Latin America at the Crossroads

Guest-editor Mariana Leguía The announcement of Rio de Janeiro as the 2016 Olympic host city has placed Latin America on the world's stage. Latin America has not been the centre of international architectural attention and pilgrimage since the mid 20th century when economic growth triggered the development of Modernist urban design and architecture on an epic scale. Since then the centralised, utopian planned model has broken down. Mass migrations from the countryside and erection of informal settlements have left cities socially and spatially divided. Within this context and in the mist of globalization Latin America is set to go though major change once again. In recent decades, resourceful governments and practices have developed innovative approaches to urban design and development, less to do with the utopian and totalitarian schemes and more to do with "urban acupuncture", working within rather than denying the framework of informality to stitch together disparate parts of the city. This title of AD will explore the current urban issues faced by Latin American cities and the response of alternative local practitioners at different scales. Large-scale urban case studies, such as the revitalisation of Bogotá and Medellin, will be featured alongside architectural practices, research-based organisations and university studios working at a grass-roots level. Contributors include: Saskia Sassen, Hernando de Soto, Ricky Burdett and Bogotá ex-mayor Enrique Peñalosa. Featured architects: Teddy Cruz, UTT-Urban Think-Tank, Jorge Jauregui, Alejandro Echeverri, MMBB and Alejandro Aravena.

Editorial 5 Helen Castle About the Guest-Editor 6 Mariana Leguía Introduction 8 Latin America at the Crossroads Mariana Leguía Simultaneous Territories: Unveiling the Geographies of Latin American Cities 16 Patricio del Real PREVI-Lima's Time: Positioning Proyecto Experimental de Vivienda in Peru's Modern Project 22 Sharif S Kahatt The Experimental Housing Project (PREVI), Lima: The Making of a Neighbourhood 26 Torriti and Nicolás Tugas Elemental: A Do Tank 32 Alejandro Aravena Tlacolula Social Housing, Oaxaca, Mexico 38 Dellekamp Arquitectos Governing Change: The Metropolitan Revolution in Latin America 42 Ricky Burdett and Adam Kaasa The Olympic Games and the Production of the Public Realm: Mexico City 1968 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 52 Fernanda Canales Articulating the Broken City and Society 58 Jorge Mario Jáuregui Formalisation: An Interview with Hernando de Soto 64 Angus Laurie Playgrounds: Radical Failure in the Amazon 68 Gary Leggett Urban Responses to Climate Change in Latin America: Reasons, Challenges and Opportunities 76 Patricia Romero-Lankao Filling the Voids with Popular Imaginaries 80 Patricia Romero-Lankao Civic Building: Forte, Gimenes & Marcondes Ferraz Arquitetos (FGMF), São Paulo 86 FGMF A City Talks: Learning from Bogotá's Revitalisation 90 Enrique Peñalosa Bogotá and Medellín: Architecture and Politics 96 Lorenzo Castro and Alejandro Echeverri From Product to Process: Building on Urban-Think Tank's Approach to the Informal City – Interview with Alfredo Brillembourg 104 Interview with Alfredo Brillembourg by Adriana Navarro-Sertich Latin American Meander: In Search of a New Civic Imagination 110 Teddy Cruz Supersudaca's Asia Stories (AKA at Home in the First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Worlds) 118 Supersudaca When Cities Become Strategic 124 Saskia Sassen Organising Communities for Interdependent Growth 128 Enrique Martin-Moreno Universities as Mediators: The Cases of Buenos Aires, Lima, Mexico and São Paulo 134 Mariana Leguía Counterpoint 144 Looking Beyond Informality Daniela Fabricius