On July 10, 2019, the newspaper El Universal publishes a press release on the selection of the San Juan María Vianney Church in Media Legua Estado Vargas as finalist of the XI Ibero-American Architecture and Urban Design Biennial. The Church was selected among 997 submitted works from 22 countries and will be part of the Biennial’s exhibition in Asunción Paraguay between October 5 and 11, 2019.
The Church of Media Legua is located on a breathtaking site on the northern side of the coastal mountain range overlooking the Caribbean Sea. The entire structure was built by the community in order to create a place of worship they could walk to. It is made of cinder blocks that act as structural walls by inserting rebar within the cavities and filling them with concrete. Above 1.80 meters square openings of increasing size are placed every other block creating a porous wall structure that allows light to enter and air to circulate. Three openings bring the exterior landscape into the church, framing selected trees and views. The entire project was built with 47,000 USD which was donated by parishes and archdiocese in Germany and Spain.
The Church of Media Legua is located on a breathtaking site on the northern side of the coastal mountain range overlooking the Caribbean Sea. The entire structure was built by the community in order to create a place of worship they could walk to. It is made of cinder blocks that act as structural walls by inserting rebar within the cavities and filling them with concrete. Above 1.80 meters square openings of increasing size are placed every other block creating a porous wall structure that allows light to enter and air to circulate. Three openings bring the exterior landscape into the church, framing selected trees and views. The entire project was built with 47,000 USD which was donated by parishes and archdiocese in Germany and Spain.
The Church of Media Legua is located on a breathtaking site on the northern side of the coastal mountain range overlooking the Caribbean Sea. The entire structure was built by the community in order to create a place of worship they could walk to. It is made of cinder blocks that act as structural walls by inserting rebar within the cavities and filling them with concrete. Above 1.80 meters square openings of increasing size are placed every other block creating a porous wall structure that allows light to enter and air to circulate. Three openings bring the exterior landscape into the church, framing selected trees and views. The entire project was built with 47,000 USD which was donated by parishes and archdiocese in Germany and Spain.
The Church of Media Legua is located on a breathtaking site on the northern side of the coastal mountain range overlooking the Caribbean Sea. The entire structure was built by the community in order to create a place of worship they could walk to. It is made of cinder blocks that act as structural walls by inserting rebar within the cavities and filling them with concrete. Above 1.80 meters square openings of increasing size are placed every other block creating a porous wall structure that allows light to enter and air to circulate. Three openings bring the exterior landscape into the church, framing selected trees and views. The entire project was built with 47,000 USD which was donated by parishes and archdiocese in Germany and Spain.
The urban planning of the capital reflects the political and socio-economic faults of Venezuela. The article explains political and territorial changes of the Chávez era, and how the Municipalities of Chacao, Baruta and El Hatillo have remained the stronghold of the opposition, where the number of people living in informal settlements is low. Still, even though people living in the barrios may have originally been strong supporters of chavismo, most are no longer with Maduro. They do however concentrate the colectivos, civilians that have been armed by the government, which are entrusted to defend the revolution at any and all cost.
Cheo Carvajal, journalist and founder of Ciudad Laboratorio, shares experiences from the third gathering "Complete city, overflowing city" of the series "Art Pedagogy and City" which in turn is part of the Integration Process Caracas IPC program, in this article published in Prodavinci, on April 4, 2019. Several simultaneous walking tours were led from the Plaza El Cristo in Baruta to the Las Brisas sector of La Palomera. A few stops were programed along the tour to talk about the nature of public space in the barrio and the way the dimensions and proximity of space conditions people´s behavior. The event culminated in the bocce court of Las Brisas, under the shade of a generous Saman (rain tree), where guests and neighbors shared their experiences and, also played bocce ball together.
The "Manifesto to the complete city" is a document that exposes the desire for an integrated city, where the barrios are fully recognized and prejudices and exclusions between parts of the city, or between inhabitants, do not prevail. Written by Cheo Carvajal and published in Prodavinci.com, the text denounces everyday manifestations that emphasize differences and calls on us to recognize and confront them.
“The Urban Cassandras of our Times” was recently published on January 7th 2019 in Terremoto, a digital magazine on contemporary art of the Americas, as part of "Issue 13: La pared dividida" curated by Ruth Estevez. The article describes the territorial inequality present in cities in Latin America manifested in the divide between “formal” and “informal” urban fragments. Such contrast is the result of neglect and denial by local authorities and citizens at large in the face of an obvious urban ill. Interventions in several cities of Latin America over the past 2 decades have presented noteworthy cases of urban integration through public space investment in informal settlements.
Arquine.com recently published on December 29, 2018 an article on the Sabana Grande Boulevard Pavement and Drainage Project in Caracas Venezuela, which is part of the editorial´s publication “Radical 50:Arquitecturas Latinoamericanas” edited by Miquel Adria and Adriana Griborio. The article documents the transformation process of the 1.6 km long pedestrian boulevard from its occupation by informal vendors to the complete recovery of its floor plane with a new pavement pattern of degradations from light to dark gray. The ground plane was leveled to one continuous surface in order to guarantee greater accessibility.