Abstract:

After a recent analysis of a significant sample of architecture and urbanism academic programs at undergraduate and graduate level in Mexico, we have observed that most of them still emphasise subjects like design, construction, conservation, urban planning and even sustainable architecture albeit from a technical perspective in tune with the Western urban and architectural canon and the current globalized aesthetics of life style and capital efficiency. Few of these programs offer practice or critical reflection on accustomed methodologies and design strategies centered either on the functional organization of space and a technocratic view of construction, or on architectural design pursuing the aestheticization of the capitalist life. Even those centered on an environmental awareness and a concern for sustainability manage a utilitarian approach mostly centered on the constructive and bioclimatic optimization, ignoring local socio-cultural struggles and urban identities of the diverse populations of the Mexican metropolis.

When we specifically turn to peripheral areas of modern cities in Mexico, we see a different territory than that which gets calculated attention and so much careful planning in the classroom of architecture and urbanism departments at universities. We see heterogeneous territories where the clash of urban planning with the realities of cultural and social conditions produce landscapes that challenge most of the fundamental concepts of functional development. The struggle of people from these subaltern territories to adapt to urban designs that exclude their own modes of organization and ignores their experience with the local-global, result in spaces that are neglected by academia and consequently ignored by the state. Are these contesting and performative urban knowledges not worth considering in the learning process of urban design and architectural planning? Wouldn’t these subaltern languages provide effective approaches to the critical understanding of architecture and its socio-political responsibility? Can there be a place in current academia for the study of daily life and community agency as criteria for urban organization and the determination of territories?

Keywords:

Subaltern knowledges, architecture, urban design, education, academia, aural architecture and urbanism.