{"id":8565,"date":"2020-07-08T13:06:47","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T12:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mappedsites.cardiff.ac.uk\/wsaexhibition\/?p=8565"},"modified":"2020-07-15T11:16:59","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T10:16:59","slug":"political-activism-as-urban-design-investigating-processes-of-urban-transformation-in-bogota-and-berlin-triggered-by-practices-of-political-activism-juan-usubillaga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/political-activism-as-urban-design-investigating-processes-of-urban-transformation-in-bogota-and-berlin-triggered-by-practices-of-political-activism-juan-usubillaga\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Activism as Urban Design &#8211; Juan Usubillaga"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Political Activism as Urban Design: Investigating Processes of Urban Transformation in Bogot\u00e1 and Berlin Triggered by Practices of Political Activism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Architects and urban designers today face a context in which \ntraditional politics and cities are struggling to cope with increasing \nurbanisation rates, rising inequalities, and everyday forms of \noppression. Meanwhile, social movements and political activists are \nrising up and inhabiting urban spaces as sites of contestation. \nCommunities around the world have taken matters in their own hands to \nbuild their own place in cities \u2013 through direct action they have \nprovided homes, services and even infrastructure.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This  research aims to explore how, beyond occupations, political activism  actually shapes \u2013 designs \u2013 the city at different scales; it argues that  political activism drives process of urban transformation and as such  can be understood as an alternative mode of urban design practice.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/07\/Juan_Usubillaga-Image.png\" alt=\"An annotated map showing schools in Bolivar, Bogota in Columbia. \" class=\"wp-image-8567\" width=\"504\" height=\"677\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/07\/Juan_Usubillaga-Image.png 351w, https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/07\/Juan_Usubillaga-Image-223x300.png 223w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 504px) 100vw, 504px\" \/><figcaption><em>Public and community-run schools in Ciudad Bolivar, Bogot\u00e1. <\/em><br><em>Source: Author<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Political  activists operate in a realm between legality and illegality, where  they deal with &#8211; and contest &#8211; spatial manifestations of power in their  everyday lives. Through a comparative account of informal building  processes in the Ciudad Bolivar district in Bogota (Colombia) and the  district of Kreuzberg in Berlin (Germany), the research demonstrates how  cities can be shaped by direct action. These cases exemplify how  resistance, oppression and violence can be instrumental in city-making  processes at different scales. Consequently, they support the call for architects and urban designers to rethink current practices in a way  that engages with political activism and voices rising up from below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This  implies a shift from urbanist activism, where we are first urbanists  and then become activists, to activist urbanism, where our practice  emerges from an activist agenda.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Publications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Usubillaga, J. 2020. Can Political Activism (re)design cities?  Presented at: London Festival of Architecture Symposium, London, UK, 30  June 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Contact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Email: UsubillagaNarvaezJ1@cardiff.ac.uk <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Twitter: @jfusubillaga<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Political Activism as Urban Design: Investigating Processes of Urban Transformation in Bogot\u00e1 and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":8566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[978],"tags":[723],"class_list":["post-8565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pgr","tag-urban-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14837,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8565\/revisions\/14837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-ondisplay.co.uk\/2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}