Construir lo pueblo. A partir de una constelación de seis arquitecturas menores: cueva, ermita, cosmos, barca, ruina y ensamblaje.

Abstract

This contribution in the form of a paper and visual essay addresses the notion of «lo pueblo» from the field of architectural mediation. A methodological proposal is presented through the experience of six matrix spaces that explore this notion from complementary angles.

These six morphologies are: cave, hermitage, council, boat, ruin, and assembly, and are formulated from six situated projects, carried out in specific communities and contexts over fourteen years. The sequence is presented in a visual and dialogical format from the most primary to the most elaborate as six stages of «lo pueblo» notion . In a second sequence the subtitles allude to the internal process that is taking place in each case: the animal, the images, the alchemy, the imaginary, the enclosure and the re-enchantment. The series begins with roots in the earth and the most animalistic morphology, going through the self-representation that occurs when creating one's own images and imaginaries, until reaching moments of collapse of the common, to conclude with the ever-present possibility of re-emerging from the ashes in a new form or context.

As a preamble to the visual essay, an observation framework is developed for these six projects that gradually develops a methodology, a script for approaching what we could call "building the pueblo." In this framework, three background aspects are raised that allow us to delineate some ideas that renew the architectural fact. These aspects are: the awareness of architecture as a medial zone, its capacity to operate with different scales from bodies to landscape, and finally its character as a performative tool to
weave links both in the common and in the minor through practices that take root from below.