An earnest strive to make social housing in Mexico more inclusive and sustainable was presented on Monday November 5th at the offices of Conavi in Mexico City. The study was commissioned by Conavi to UN Habitat in Mexico; the research and documentation was executed by Elisa Silva. The study emphasises the importance of considering housing at three scales: the urban, the neighbourhood and the housing unit itself. It allows design to pool resources together to lower overall costs, prioritise strategies for urban integration and increase people´s quality of living.

The 2018 Guangzhou Award Technical Committee presented the 15 shortlisted cities at the 7th UCLG ASPAC congress in Surabaya Indonesia. Elisa Silva was part of the Technical Committee and also participated in a panel discussion on Urban Innovation together with Wandia Seaforth from Nairobi Kenya, Greg Budworth from Sydney Australia, Enrique Silva from the Lincoln Land Institute, Belinda Yuen from Singapore, Kristen Miller from Ecocity, Ali El-Faramawi from Cairo Egypt, Luigi Cipolla from Italy, and Carlos Zaballa from Buenos Aires Argentina. The discussions were moderated by Nicholas You of Citistates and coordinator of the Guangzhou Award.

The publication “Downward Spiral: El Helicoide´s descent from Mall to Prison” edited by Celeste Olalquiaga and Lisa Blackmore will be presented at the bookstore Lugar Comun in Altamira Caracas, on Friday the 13th of July 2018. The event will be presided by Vicente Lecuna with the participation of several of the book´s collaborators including Elisa Silva

Event program:
Vicente Lecuna – Opening remarks
Jorge Villota - El Helicoide´s construction
Diego Larrique - San Agustín del Sur
Elisa Silva – informal settlements and their appearance/disappearance from maps
Iris Rosas – The relationship of informal settlements with El Helicoide
Sandra Pinardi – El Helicoide and the ruin
Vicente Lecuna - El Helicoide and Parque Central
Conversation among the panelists and the audience

Elisa Silva was invited by the journalist Graciela Beltran for an interview on her radio program on Onda Station 109.7 RM on June 22^nd 2018, to speak about the value of public space in the city. They also touched on the experience of the Sabana Grande Boulevard transformation, the potential integration of the city including its informal settlements through a network of public spaces, and the upcoming publication by Enlace Arquitectura on public spaces in informal settlements of Latin American cities titled “Pure Space”.

During the week of May 21^st 2018, Elisa was invited to participate in a workshop of the Master in Urban and territorial development at the Cataluna Politecnical University UPC together with Prof. María Isabel Espinoza. The ninth debate on “Latin American cities and territories” took place on May 22^ndand was moderated by Prof. Carles Llop.  Elisa presented the content of “CABA Cartography of the Caracas barrios” and the results of the AICA (Actions to Integrate Caracas) workshop sponsored by the Metropolitan Municipality.

Elisa Silva participates as invited guest at the event “La Caracas que Queremos” Wednesday May 4, 2018 at the Simon Bolivar auditorium complex. The initiative represents a space to promote debate and actualize a vision for Venezuela through concrete and current actions and programs that intervene in communities and the public domain from several perspectives.

We would like to invite you to the inauguration of the exhibition “Caracas in Three Historic Times” to commemorate the 450^th anniversary of Caracas and the 50^th anniversary of the Urbanism Institute. Enlace Arquitectura participates with the research project “CABA Cartography of the Caracas Barrios 1966-2014”. The exhibition is organized by the Extension Department at the FAU-UCV.

Place: Exhibition and Lecture Hall FAU UCV

Date: Monday April 23, 2018. 4:00pm

Elisa Silva was invited to speak at the VII Cisneros Foundation Seminar titled “Disruptions: Dilemmas Regarding the Image in Contemporaneity” curated by Ileana Ramírez. It considers art´s link with politics as it operates to construct new subjectivities, and encourage questioning of what Jacques Rancière called “the aesthetic and representative logic of art”. The event took place March 16 2018 at the Chacao Cultural Center. Elisa’s intervention centered on the relationship of Caracas’ inhabitants with the real city, denied and replace by a plutonic and narcissistic love that is disengaged and inoperative. A dysfunctional relationship and missed timing, as exemplified in Félix González Torres´ 1989 piece “Perfect Lovers.”

Elisa was invited to a live interview with Albani Losada and Unai Abenamar as part of their program on Radio Station Exitos 99.7, the 19^th of February 2018. The conversation centered on the role public space plays in building social cohesion in cities. The City Planting projects by Citibank and Fudep are examples of how communities come together to transform their environment, but also manifest their desire to be considered equals in the city. Enlace Arquitectura´s work on the mappings of Caracas´ informal settlements show that half of the urban population lives there, and yet they do not enjoy the same recognition, nor access to urban spaces such as public plazas and children playgrounds. They also spoke about the pending conversion of the city´s Rio Guaire into a continuous linear park, and the critical role civil society can represent in advancing urban transformation agendas.

Elisa participated in the 9^th UN Habitat World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur. The Conavi office of social housing in Mexico and the offices of UN Habitat in Mexico have formed an alliance to collaborate on research regarding implementation practices of the NAMA program on sustainable social housing. Elisa Silva will study current practices on existing sustainable social housing complexes and identify practice opportunities to improve implementation and achieve buildings that achieve the targets of reduced energy and water consumption. Conavi and Infonavit, the country´s main mortgage lender, have vowed to reduce carbon emissions 50% by 2020 through better social housing building and maintenance practices.