Towards an architecture in-gens: Learning, ‘Tejiendo la Calle’, new tools for participation in architectural projects
Keywords:
Heritage, rural landscape, architecture, participación, creative community, domestic work, public art, minor gesture, plastic weavings, Valverde de la Vera (Extremadura)Abstract
Research is presented on the project ‘Tejiendo la Calle’ in Valverde de la Vera. With the encouragement of architect Marina Fernández, the women of this rural setting hand-weave lightweight structures that cover the streets each summer as a huge tapestry of personal creative manifestations. The project is situated in the context of architecture, cultural heritage and participation to explore how this ageing community of conviviality has been transformed into a community of creative practice; an intervention that has won awards in international forums for its creative use of reused plastic and has been replicated in numerous communities. We present the way in which domestic chores are deployed in cultural heritage, putting public art at the service of housework to develop what we will characterise as an architecture ‘in-gens’. We explain how this concept transforms the relationship between architecture and participation, characterising a practice of intervention in public space that allows us to understand the intervention in the cultural landscape beyond protectionism, transforming the forms of space and the times of habits in order to disrupt the patrimonial, architectural and social order of the village. The architecture project thus goes from being a device fragilised by participation to a promoter of a very fertile relationality.