horizontal
horizontal is an organization that explores the conceptualization, implementation and disclosure of collaborative design tools as a tactic to achieve social justice. We develop strategies for spatial intervention where aspirations for every person can be recognized. Our actions promote the interconnection of local networks in rural and urban contexts as well.
co-creating realities
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production
strategic design: justice la casita: district headquarters for restorative juvenile justice/ behind the wall: pedagogical exercises for restoration
strategic design: diversity spaces that learn from diversity - queens NY and lisboa bogotรก / barrios consentidos / forest of hope
strategic design: climate change strategic guidelines plan: resilience and reactivation of the coastline of panama city / master plan for the suriname riverside in paramaribo / magdalena river imaginaries / bogotรก river imaginaries
strategic design: education kosovo: four public schools innovation center / marinilla educational park / timayui, la paz, bureche / we play, you play / the wall: from static to elastic / trustics / curatorship of IQD magazine
allies and horizontal team
co-creating realities
Escenarios deportivos. El Equipo Mazzanti
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Âżhow was horizontal born? Based in BogotĂĄ, Colombia, El Equipo Mazzanti has distinguished itself for designing remarkable educational and cultural buildings for over 25 years. This experience has been built through working with the public sector and a wide range of organizations. 70% of the projects have been developed through competitions/public and anonymous bidding.
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The work is based on the belief that beyond its form or image, the real value of architecture exists in what it is able to produce and incite among its users. This is a practice within the public sphere for the benefit of the public affairs.
co-creating realities
horizontal is born as an initiative to develop architecture and urbanism projects. Our view exceeds the classic form in which space is thought, we aim to enhance the search for security, equality, education, environmental adaptation and development of social capital. We use a variety of tools to understand, document, inform and design strategies that impact environments built in urban and rural territories from a local and inclusive view.
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anthropologists architects
carpenters
economists educators
engineerss
film makers
graphic designers
industrial designers interior designers
landscape designers lawyers
audiovisual artists philosophers
plastic artists politologists
software developers psychologist
social assistents sociologists
fashion designers urbanists planners writers 7
horizontal
our work is based on the production of theory and practice across multiple disciplines
co-creating realities
Âżwhat is the objective of horizontal?
Understanding the clear imbalance and the great distance that exists between how the built contexts are planned and designed, and the wishes of the citizens.
Our goal is to create more balanced, fair and sustainable built environments. We want to shorten this distance through design strategies that arise from the context, these strategies would be able to articulate the actors involved and recognize their wishes and needs.
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horizontal seeks to conceive scenarios that support the development of social capital
physical tranformation of the environment
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social capital
institutional alliances
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development in the community
co-creating realities
Âżhow does horizontal work?
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(i) we focus in four topics:
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justice education climate change and resilience diversity
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(ii) to play as a tactic
We see the use of playing and toys as a horizontal language of interaction, and a tool to produce new ways to create connections and detonate new behaviors. Understanding the context and the interactions that occur in it, we seek to create bonds of trust between the actors involved to reach results oriented in the common welfare.
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(iii) four moments in the design process
Co-creation: An active design and research process based on the game as a confidence trigger, testimonial collector and generator of social value. Strategic design: Taking into account that resources are limited we want to transform the participatory inputs into design strategies that recognize the unfinished, modularity and growth by phases as its main structuring. Appropriation: We recognize that space is not an end but a path. We seek to establish public programs that can activate the architecture and the public space to turn it into a dynamic element and generate appropriation.
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Horizontal work: Transdisciplinary dialogues with experts that break the limits of the problem considering the agents that are part of the context.
co-creating realities
Âżwhat does horizontal produce?
in order to generate integral scenarios and a more significant social impact, horizontal generates four tools that consolidate their design process.
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participatory workshops
living laboratories horizontal
actor maps
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communication design
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co-creating realities
This instrument manages to find ways to talk about situations and relevant elements such as wishes, needs, feelings and motivation of the actors involved, which can be valuable design tools but are usually difficult to explain.
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The series of design and research participatory workshops we implement offer new ways of bringing together diverse groups of actors and stakeholders around a context, they aim to share knowledge, identify complex socio-technical problems and start designing from there.
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co-creating realities
This participatory instrument recognizes the economic realities and social contexts and allows to propose a variety of complementary strategies such as progressive growth of infrastructure or public programs focused on achieving space activation and its appropriation.
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The sustainability of a project requires a deep knowledge from a variety of perspectives working simultaneously. Our projects seek to generate maps of actors present in the context such as: non-profit organizations, governments, academies, companies, technology and citizens in general, allowing the articulation with their knowledge, initiatives and economic resources.
co-creating realities
Depending on the scale and the actors involved in a context, living laboratories are a qualitative research instrument that can vary. Through interactive objects or events that impact the urban scale or public space, the idea is to produce open environments for innovation, focused on the user, frequently produced to try a tactic intervention or generate dialogue and awareness about specific issues. The ultimate goal of this tool is to integrate horizontal exploration processes, that become spaces themselves and can articulate actors through public-private partnerships.
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We hold active co-creation processes where we propose interventions and participatory urban activations to get to know the context and detonate relationships and dialogues with the community.
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We create artifacts and devices that can activate the architecture and turn it into a dynamic element in constant transformation.
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co-creating realities
Our proposal for the different projects of space intervention is to create a communication system that allows a stimulating and open approach towards any initiative, favoring the closeness of people with those projects, and more importantly, their direct interaction with them. From our point of view, people are the fundamental axis for the definition of space and the element that defines the way it starts making sense, from what is created in it and from the reasons why that space is generated. Therefore, the planning and design of spaces require working on tools that allow us to capture what people think and feel, and transmit it effectively, as a vital part of the success of the projects.
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CONSTELLATION OF PROJECTS 27
justice
We usually think that the essence of justice is the equal treatment between people and the consequences that result of a certain action. However, the problems of justice arise even when everyone is subject to the same rules, and even if everyone who breaks the rules receives the same punishment. But issues of justice are often complex and have many aspects to be considered and require careful analysis. To start, it is important to recognize and be able to distinguish that there are different types and concepts of justice, and thus, it is important to identify how the processes of conceptualization, identification and application of justice are linked directly to the space in which they are implemented. How can we think of spaces for dialogue, not based on the idea of punishment, but trying to recognize the principles and processes that articulate the different conceptions of justice?
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justice
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justice
la casita: district headquarters for restorative juvenile justice Bogotรก, Colombia 2018
What was the purpose? The Secretary of Security of the city of Bogotรก introduced in 2016 the District center for restorative Justice for Adolescents, the first to be implemented in Latin America. As a result of the emergence of this place, Nicolรกs Paris and Horizontal were called to investigate and develop a model of space that could accomplish the principles of restorative justice.
Who did we work with?
explanatory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLfFP7wD-R8&t=6s
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What did we do? We developed participatory workshops with young offenders, victims, relatives, professionals, judges and other actors that are part of the program. From that experience we created a series of artifacts and we modified the spaces of intervention. In addition, we seek to generate transparency in the processes. We intend to get the citizens close to the program, as a model of prevention through a system of communication and a strategy to spread information about the project.
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justice
behind the wall: pedagogical exercises for restoration
Colombia 2018
What was the purpose? The open calls of the Graham Foundation are focused on promoting architectural and / or spatial practices that are committed to cultural, social, political, technological and environmental problems.
What did we do? We proposed an artifact designed to support and promote dynamics for restorative justice. A transforming wall that can be used in different ways when it is opened, becoming a public meeting point thought to work from prevention to community repair. Who did we work with?
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They are interested in projects that explore the possibilities of the future of architecture considering these issues.
diversity
Diversity can be defined as the sum of the ways in which people are the same as well as different. The dimensions of diversity are mediated by concepts such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, language, culture, religion, mental and physical capacity, class and immigration status. While diversity itself is not a term loaded with values, the way in which people react to diversity is driven by values, attitudes, beliefs, etc. The full acceptance of diversity is a fundamental principle of social justice and must be understood from the intersection of characteristics that make up the identity of an individual or community. The interest in this issue appears from the extraordinary promise and overwhelming challenges that the concept of diversity presents for the development of our society, and therefore in our conception of space. We want to understand the complicity that involves the construction of spaces related with dynamics of social oppression, and from there, identify individual and collective processes that allow pedagogical actions of understanding to finally finding transdisciplinary methods in order to generate transformative opportunities. How can we generate spaces that propitiate dialogue and that lead to the recognition of difference as the main tool to generate more balanced socialenvironments?
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diversity
spaces that learn from diversity Queens, New York 2018
diversity
Research topic: Through an alliance with the Queens Museum and its “New New Yorkers” program, the objective was to find pedagogical tools that could serve as interaction instruments with communities that reside or work in the neighborhood of Queens. The objective was to implement these tools in the form of workshops, encouraging the recognition of informal learning processes that trigger different ways of living and understanding New York City. Methodology: This studio intended to identify existing synergies and approaches between art, architecture, design and social sciences as communication entities and their application in different problemsolving scenarios. To do this, the class was divided into four stages (i) the recognition of existing communities and their needs, (ii) the design of toys that could collect information about them, (iii) the creation of devices and workshops for the program and finally (iv) the design of architectures based on the previous phases of the process. All with the aim of creating devices and workshops that could become part of the “New New Yorkers” program of the museum, the exercises were based on 5 questions on common themes that are transversal to everyday life in the city and that involve learning to live in it. How do we grow? How do we solve conflicts? How do we produce? How do we love? and How do we celebrate? Who did we work with?
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spaces that learn from diversity Lisboa, BogotĂĄ 2018
diversity
Research topic: This studio was centered on using concepts such as play, games and anomalies within the architectural design process in order to challenge the architect’s status quo and explore its value as an agent of change and transformation. The workshop seeked to define a strategic vision that achieves value and visibilizes communities and offers an identity reading. We wanted to understand in what ways the space can respond to conflicts of identity and diversity to find common points of dialogue and understanding. Methodology: During the development of this research, students designed toys and devices based on each of the chosen themes to a better understanding of the context: age, race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, sexual orientation and exceptionality. Through these concepts and strategies, the students tried to have more fluent approaches and interviews with governmental and private institutions, provoke dialogues with community actors, and encourage group discussions. In this way they were able to learn about the different characteristics of the inhabitants of the city and get closer to the subject of diversity through a participatory strategy that directly involved the community. Students used this research to propose their projects and produce pedagogical spaces that react to the behavior of the people who live there. who did we work with?
explanatory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7DKkRSbtJA&t=5s
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barrios consentidos Cartagena, Colombia 2014
diversity
What was the purpose? This project was born with the purpose of generating design tools that come out from individual and collective experiences of La CiĂŠnaga de la Virgen, known as an area where environment and economy are vulnerable in Cartagena. The idea was that these experiences could detonate an equipment capable of recognizing a diverse kind of desires and needs, this strategy provokes the place to become a public space relevant to citizens, through recreational, productive and educational use. What did we do? The challenge of this project is to develop a model that includes a regulatory and design scheme, through this we look to generate the appropriate incentives for the active participation of public and private institutions involved in the development of the project. The idea was to go beyond a conventional public building and turn it into a public space capable of being activated by its users. Participatory workshops were implemented to feed the design of the project. In the case of the Navidad Puerto de Pescadores sector, this process was carried out based on four activities: social cartography workshops, focus groups, group interviews and individual interviews. Who did we work with?
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forest of hope Altos de Cazucรก, Soacha 2011
diversity
What was the purpose? The aim was to develop a cover for the sports court that would be an infrastructure that would fulfill both recreational functions and social integration, where the community could practice several activities like sports, recreation, academic activities and building of citizenship. What did we do? We designed a recognizable urban element that would inspire the interest of the people and generate diversification of use and dynamics of appropriation. The structure emulates a forest that grows over time and colonizes sectors of the place. Who did we work with?
explanatory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5DK7b76-sg
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climate change
Planning and building our cities from a perspective that seeks to mitigate the risks produced by the effects of climate change, is also to respond to the growing need of building public access to meeting spaces between citizens and the landscape. Being resilient implies the promotion of social capital. It infers promoting attitudes, spaces and, above all, sustainable relationships between the citizen, the city and the environment. How can we generate urban and architectural interventions that help to adapt to the effects of climate change from spaces that generate awareness and help producing different behaviors toward the environment and natural resources?
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climate change and resilience
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climate change
strategic guidelines plan: resilience and reactivation of the coastline of panama city Panama City
What did we do? Based on the results of participatory workshops that led us to think about a new urban concept for the city, we developed a report that proposes the elaboration of a public space and equipment project that promotes the social, economic and environmental transformation of the sector based on a long-term resilience strategy that can become a replicable model. The project was developed in three main phases (i) a diagnostic phase to understand the territory and its inhabitants and (ii) to carry out a living laboratory that fed the final concept and (iii) to define the intervention guidelines. Who did we work with?
AlcaldĂa de PanamĂĄ
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What was the purpose? As a result of the decentralization process that is taking place in Panama, the Municipality of the City of Panama is carrying out great efforts in the planning and improvement processes of the public space, where the Land-use Plan (POT in spanish) highlight. With the support of The World Bank, El Equipo Mazzanti and Horizontal along with the Municipality of Panama City seeks to generate a plan of guidelines for resilience and the activation of the coastline to valorize and recover the maritime and fluvial spaces of the city.
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climate change
master plan for the suriname riverside in paramaribo Paramaribo, Surinam 2018
What was the purpose? In 2002, the historic center of Paramaribo was catalogued as a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Although the area has great potential to lead the sustainable development of the city, recent studies indicate that it is going through a great physical, social and economic deterioration. Along with horizontal, the Urban Rehabilitation Program of Paramaribo intended to contribute to the revitalization of the historic center and the riverside of the city.
Who did we work with?
explanatory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_HrFog7OIQ&t=41s
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What did we do? We developed a two-phase master plan for the transformation of the riverside in Paramaribo. The first included the construction of design strategies for a sustainable coastal front. The second was a participatory design process (two workshops with institutions and citizens) that conducted to the final version of the concept for the edge area of the Suriname River.
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climate change
magdalena river imaginaries Barranquilla, Colombia 2017
Research topic: A reflection was proposed on what a building or public space means in a city like Barranquilla. Thus, the exercise proposed to develop the potential of architecture as a social transformer and driver of dynamics that allow a degree of economiccultural sustainability necessary for the development of this city.
The second was a field research in Barranquilla with the objective of exposing the artifacts to collect information and create spaces for dialogue. The third and last one was based on generating a project structure that involved the heterotopy and the desires of the citizens. Who did we work with?
explanatory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5XCKbyT2UY
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Methodology: The research was developed in three stages: the first, in New York, where some heterotopic action-space was identified to turn it into a design tool that would allow to create a learning mechanism about the city of Barranquilla.
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climate change
bogotรก river imaginaries Bogotรก, Colombia 2017
Research topic: The research of this workshop proposed to design pedagogicalurban infrastructures for the city of Bogotรก, based on the understanding of the notion of culture defined from the widest possible sense. The objective of working with this design process was learning how to generate new models of intervention in emerging situations, where architecture gives us the opportunity to produce education and knowledge. We payed particular attention to the context of the Bogotรก River to understand the environmental implications of the place and we were centered on returning the voice to the citizens.
Who did we work with?
explanatory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iapOa3xnhA
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Methodology: In order to achieve this goal, we carried out a process divided into three main parts: (i) as a starting point, a learning exercise was performed in Bogotรก and its inhabitants, (ii) from what was learned, we implemented the design of artifacts that stimulate workshops to gather information about the imagery that the inhabitants have about the river and finally (iii) the participants designed projects that were fed from each step of the process.
education
Educational spaces are environments of social interaction and generation of knowledge. They must be places open to the community, where fundamental relationships for innovation materialize, such as: commitment to the talent and capacity of people, promotion of collective knowledge or the appropriation of the value of the Public. It is important to think about redefining education as a concept that is detached from the idea of production, and instead is related closely to the creation of knowledge that proposes Horizontal. The recognition of daily life as an educational and catalytic tool of architecture that encourages the transformation of static social structures, creating new ways of relating, producing and exchanging. How can we think of educational spaces that catalyze new forms of relationships between people, thinking these locations as tools that encourage the production of knowledge and social innovation?
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education
kosovo: four public schools innovation center Pristina, Republic of Kosovo
education
What was the purpose? The project intended the development of four schools in four points of Pristina, this proposal had to understand the closer environment and the needs of each of the neighborhoods by following a specific program. What did we do? Through the placement of modules that could be used in several positions depending on different needs, we created community centers that not only function as schools but also as meeting spaces for the community. The idea was to produce a replicable model and a user manual that the community itself could transform and use in different ways. Who did we work with?
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marinilla educational park Marinilla, Antioquia. Colombia 2015
education
What was the purpose? From the involvement with the public policy “Educational Parks”, the main objective of this project was to offer to the community of Marinilla a place where cultural identities and informal educational processes can be expressed, be made known, and mainly, can be fostered and preserved. What did we do? From the understanding of citizen´s needs using ludic activities, we created a meeting environment around “learning” as a “natural” habit of knowledge construction taking into account elements like dialogue, exchange between people, the built environment and the natural landscape. Who did we work with?
explanatory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK26Xsrm_Ss&t=2s
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timayui, la paz y bureche Santa Marta, Colombia 2011
education
What was the purpose? The kindergarten Timayui, La Paz and Bureche is part of the policies of the Municipal government of Santa Marta and Carulla Foundation to improve the educational and nutritional conditions of the communities displaced by violence from rural areas and settled in the periphery of the city. The project aims to develop infrastructures to improve early childhood conditions in low-income neighborhoods for the most vulnerable population between 0 and 5 years of age. What did we do? The strategy was to create an architectural model that would be based directly on the proposed pedagogical model, where there are three central aspects to consider and related between them -children, educators and family-, so the building is formed by three volumes around a central courtyard. Who did we work with?
explanatory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMnCM0PZw2o
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we play, you play Design and development of exhibition projects
education
As well as with playing, architecture is a social phenomenon based on rules; when they are used, they are appropriated. Playing, as with architecture, redefines relationships, roles and situations in already established contexts, being able to generate knowledge and learning through the game. We play you play, is a series of exhibitions about the approaches of the office to the methodologies of the game. We use the game as a tool to build moments of interaction capable of detonating human relationships different from those determined in everyday space. The exhibition explores the act of playing as an operational process of action and leads to a new perception of the other players, the context or oneself, altering the quality of the relationship that affects it. We play You play is a place to play, a canopy of actions and reactions, an architecture of events. Who did we work with?
explanatory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HqATnLenh4
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the wall Milan, Italy 2016
education
What was the purpose? For the Triennale de Milano in 2016, that explored the concept of architecture as art, we showed devices that allow to understand the architecture through another perspective. Our proposal was to change the way we see the wall -as an architectural element traditionally used to divide realities, separate and isolate-. We seek to go beyond the comprehension of the wall as a static element, whose only nature is to serve as an art to project and construct buildings that contain its inhabitants. What did we do? We created an artifact that functioned as a permeable canvas in which the behavior of the user is expressed inside, causing the inspiration to awaken and the imagination to manifest through actions on the canvas, transferring the actions to the outside observer. With the passage through the wall those who were visitors became actors and the observers were invited to act. With pushing or distorting the membrane, the forms became twisted and the actions took on another meaning. Who did we work with?
explanatory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg8rKEAYKY4&t=145s
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trustics Venice, Italy 2016
education
What was the purpose? The Venice Architecture Biennial had as its central axis the concept “Reporting from the front”, which alluded to architectural projects that take into account more than one perspective and respond to the need of being transdisciplinary to counteract the problems of their environment. What did we do? We proposed Trustics, an exhibition that was based on explaining how trust networks are transversal tactics in the process of thinking, creating and living architectural projects. From this perspective, “trust” is a necessary tool in operational terms, which involves all the members of an architectural project, that means, “trust” is understood as a process with the necessary potential for a collective transformation. The exhibition itself was an example of a network of trust. The project required the collective work of one hundred thirty-one people, whose result ended up occupying thirty-six square meters and involved nine cities. Who did we work with?
explanatory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAR9_VlsJUk
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curatorship of IQD magazine Italy - Colombia 2018
education
What was the purpose? The Italian design and architecture magazine IQD invited us together with El Equipo Mazzanti to curate one of its editions for 2018. What did we do? We used the concept of “spaces that learn� as the guiding thread for this edition of the magazine, we selected many different projects, including our own developments, and through them we proposed new ideas to reflect and produce sustainable, diverse spaces, with a public infrastructure, and a fundamental role as an inclusive meeting place that promotes citizen participation. The idea was to show projects from different parts of the world that had architectural impact in their own contexts and have value not only for their design but for what they have achieved to generate. Who did we work with?
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allies
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team Giancarlo Mazzanti Architect
Carlos Medellín Architect Laura Jaramillo Biologist
Alba Quiceno Accountant
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Pablo Londoño Architect
Stefany Cañon Graphic designer
Luz Dary Hincapié Administrative
Diana Gallego Accountant Camila Parra Designer
Nina Alvarez Architect Maria Semenenko Politóloga
Maria Victoria Londoño Philosopher
Julián Bejarano Audiovisual productor Ruben Gomez Architect
Juan Pablo Muñoz Graphic designer Sebastián Rivera Architect Guillermo Carone Web developer
Adeola Enigbokan Urban psycologist
Sara Vera Artist
Angela Parra Urban designer Pierre Puentes Designer
Nicolás Paris Artist Dana Montenegro Politologist Juliana Van Hemelryck Architect
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Lina Celis Architect
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h-orizontal.org fundacionhorizontal @h_orizontal @h_orizontal h-orizontal
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