On Saturday May 23, 2020, an event was held on the virtual platform Zoom to celebrate, remembrer and reflect. It was part of the exhibition "Complete City: La Palomera, recognition and celebration" at Hacienda La Trinidad Parque Cultural, and the Integration Process Caracas IPC program.
Technologically complex building systems presented in the guise of innovation by the "developed" world's industry are certainly admired in the Global South. And yet in spite of the aspirational tendency to copy and appropriate all things new that come from the "north", the brick (or block) continues to be the most suitable and frequent way for people and communities to build in Latin America.
The exhibition includes the work, experiences and lessons of the Integration process Caracas program that began in the informal settlement La Palomera in November 2018. Its objective has been to invite all citizens to get to know La Palomera through its culture, its sancochos (a Venezuelan stew), its spaces and its people. Audiences are also invited to question the negative stigma that exist with respect to the barrio and to see it with a renewed gaze, so that it may be discovered, understood and recognized as a living and vital place for the city.
Enlace Arquitectura has been invited to the 17th International Architecture Exhibition Biennale di Venezia 2020, scheduled to open August 29, 2021. Curator Hashim Sarkis has chosen "How will we live together" as this year´s cental focus: “We need a new spatial contract. In the context of widening political divides and growing economic inequalities, we call on architects to imagine spaces in which we can generously live together." Enlace Arquitectura is honored and grateful to be a part of this prestigious celebration of current practice.
Enlace Arquitectura participates in “Views toward the Transformation of Maracaibo,” which represents the the First Congress organized by the Municipality of Maracaibo. Sergio Dos Santos presents the experience of the project Sabana Grande Boulevard Pavement built between 2009 and 2011 and commissioned by PDVSA La Estancia. The presentation is part of an ensemble of reflections on strategies to improve the livelihood of citizens through significant urban interventions.
Enlace Foundation was among the participants of the discussion titled “Actions: the barrio is city” where María Virginia Millan presented work in the barrio La Palomera along with María Isabel Peña from CCScity450 and Cheo Carvajal from Ciudad Laboratorio. It was part of the events related to the exhibition “Lets Meet Each Other,” presented by Espacio Anna Frank at the Sala TAC of Trasnocho Cultural in Caracas Venezuela.
“Nothing Out of the Ordinary” took place on October 12, 2019 in a run-down, abandoned structure in La Palomera, as part of the program Integration Process Caracas IPC. The community of La Palomera invited the IPC team to help them initiate the structure´s recovery process, which was sparked by a celebration of art and culture attended by neighbors of La Palomera and visitors from the entire city.
Enlace Arquitectura´s San Juan María Vianney Church is among the 17 finaliastas of the XI Iberoamerican Architecture and Urban Design Biennial, celebrated in Asunción Paraguay, October 5-11, 2019. It was selected among 997 projects from 22 participating countries from Mexico to Chile within the American continent, as well as Portugal and Spain.
Today, October 3, 2019, Fospuca began a door-to-door waste collection program in La Palomera, Baruta, employing people from the community with the institutional support of the City of Baruta and the social accompaniment of Enlace Foundation. The initiative provides barrio inhabitants with a better-quality service and will eliminate the presence of containers in the entrances of the informal settlement. It represents a pilot project that will be replicated in other sectors of the municipality such as El Placer de María, Ojo de Agua, Las Minas, Santa Cruz and Hoyo de la Puerta.
Elisa Silva is selected among the 33 Sally and Don Lucas Artists Fellows of the Montalvo Arts Center in California, in recognition of her work focused on raising awareness of spatial inequality and efforts to integrate barrios into broader urban dynamics through public space interventions. She will pursue research on the formal characteristics of exisitng public space in the barrio La Palomera.