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.
Enlace Arquitectura presented the Beethoven Avenue in Bello Monte project at the celebration of the 452nd anniversary of Caracas on July 26, 2019, organized by CCScity450 and Fundación Espacio. Slides of the project, which includes the design of sidewalks and new public plazas commissioned by the bank Banesco in 2017, were projected onto a building facade.
"Integration in Caracas Process" sixth event was held on Saturday July 20 in La Palomera. People from all parts of the city were invited to the "Garden Tour of La Palomera: connecting gardens, orchards, nurseries and other experiences in urban vegetation" to consider vegetation as an integration strategy and a fundamental part of urban life.
On Saturday, July 13, the Founder’s Celebration was held in the Santo Domingo sector of La Palomera, Baruta Municipality, as part of the program Integration Process Caracas. The purpose of the event was to disseminate the unacknowledged urban history of a this part of the city. Founders of La Palomera and their descendants shared the stories and anecdotes of how the settlement's process began.
"More Nights Caracas" is an initiative organized by Ciudad Laboratorio that took place in the Bello Monte, Caracas on Saturday July 6, 2019. Enlace Foundation was invited to share a video and present the program "Integration Process Caracas” in the informal settlement La Palomera, which invites people to abandon binary urban definitions as "formal" and "informal", overcome prejudices and build a real and symbolic notion of an integrated "Complete City."