Arquitectura #389

Inclusión
Javier García-Germán and Alejandro Valdivieso

The new issue of Arquitectura, titled Inclusion, is the first one dedicated to social questions, following the two previous which have focused on Territory and Climate. For the United Nations, social inclusion is the process that guarantees that all people, regardless of their background, abilities, gender, age, or any other characteristic, have the opportunity to fully participate in society. This involves not only access to basic services such as education, health, and employment but also the removal of barriers that may exclude certain groups. Thus, it aims to create an environment where all citizens feel valued and can contribute to the common well-being. 

With the arrival of postmodernity, architecture spent decades immersed in disciplinary issues. It focused on a formal search devoid of social content, which ultimately confirmed the primacy of theory over history. Its supposed inability to develop a political and social program, as Manfredo Tafuri announced in his book Progetto e utopia: architettura e sviluppo capitalistico (1973), gave way to an architectural culture that prioritized the autonomy of space over political and social contingencies, abandoning all historical critique. From the seventies until the end of the century, a series of narrative discourses followed —ranging from neo-avant-garde and deconstructivism to the star system— that represented the peak of formal exploration, far removed from any attempt to build a more inclusive society through architecture. 

The arrival of the 2008 financial crisis ultimately confirmed a profound shift in architectural discourse, which until then had remained detached from society’s needs. That date marks the beginning of a renewed interest in sustainability and social justice within architecture and urbanism. Similarly to the social constructivism theory, it is nowadays assumed that architecture is not an isolated discipline disconnected from social and cultural practices, but rather originates within society and must respond to it. Architecture evolves as society does. Its origin is natural and qualitative — for example, through the mastery of fire —, but its raison d’être is social. 

However, the challenge is to ensure that the quality of the built environment does not decrease, reconciling all those proposals which derive from social constructivism and from social activism —probably insufficient by themselves, to resolve the challenges posed by highly complex issues such as climate change and the neoliberal crusade against the common— with brave and bold architectural proposals that abandon the strictly discursive to delve into the complex reality. Aren’t the best examples of social architecture perhaps those buildings that, apparently far from a certain discursive inflation —and from an architecture that practices its profession—, offered and still offer a critical response that has contributed to shedding light on the diminished role of the discipline? 

With the Contributions of
Ángela Losa (Guest Photographer), Tatjana Schneider & Enrique Espinosa (Co-editors alongside the Directors), Iñaki Alonso, Josep María Borrell, Burr (Elena Fuertes, Ramón Martínez, Álvaro Molins y Jorge Sobejano), Isabel Calzas, Andrés Cánovas, Toni Cañellas, Iñaqui Carnicero, Álvaro Catalán de Ocón , Manuel Collado, Jorge Dioni, elii (Uriel Fogué, Eva Gil y Carlos Palacios), equipo   .exe, Carmen Espegel, estudio__entresitio (María Hurtado de Mendoza, César Jimenez de Tejada y Álvaro Ruiz), Ignacio G. Galán, María Auxiliadora Gálvez, Javier García-Germán, Diego García-Setién, Rafael Leoz, Diego Lozano, Javier Martínez, Silvia Muñoz, NOMOS (Ophélie Herranz y Paul Galindo), OZAETA-FIDALGO (Arantza Ozaeta y Álvaro M. Fidalgo), Manuel Pascual, Eduardo Prieto, Recetas Urbanas (Alice Attout y Santiago Cirugeda), Rueda Pizarro Arquitectos (Óscar Rueda y María José Pizarro), Tatjana Schneider, Terrario Arquitectura (Luis Bernardo, Ana Méndez e Ignacio Burgos), Alejandro Valdivieso.