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Research Collection Journal Article The Institutions Must Be Designed Before the Buildings Author(s): Schindler, Susanne Publication Date: 2020-11 Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000466063 Rights / License: In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection. For more information please consult the Terms of use. ETH Library water for more than half of the year. We proposed to re-structure the dam wall, as part of our flood control strategy, and also added several public spaces, both open and covered. 110 FC We are always running late to upgrade needed infrastructure, because it’s not visible enough. If you’re a politician who is looking for projects with very fast media impact, then you’re always going to do superficial projects to gain votes. And we are still there; it’s not going to change with this administration. We are always starting from scratch. I think that is the history of this city. It’s a multi- layer city, built on destroying what has previously been done. The Colonial city was built on top of the indigenous temples. The Neoclassical city destroyed the Baroque buildings, and the Modern city of the 20th century destroyed everything that came before. And now, I think that the 21st century should advance a new understanding of those time-lapses and promote different priorities that don’t have to do with the will of a government official or the image of political parties. Urbanism should be about understanding what exists: the place, the history and the resources. What would you say are Mexico’s most urgent housing issues? LCR I think, worldwide, mixed-use housing and a new understanding of ownership. Housing can’t be about private property anymore. We need to understand sharing economies. Our conception of public and private cannot be the same as it was in the past century. In fact, the dichotomy never really existed. The idea of Reguera Castro and Fernanda Loreta Canales Conversation: In the nuclear family was an invention of the 1940s. More and more, we want to The Institutions Must be Designed Before the Buildings Susanne Schindler The Institutions Must be Designed Before the Buildings Before be Designed Must Institutions The 111 The interior courtyard of a typical vecindad in colonia San Rafael, Mexico City. Photo by Jacqueline Hall. I. The Search for a Paradigm Polshek and Richard Meier, who with their work had advanced what would become known as the “contextual” Not so long ago, I was interviewed for a tenure-track posi- urban-design paradigm. However, the “better” designed tion in the urban design program at a school of architecture housing, once implemented, did little to improve the in the United States. I gave a presentation, and in the inter- socio-economic conditions which had been the original view that followed, I was told that to succeed in teaching impetus to develop these projects. This lack of improve- urban design, one needed to have a succinct “paradigm.” ment was due, in part, due to the fact the political and Although unstated, I knew what was implied: morphologi- financial terms on which these projects were realized had cal and typological frameworks for urban growth that been fundamentally altered between the original idea, are assumed to generate “good” form. What, exactly, was which was fundamentally based in community governance, my take on paradigm, I was asked? I responded that my and the projects’ implementation. In most cases, these take on paradigm was a rather different one: namely, that projects, originally conceived as nonprofit ventures, were we need to always see formal considerations like type ultimately realized as for-profit operations.1 The lesson and morphology as intrinsically connected to financial and I tried to draw from these stories is that if designers want political aspects. What is the point of “good” design if it their work to have an intended impact, they need to benefits only a few at the expense of most? Conversely, understand their design, a tangible proposition, in relation what is the point of “good” design if it aims, in and of itself, to intangible aspects of urban life, including the messy, to solve issues that are beyond its reach, like socio-eco- uncomfortable, and contested aspects of money and nomic or racial inequality, at which it will invariably fail? power. This means expanding the definition of what con- To make my case, I had focused my presentation on stitutes “design” to include what is usually summarized a series of urban design proposals from the late 1960s, under “policy” and sometimes even “finance.” a contentious moment in the urban history of the United It was clear that my job talk was understood by some States. As part of the “War on Poverty” and efforts committee members as a challenge to the discipline itself. to combat the deep segregation of cities, officials and It was as if in simply uttering the word “policy,” I was designers often advanced a new urban design paradigm — calling into question the relevance of design. In fact, I was generally housing built at smaller scale on infill lots up to arguing quite the opposite: namely that the spatial ele- the street edge. In parallel, they called for stronger “com- ments of urban design, such as block dimensions, façade munity” involvement, in an effort to generate the political materials, permitted uses and apartment typologies, have support needed to move the projects forward, as well as extraordinary power to both shape immediate spatial expe- emphasized “implementation” or production, as the mea- sure of success. Part of my talk focused on Twin Parks, two urban 1 renewal areas in the Bronx, best-known for the architects For more on this trajectory, see my article “Model Conflicts,” e-flux who designed the buildings there, including James Stewart Architecture, July 2018. live alone. But at the same time, we acknowledge the usefulness of sharing economies. We are questioning how much we want to share and how much privacy we need, which creates a new understanding about ownership and privacy. There are examples of shared 112 housing from all over the world. I’m not talking about the hippie communal living of the 60s. It’s vecindades in Mexico, conventillos in Spain and the cubiculos in Cuba. It’s about understanding how, historically, people have lived together and apart. It has to do with having the room of one’s own, within a collective infrastructure. LCR How to design and build housing and infrastructural public spaces in the larger urban fabric, both formal and informal, with scarce resources. In some ways, issues of climate change, inequality and segregation are global. But Mexico has a strong history of land redistribution and power in indigenous communities in a way that a country like the US does not. Perhaps, there is a more widespread understanding of alternative models of ownership, cooperation and the commons in Mexico. Do you think that is true? If so, could that collective political consciousness influence the way Mexico adapts to climate change and economic inequality? LCR Our experience with the parks, la Quebradora in Mexico City, Represo in Nogales, and an intervention in Tijuana, were all located within informal settlements. Somehow, it’s easier to do these sorts of projects. In those communities, people are very conscious In Conversation: Fernanda Canales and Loreta Castro Reguera Castro and Fernanda Loreta Canales Conversation: In “Remarks to nine questions on urban design and planning.“ Press the Buildings Before be Designed Must Institutions The release of an address by mayoral candidate John Lindsay to the AIA, annotated by Jonathan Barnett, September 17, 1965. about the lack of services and the need for better space. They understand the needs of the place. These communities are used to having to ask for the things they need, because, obviously, no one is coming to pave the streets and install lights if they don’t demand it. 113 As a result, they are better at understanding ideas that can benefit the whole community. And this is a part of our job as architects: to move out of our comfort zones of legality and our need for everything to happen in a certain way. We were trained as professionals that need a client and a commission: someone to tell us just exactly how many bedrooms they want. It’s a shift in mindset, because what we are really dealing with is the lack of services and very low quality of life, spatial and otherwise, in the informal city. We can truly help there if we understand the possibilities of how good architecture can make a difference. It’s easier there, because people are conscious of their own individual needs, but, at the same time, they are used to a sense of communal, shared purpose and a high quality of public life. Thus, we may need to become more sensitive about how the city is actually being built and the possibilities that it provides, instead of fighting to twist things based on our own limited perspective. FC What we call informality, in Mexico, represents more than 60 to 70 percent of the houses being built. Just because houses are done informally, that is, illegally, doesn’t mean that the owners didn’t have to pay somebody for their land and the construction of their house. They are not squatting on communal, free properties. They paid for their ownership. That ownership is not recognized legally. Yet, if the largest percentage of houses there are built informally, they cannot be considered irregular.

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