Pablo Levine, a graduate of Architecture from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, completed a Master in Urban Design at ETHZ, and since 2019 has been part of Klumpner's research and design team. He has been the coordinator of urban transformation projects in cities in Colombia, Santiago, and Sarajevo. BOTH TALKED TO AOA MAGAZINE FOR THIS INTERVIEW. Sebastián Rozas R We are interested in how the association between architects and urban planners who are based at a university can lead to concrete projects. Your view of socio-environmental design is an example that can enlighten people who are looking for architectural references in different places and at very different scales. So, the first question is: what is your working method, your general vision? Hubert Klumpner R Our Urbanthinktank-Next is installed in Switzerland as a window to Latin America and other areas of the world, but I will avoid the discourse of the Global South because it does not fit the current reality. The West has lost the sovereignty of interpretation of the crisis, it no longer exists. Ecology and other issues have a completely different connotation in Europe compared to the Latin American perspective. Many processes of resistance and demands to articulate the street's voice are the result of long struggles for rural and urban land, conflicts of inequality, race, human rights for indigenous people, and Liberation Theology. These conflicts have developed and resulted in ways of participation that for us today are everyday forms of architecture and urbanism. Participation is something completely new in Europe. Latin American citizens are producers of the city; while Western societies consume the city. Except for Switzerland, where there is a long tradition of democracy through direct voting, but there is no tradition of creative participation, of people taking things into their own hands. The participatory model of city building is something new in Europe and it is an issue where Latin America has a message to teach the world. Many of our colleagues are surprised, but I am convinced that the way of working that we learned in the projects in the Latin American neighborhoods is novel and we should establish them methodologically so that they can be used as a didactic in teaching and research. Our research is not desk-based, our urban laboratories are the cities where we work. From a theoretical point of view, there is a rich history of research through filing complaints, but when you change gears and enter into the production of concrete prototypical projects, there is an expectation that these should be done by the authorities, the leaders. This is happening a lot in Latin America, too. Everything that was believed two generations ago about Modernism now, in the face of the debate on sustainability and climate crisis, appears to be in doubt. If we look at the contemporary situation - our starting point - we see an experience of hybridization between solutions of the past and of the modern era, the mixture of everything that exists, organic modernism. As you know, in many favelas in Latin America people have two smartphones, but at the same time, they have no supply of drinkable water. All of that is producing a hybrid development situation that needs to be re-evaluated. This is where the issues of sustainability design and architecture that are committed to human and ecological rights have to come into play. Working in urban planning and architecture there are many isms. There is the Smart City Movement and there is discussion of consultancies and big agreements, but there have been very few results. Then comes the Sponge City. There are always these isms, but if you really look at cities, there is only one big issue in architecture: reconciling the built environ- ment with the natural environment. Until now, in the modern stage, the rule was always: I put something built on top of something natural and the natural is consumed, it disappears. It is one or the other. Nowadays in architecture, also in urbanism, the most interesting examples are where there are mixtures, where there is a collage, an assemblage. Now landscaping also comes into the picture, a very strong topic not only in our schools but also in the work we do. In the cities, we identify
partner at CAW Arquitectos, a consulting firm specializing in the study, management, and design of master plans and landscape management, public space, and heritage, both at the territorial level and in the development of specific green areas, public buildings, and housing projects. His work has been published and awarded. Among the most recent awards are: 1st Place Urban Contribution Award, Public Space category, years 2023 and 2021 and 2018; Urban Contribution Award, Public Building category 2021; Public Space Project Award XXII Chilean Architecture Biennial; 1st Place Award for Best Public Space Project, Triennial of the South 2022. There is Only One Big Issue in Architecture: Reconciling the Built Environment with the Natural Environment Hubert Klumpner & Pablo Levine Participatory architecture with a strong commitment to the design of new scientific, technological, and policy processes is the hallmark of the projects of architect Hubert Klumpner, professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Department of Architecture (ETHZ, D-ARCH) in his Chair of Architecture and Urban Design and his architectural firm Urbanthinktank-Next. His projects in cities of conflict and crisis such as Sarajevo, Kigali, Barranquilla, Medellín, and other places in the world bear witness to this international work.
Interview by: Sebastián Rozas & José Rosas Edition: Soledad Miranda
“We always research local issues that have a greater potential to transform them into architecture,” says Hubert Klumpner, referring to the different projects they are carrying out in different cities on three continents from the Chair of Architecture and Urban Design, which he has been directing since 2010 in Zurich. Venezuela, Colombia, Guatemala, Brazil, South Africa, Rwanda, and the countries of the Western Balkans have been destinations where they have developed architecture and urbanism projects, which include cities from technology and participatory architecture actively involving different bilateral institutions and in particular local communities. Klumpner is internationally recognized as one of the creators of the “social turn”, a movement that began in 2010 with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibition “Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement”. Also for the design of socio-environmental proj- ects and the management models in which he has been innovating. “We are working a lot with digital tools that relate us to the real world. That results in projects that have very explosive aspects. How different generations act together, which we call densities of social diversity, is changing research at the university and in design practice,” he says.
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