30ethics

29

Challenging infrastructure’s traditional role of purely utilitarian systems GroundTower combines infrastructure with civic space, giving promises a place for existence and exchange. This civic space sits between the accessibility of the public realm and the intimacy of the private, strengthening the active participation that generates action. An infrastructure that is accessible, visible and responsive can provide a space for the exchange of promises and the performance of action. In this space, it becomes possible to recognise the barrio and the city as a shared resource, fostering kinship and empowerment. Through action, public space can be transformed into civic space, and its users into citizens.

Walking through the barrio I clearly see poverty, violence and exclusion, but talking to its people, I understand the extraordinary will, effort and hope that sustains these settlements. Infrastructure is able to build on these potentials to frame a civic space that is generated on the auspices of individual promises and the actions they engender. c

Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator