. This is what I see working between 3rd and 1st world here on the border on one side (Tijuana) the preoccupations deal with issues of proposing "new" alternatives at a large spectrum while on the north side (San Diego) we deal with "site" and established rules of engagement.

Tom Wiscombe

Architecture is still presented by insiders as some kind of inevitable social grace, almost a morality. It's not. Its design and some kinds of design are hands down better than others in any particular moment in time. They resonate. The new Lamborghini Reventón resonates. Like the Countach which ended production in 1990, but nothing in between. I always look to fashion and design. We should think of our work in lines, in vogue, not as oeuvres. I know as well as anyone that there is not a market out there waiting for a product. Before the IPhone there was no market for tele-video experience, now there is.

Thom Faulders

With regards to architectural practice and morality,there is such a strong notion that buildings and cities are to be done "properly", thus relegating practices that are attempting to challenge this accepted norms- those inventing new needs, new tools and means, and new cultural products for living and occupying- into the role of "alternative practices." This label is bothersome to me, in that is presupposes that one is attempting to work outside of the culture of production, and more on the fringe. I doubt many are satisfied with this defined role or title. Having just recently finished a small project in Tokyo, and one that is urban and visible, I found it quite refreshing that those living near this project saw it as a vibrant addition to their constantly changing city. Whether the neighbors liked the project or not did not come withsome idealized notion of correctness. Fashion is a bottom up phenomenon, so too should be cities.

Peter Zellner

Joe you made quite a daring assertion that seems to have gone under the radar. You said:” It’s going to be a tougher decade for Formalism, both in theory and practice, and that's before any diminishing returns on digital innovation." Do you want to expand on that comment or does anybody want to take on that comment- pro or con?

Joe Day

The funny thing is, I hope I'm wrong, and I'm not much of a formalist.

Teddy Cruz

The transformation of my practice, in terms of my own interests, motivations and procedures, in recent years has been inspired by a feeling of powerlessness, as I have been witnessing our institutions of architecture representation and display lose its socio-political relevance and advocacy. I have been incrementally pissed off at the futility of our ‘design’ fields, in the context of pressing socio-political realities, the conditions of conflict that incrementally define the territory of intervention. It’s been incredibly disappointing to see the manifestos that inspired my generation become reduced to mere caricatures of change, as the architecture avant-garde has become fully complicit with an international, neo-liberalist project of privatization and homogenization, by camouflaging gentrification with a massive hyper aesthetic and formalist project. Yes, I hope that the future of practice is and will be inspired by this sense of dissatisfaction… and that this feeling of ‘pessimistic optimism’ will produce more activist-practices that can provoke, head on, the sites of conflict that define, and will define the cities in the future: Conflict between the top down and the bottom up, enclaves of mega wealth and sectors of poverty, urbanities of labor and surveillance, the formal and informal… and so on. For me, the exposure of conflict has redefined a way of operating, of practicing, thinking.

I have written before that new experimental practices of intervention in the collective territory will emerge only from zones of conflict. I anticipate the radicalization of the local in order to generate new readings of the global will transforming the neighborhood –not the city- into the urban laboratory of the 21st century. The micro heterotopias emerging within small communities across the world, provoked by social emergency, are producing non-conforming spatial and economic contingencies that will incrementally pixilate the large with the small, homogeneity with difference. In this context, the future of architecture practice is not only to reveal ignored socio-political and economic territorial histories and inequalities within this ideologically polarized world, but also to generate new forms of sociability and activism.

It’s been a revelation to understand that no advances in affordable housing design can be made, without advances in housing policy and economic subsidies. No advances in urban planning can be made without redefining the meaning of density, mixed use and economic development. Imagine: we all continue to define density as “an amount of units per acre…” we need to shatter these obsolete equations… Could, density, for example, be redefined as an amount of social and economic exchanges per acre? I truly hope that more and more (particularly in this era of political apathy) our practices will be instruments of social and political change… producing alternative agencies, new institutions, modes of representation… possibly we can imagine that practice in the future will comprise not only designing buildings, but also the alternative political and economic processes, the conditions that can ultimate yield truly experimental architectures. We can be designers of collaboration across institutions? Without altering the socio-political ground, the backward discriminating policies constructing the territory, I am afraid we are destined to continue being mere decorators of program.

Lloyd Russell

My first few thoughts on the topic begin with disclaimers. I really don't understand architectural practice today and my practice is much unstructured. I don't know if that is the future or the past. If I had a analogy I would say I am a guerilla. But it seems to me that nobody is content with just calling themselves architects anymore. When everybody starts defining themselves as architect/artist, architect/educator, architect/developer, architect/builder or architect/planner is that just symptomatic of the marginalization of architecture? We used to be the head of the building trades the arbiters of good taste, presently the profession seems mired in legalities and liabilities. So stealth architecture it is... unstructured, no overhead, forming whatever partnerships are possible creating whatever projects are possible, taking on the bureaucracies and taking out the middleman.

Peter Zellner

Lloyd, can you expand on what you mean by guerrilla- architecture? I know that you are alluding to your role as an architect-developer but I think it might be useful to expand on how the hyphenation has allowed you to operate outside of the current limitations of the profession.

Jan 8

Gail Borden

The new model of the guerilla architect– ground up and independent is an appropriate model. The realities however of the scale of capital and the resulting scale of the projects possible, their interface and exposure with the ‘public’, and the scope and risk of innovation become intrinsically limited. Now I am not sure these are bad limits as self-indulgence is equally damaging to the profession and I think rampant in many of the starchitect’s methodologies. I think Joe’s statement is right on “It's going to be a tougher decade for Formalism, both in theory and practice, and that's before any diminishing returns on digital innovation." The newness of technology is wearing off, sustainability as justification not simply expectation is on the ropes [or soon will be] so the answer is where does architecture turn? The next revolution is how to practice and how to find relevance. This is already underway though not fully focused. Guerilla tactics are beginning but only work to a scale and a scope. ‘What is next?’ is the question.

Jan 8

Marcelo Spina

I am always personally a bit perplexed in trying to answer about the future, given that our discipline and architects in general especially in academic circles seldom use this kind of question to escape constraints and produce purely visionary [often formal but programmatic as well] attempts to deal with a reality that do not yet exist. While this was attractive during the 60s given that it was rare, it seems that can quickly become old fashioned by the next thing. I am personally much more interested in provisional utopias, rather than pure visionary approaches. Provisional utopias are ways of dealing with some form of reality... In some form or another, I think the issue of formalism or not, is less relevant as the issue of relevance. Not only intellectual relevance as a form of discourse, which seems to be ever more diminished compare to capital, but also some sort of cultural relevance of architecture at large. I think we will have to change to maintain a certain relevance beyond the traditional artistic model, which in some form or another we all operate within...Issues of collaboration, research and expertise makes it more possible today than ever before for young architects or architects with not a lot of experience to be able to afford projects that are outside of their league in terms of complexity and scope. being able to do that and introduce some :"change" Jain the way things look, work and affect the world is not a minor thing.

Lloyd Russell

Guerilla architecture to me is two fold, at the level of the office/design process it implies a horizontal structure vs. a vertical organization. It is a more collaborative process of many entities fully capable in many areas with a minimum of hierarchy in decision-making as opposed to a vertical organization whose strength is the specialization of tasks and the hierarchy of decision making. I find the horizontal format much more flexible, responsive and rewarding.

The second part of the guerilla architecture is understanding the entities that have undermined or marginalized our profession and infiltrating, influencing or taking them over. I will call out three examples; finance, construction and politics(zoning).

Regarding finance, it abhors me that the one person who profits most in the building industry and who has the biggest impact on the built environment (we may decide what it looks like but he decides what and where it gets built) has no license or degree that enables him to do so. For our degrees we take calculus and ethics, pass licensing exams, carry liability insurance...etc. In order to finance a building it requires 3rd grade math. What does the guerilla architect do, he learns the language of the banker and appraiser. He learns their math. He turns their formulas in his favor. Without these tools the architect can barely impact the program and if you can't question the program, architecture quickly devolves into formalism.

Regarding construction, I think our profession has only recently begun to address this with design/build, etc. There is a huge disparity between our education, knowledge and experience and our fees between contractors and architects. I guess I just feel like an infiltrator when I have to adopt their cultural nuances in order to achieve my means. Do you want to talk NFL playoffs, hot rods, hunting...or better yet put on a tool belt and get dirty and earn respect. In a physical and artistic sense this gets you closer to the work. In a fiscal sense it can get you lower bids so that you can spend more (or have more flexibility) with architecture. It also increases and keeps current your technical knowledge of materials and methods.

Jan 8Regarding politics, recently I have been involved in our redevelopment agency as a neighborhood representative. On design review boards it is interesting to experience how remedial the general population’s aesthetic tastes have become. However, it is encouraging to discover how much they do want to learn from architects. I was lucky enough to be involved on the doubling of the density downtown. Yet in the 6th largest city in the US you couldn't find 6 architects to discuss urban design requirements in a public forum. The macro and micro benefits of community activism are immeasurable. Everyone town, neighborhood or jurisdiction has zoning constraints and they all get reviewed on a constant basis (even if it is every 10 yrs.)

Jan 8

Peter Zellner

We have covered a wide swath of territory related to the general state(s) of architectural practice. Our discussion has ranged from issues such as the impact of new technologies on architectural practice to the value of a politically or socially engaged practice to the notion of finance, construction, fashion or other industries as models for architecture. Rather than continue to address the matter of how we practice in the most general terms I would like to ask each of you two specific questions related to your own practices and their projective futures.

1. Given that architecture may be considered to be one of the few forms of cultural production that leaves a lasting imprint on the physical, social, and economic environment, what are some of the goals you have established for your practice relative to the notions of innovation, contribution and legacy?

2. More specifically, if there was one thing about architecture that your practice might change or modify (even slightly) through its own development and evolution what would that be?

Lloyd Russell

1. Agreed. Meaningful architecture is the expression of the sum of all the forces that bring it into being. The goal of my practice is to operate and express exactly that unique condition that arises from combining the roles of architect, developer, and contractor.

Jan 8 2. A city built by an army (I'm sticking with the analogy here) of enlightened developer/contractor/architects is my definition of utopia. I hope my practice and teaching gets us a little closer.

Tom Wiscombe

At this point, my office is in its infancy, so it is a bit early to talk about legacy. Nevertheless, I am committed to making partnerships and connecting with the engineering and building industries. And I don’t mean that in a glib or idealistic way, I have had very productive relations with engineers and builders and have learned an immense amount from them.

I am getting more interested in dealing with the issue of energy in terms of design. Working in Europe got me excited about energy performance before ‘green’ thinking hit the U.S.. They are quite ahead of us over there. But the trick is going to be to figure out how to avoid all of the dogma and formal assumptions about ‘green building’ and move on to some more productive and inventive territory. I worry that ‘energy performance’ is always associated with efficiency which is already starting to breed a new functionalism, which I think would be a huge step backward.

In support of this, I think the next generation of digital production in architecture will likely involve a more sophisticated set of techniques and tools such as true physics simulators which have the capacity for analysis and optimization feedback loops. We have already seen this begin to happen with the so-called BIM revolution which I think is not a revolution at all but rather an inevitable expediency. At the end of the day, I still think it is in the realm of design that architects are the most productive and I am committed to that above all.

Joe Day

I want to go back to 'pure' and 'provisional' utopias. My guess is that almost all of the participants oscillate between the pure and provisional - between speculation and realization but also between the ideal and ad hoc - and that more generally, we're in a moment of shifting values from former to latter. I don't feel like either a guerrilla practitioner, doing valuable and/or daring work against long bureaucratic/capitalist odds nor a nodal one, in the sense of being part of a larger movement mapping/pioneering a broader field of digital possibility. For me, small practice has the virtue (maybe its redeeming virtue) of approximating authorship and foregrounding the discipline rather than the practice of architecture. In that sense, my personal goals are modestly Duchampian, and as he put it 'mediumistic': to elucidate the mechanics of our discipline and its impact on cities, in the hope of sensitizing more people, more acutely, to their environment. I feel like I imagine Duchamp must have arriving in Paris after his two older brothers had already immersed themselves in Cubism, one a painter the other a sculptor. All the serious and/or hermetic positions in advanced abstraction had been staked out, but no one was weighing the various avant-gardes against one another, or doing work that 'stripped bare' their techniques, esp. in terms of visuality, enough to invite/incite a public into dialogue. I think advanced architecture is at a similar moment of intense, but deeply self-regarding, innovation, and that almost all of the nuances we fret over are lost on a broader audience. I'm not interested in refuting those advances, but in doing work that opens them to and challenges them in a wider arena.

Jan 8

Rene Peralta

For my firm, generica, there are so many possible futures, since we are engaging in endeavors that include writing, film, and architecture, all of them strategies to survive as a young practice. I come from a background-- the Architectural Association in the mid 90s-- that promoted a speculative approach to architecture. I have been adjusting to an alternative practice due to my 'positioning' geographically. Yet, academia and theory do play an important role in the development of my ideas. Canclini's theory of hybridity, Rem's generic city or De Cauter heterotopias among others, are states of contemporary urban and cultural conditions that affect how we approach our practice in the border region. Our contribution is drastically different as we move across the border region. To the north we intend to bring a discourse of our views while in the south it’s all about tactics (architectonic and urban) that deal with the volatile process of change at every level. As for the future of the profession, I think it’s in crisis, in an ideological way. We must envision a path back to having a greater cause than just singular buildings. Design can be political and I think it is its greatest quest, even if it originates from a speculative approach. The world will be more chaotic and survival is the key in the developing world, how do we deal with these issues in our own back yard, before we get lost in the utopia of our own technological research? For me the future of the profession is very uncertain.

Jan 8 Jan 8

Teddy Cruz

To clarify my position on politics, I think of the political as a process by which we expose power, the power that is inscribed in the territory, and that we architects, in general, do not understand: Who owns the resources? Whose jurisdiction is it anyway? Who profits? Even architects and developers are still operating on margins of profit at the level of the personal. Can a neighborhood be a developer? Can we facilitate participate in shaping communities of practice?

TJan 8TTTo use conflict as an operational devise teddyto expose conflict. One example: in San Diego's most successful building boom of the last years not one single affordable housing project has been built in some of the depressed neighborhoods where I have been working. Why? Because for developers can’t profitab