Andean Cosmotechnics: Notes for Two Defensive Architectures in the San José Neighborhood in Manizales, Colombia
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Abstract
This article examines the experience of the ‘Taller Social Latinoamericano’ (Latin American Social Workshop) held in Manizales, Colombia, in 2022, focusing on the construction of the Apu Kumanday Classroom. This circular space, along with the cultivation of protected plant species, stands as an act of resistance against a largescale urban renewal project. The article analyzes two defensive design strategies: the barricade and the shell, both conceived to confront devastation. From a situated practice, it examines both the interplay between progress and violence, as well as the dual role of architecture, as both practice and technique. These reflections are shaped through community-based planting pedagogies, resulting in the creation of a ‘green barricade’ designed to protect and strengthen spaces. Design is framed as a political, aesthetic, and social act, aimed at repairing the socio-spatial fabric fractured by processes of dispossession and eradication.
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