MUSARQ hosts its 9th debate on "Popular Communities. The emerging city", Wednesday, August 5, 2020 starting at 9:00 am. The invited speakers include Joao de Freitas, Elisa Silva and Rafael Machado. The discussion will be moderated by Newton Rauseo and commented at the end by Juan Carlos Rodríguez.

The following premise posed by Marcos Coronel will guide the discussion. Every day there is less space for development as we know it. So-called -progress- has exhausted much of the conventional territory. Everything seems to indicate that a change will occur in cities where popular communities will become the new center of urban planning.

  • What models will govern these operations? What form could these new structures reflect?
  • What role will architects play? Central government? The universities?
  • Is it possible to direct truly forceful urban policies, promoting a transformation of the city where communities are considered an essential territory?

On July 30 at 4:00 pm via zoom Elisa Silva speaks with Jeanette Sordi, one of the publishers of the book “NESS.doc 2 Landscape as Urbanism in the Americas” and Alfredo Ramírez, as part of an online event to celebrate the publication’s launching.

The book focuses on the notion of landscaping as a territory and urban operation. It includes a series of essays and a compilation of Latin American works and projects. The Jorge Somaca square in the barrio Chapellín Caracas, designed by Enlace Arquitectura, conceived by Caracas Mi Convive and financed by the Swiss Embassy in Venezuela, is one of the featured projects.

On Wednesday, July 29, 2020, Grupo Marmoca organized a virtual event to celebrate the 2020 edition of the Day of the Architect DDA. The targeted audience includes architects, design professionals and students.

Elisa Silva, along with a panel of invited architects from Venezuela, Colombia and the United States, including Farid Chacón de Nomadas and Carlos Andrés Betancur from Opus, shared comments and impressions about the implications of Covid 19 on contemporary life and space. The moderator Maximiliano Nowotka proposed the questions: What are the challenges domestic or work spaces have now and into the future? Highlights from the conversation centered on the importance of public space, revindication of the street as a public space conquered from cars, and the value in neighborhood centered conceptions of mobility within cities.

On July 27, 2020, María Virginia Millán participated in an interview with journalist Graciela Beltrán through her live program via IGTV to talk about aspects of Caracas’ anniversary celebration. Enlace Arquitectura shared a video titled “Celebrate the Complete City” through its social media networks, inviting people to rethink the way the city is perceived, and to consider the relevance of celebrating Caracas´ anniversary with respect to the barrios. When Caracas is celebrated on its anniversary, is the entire city celebrated? Could such celebrations also embrace ones that already exist, except that they take place in the barrio - traditional festivals, such as La Paradura del Niño and La Cruz de Mayo? Must we always insist on recognizing the urban phenomenon solely through its “official” and dominant history?

As part of the celebration of Caracas 453th anniversary, María Virginia Millán participated in the International Panel of urban transformation experiences, July 25, 2020. The program was coordinated and organized by Siudad. The invited international speakers presented their approach to urban and public space projects driven by citizen participation. Representatives of national organizations related to community work and citizen activism followed with a round of contributions and questions.

Moderated by: Glennys González from Síudad

Representatives of Venezuelan organizations:
María Virginia Millán – Enlace Arquitectura
Ana Vargas – Trazando Espacios
Franco Micucci - CCScity450
Cheo Carvajal – Ciudad Laboratorio
María Valentina González – Incursions

"The Caracas that I see" was the premise of an online meeting entitled "The city we produce and reproduce through language" held on July 24, 2020. Cheo Carvajal, Rogmy Armas, and María Virginia Millán shared ideas about the city, the way citizens relate to it, and how a distinction is created, through language, between the real city, the one that exists, and the city we recognize as in the imaginary.

Speakers:
Rogmy Armas (Designer and innovation coordinator at Labo Ciudadano)
María Virginia Millán (Architect of Enlace Arquitectura and Enlace Foundation)
Cheo Carvajal (Journalist. Master in design and public space. Director of Ciudad Laboratorio)

On Saturday May 23, 2020, an event was held on the virtual platform Zoom to celebrate, remembrer and reflect. It was part of the exhibition "Complete City: La Palomera, recognition and celebration" at Hacienda La Trinidad Parque Cultural, and the Integration Process Caracas IPC program.

Technologically complex building systems presented in the guise of innovation by the "developed" world's industry are certainly admired in the Global South. And yet in spite of the aspirational tendency to copy and appropriate all things new that come from the "north", the brick (or block) continues to be the most suitable and frequent way for people and communities to build in Latin America. 

The exhibition includes the work, experiences and lessons of the Integration process Caracas program that began in the informal settlement La Palomera in November 2018. Its objective has been to invite all citizens to get to know La Palomera through its culture, its sancochos (a Venezuelan stew), its spaces and its people. Audiences are also invited to question the negative stigma that exist with respect to the barrio and to see it with a renewed gaze, so that it may be discovered, understood and recognized as a living and vital place for the city.

Enlace Arquitectura has been invited to the 17th International Architecture Exhibition Biennale di Venezia 2020, scheduled to open August 29, 2021. Curator Hashim Sarkis has chosen "How will we live together" as this year´s cental focus:  “We need a new spatial contract. In the context of widening political divides and growing economic inequalities, we call on architects to imagine spaces in which we can generously live together." Enlace Arquitectura is honored and grateful to be a part of this prestigious celebration of current practice.