Santiago de Chile
CV TOMA TOMA is a professional collective that has operated since 2012 in Santiago de Chile. The collective develops experimental and collective projects -action and research- in conflictive or forgotten territories in the contemporary neoliberal context, in order to generate alternative social ecosystems. Its practice is affected by the global stage of several massive crisis and social movements. Its production is self-managed, hands on and constructed with scarce resources. TOMA is currently is composed of 5 architects: Leandro Cappetto, Mathias Klenner, Eduardo PĂŠrez, Ignacio Rivas, and Ignacio Saavedra.
PROJECTS El Comedor de la Factoría / The Dining Room in Factoría Year: 2013 Location: MilM2 Cultural Center, Factoría Italia- / Quinta Normal Park –Mini Maker Faire. Meeting space to articulate collaboration networks between people working in Factoria Italia, Santiago. It’s portable structure made possible the reinstallation of the device in different contexts. El Laberinto / The Labyrinth Year: 2013 Location: Mapocho Station, Santiago Downtown. Urban intervention for Hecho en Casa Festival 2013. The Labyrinth is a device of citizen and context articulation, and its purpose was to re-signify an abandoned residual space from the urban transportation projects. Research UFT: A Case of Civic Participation for the Construction of Community Spaces Year: 2013 /2014 The case was the project La Azotea. WE used the methodologies of research /Action. The case was observed throughout three stages of collaborative work: diagnose, planning and execution. Funded by Finis Terrae University grants for research. El Taller/ The workshop: Architecture for Kids Year: 2013 Location: MilM2 Cultural Center -Factoría Italia- Educational Project focused on working with children and adolescents, with the purpose of teaching awareness of space and learning horizontal methodologies of education. La Ocupación / The Occupation Year: 2014 Location: MilM2 Cultural Center, Factoría Italia. In collaboration with MilM2. It was an exercise of temporary occupation that intended to explore methodologies of collaborative production. It was a multiple intervention that used the figure of an Occasional City, developed by multiple collectives and professionals. During five days and nights, the community proposed infrastructures and programming. Patio 16 Year: 2014 Location: MIM (Museo Interactivo Mirador) Textile permanent intervention for a shaded patio at the museum.
Exploraciones Urbanas / Urban explorations Year: 2014 Location: Universidad de Chile / UTEM / UNIACC Urban Explorations is an interdisciplinary collective that operates in Santiago de Chile. It develops urban territorial research through walking as a research tool, imparting classes and workshops in several universities. YAP _ Young Architects Program PS1 / MOMA Year: 2014 Location: Parque Araucano, Santiago Finalists. Development of the architectonic design for an intervention at Parque Araucano. The project aimed to unveil the remarkable, yet forgotten urban and political history of the site to intervene. La Azotea / The Rooftop Year: 2014 Location: Diana Cultural Center, Santiago Residence at a cultural center in Santiago downtown. La Azotea was an Urban Laboratory for community interaction. TOMA developed a research and explored mechanisms of civic linkage in San Diego neighborhood, working with the local community and students. Ă‘oquis del 29 / Gnocchis of the 29th Year: 2014 Location: Diana Santiago (Centro Cultural) Several dinners gathered hundreds of people in this cultural activity that had a double purpose: to render visible and open the process of La Azotea, and to raise the funds for the achievement of the project. Taller Re-Organizaciones Territoriales / Workshop: Territorial Reorganizations Year: 2014 Location: Diana Santiago (Centro Cultural) The workshop imparted for 50 architecture students from Finis Terrae University. During three weeks they explored analytical observation methods in the San Diego neighbourhood, and then designed and carried out strategies for community linkage and contextual occupation. El Comedor del GAM / Dining Room in GAM Year: 2014 Location: GAM Cultural Center
Dining room is a project of temporary occupation at the central plaza of the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center (GAM), the largest public cultural center in Santiago de Chile. This urban intervention lasted for 6 weeks, proposing the appropriation of this space as a citizen and festive place, while bringing back the memory of the original building -currently GAM, formerly UNCTAD III. Comedor proposed a space for quotidian usage, while it explores the semantics of the building and its politic relations. Infante 1415 #1: Monstruitos de la Hilanderia / The Monsters of the Factory Year: 2015 Location: Infante 1415 Creation Factory, Providencia, Santiago. TOMA was commissioned to develop the furniture as part of the refurbishment of Infante 1415, and old thread factory to be converted into a new cultural center held by the local district government. The MONSTRUITOS DE LA HILANDERIA furniture series developed for this project explores two basic principles: the reclamation of found materials from the factory and the application of simple construction techniques. ESPECULOPOLIS: Urban Speculation Device Year: 2015 Location: Chicago Architectural Biennial - October 2015 TOMA was invited to participate at the first Chicago Biennial in 2015. For the opportunity we developed ESPECULOPOLIS, a research that inquires on urban implications of Santiago de Chile as the first experiment of a Neoliberal economy, and offers an opportunity for open discussion and reflections. Especulopolis brought and exposed four specific cases from Santiago de Chile, and three collective actions were developed during our stay in Chicago. Currently, Especulopolis is about to experiment new methodologies and investigate new cases of urban crimes, now our local context. MicroConversaciones / Microconversations Year: 2015 Location: TOMA ́s office. Meetings for the exchange and discussion of experiences linked to territorial and organizational practices. These interdisciplinary congregations aim to promote the generation of a common agenda. Escuela TOMA Year: 2014 Location: Universidad de Chile - Universidad Finis Terrae – UDLA Development of academic courses related to experimentation, research, methodological exploration for urban information-collecting. The members of Toma have imparted classes in subjects such as City Laboratory, Urban Explorations, Critical Research and Architecture Workshops. Fanzine “Nueva Recoleta” Year: 2015 Location: Mil.M2 / Factoría Italia
Invited by Milm2 Cultural Center to produce a Fanzine in the context of a broader project “The Month of Real Estate Speculation”, TOMA created a speculative fiction on the territories where our office was located at the time. La Sede, Taller Azotea UDLA / The Headquartes, Workshop at the Rooftop UDLA Year: 2015 Location: Las Américas University A six-week program with 40 architecture students dedicated to the creation of programs, interventions and infrastructures for the enabling a new space for the students. The process consisted of two stages: Imaginary and Community Linkage, and Design and Construction. As the first stage finished, the program was defined: The Students Headquarters, a place made by and for them, an infrastructure that aims to trigger a new empowered organization. In the second phase, the students designed and built the headquarters, established the protocols of its functioning and presented the project to the community. Infante 1415 #2: El Patio / The Patio Year: 2015 -2016 Location: Infante 1415 Creation Factory, Providencia, Santiago. TOMA was commissioned by the local government to guide the process of the public remodelling of the Patio of Infante 1415 Creation Factory, a second stage of the infrastructural renovation. The mean approach for this phase was the inclusion of the members of the local community into the design and construction process, in order to strengthen a group of empowered neighbours who would be able to organize, appropriate and make decisions over the territory. Text for the Book “Fábula Santiago”, by Camillo Boano and Francisco Vergara of UCL, London Year: 2016 Narrative/Critical text about issues related to Neoliberal Urbanism in the context of the daily disciplinary practice in Santiago de Chile. “Device for Territorial Resistance”, for the book “Público Privado” by Plan Común. Year: 2016 Conceptual proposal for the books, that invites to generate formal strategies to consolidate new public spaces. Our Device for Territorial Resistance aims to promote the visualization, congregation and strategical positioning in territorial conflicts. “Never Discuss Politics at Home” - Exhibition “Occupied” Year: 2016 Location: RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne TOMA has been invited to participate at Occupy, a collective exhibition brings together local and international practitioners and showcases proposals for housing more with less, retrofitting, adapting and repurposing existing structures and environments. Occupied anticipates the critical design
approaches, ideas and strategies of the imminent future. http://designhub.rmit.edu.au/exhibitions-programs/occupied DESAFASE Year: 2016 Location: Providencia, Santiago. Creation and production of a cycle of music and performance, focused on sonorous and spatial experimentation, understood through the body in extended dimension. Collaboration for Indopacific Atlas project by Fake Industries Architectural Agonism Year: 2016 Location: Istanbul Design Biennial “Are we Human”, Istambul, Turkey. Creation of audio pieces for portable maps at the exhibition of Inodopacific Atlas research Project. The audio pieces were in relation to the context and political history of Santiago de Chile. The archive at “La Barraca” Year: 2016 Location: La Florida, Santiago. TOMA was invited to propose a project at the new venue of La Barraca, a countercultural center that has been functioning for over 25 years. The intervention will involve the community to create an archive of the history of La Barraca. Goethe Institut Coffe Shop Year: 2016 Location: Providencia, Santiago. Collective process of design and construction for the remodeling of the cafeteria at the offices of Goethe Institute in Santiago. ESPECULOPOLIS TV Year: 2017 Location: Infante 1415 Creation Factory, Providencia, Santiago. Especulopolis TV is proposed as a research-action project on the audio-visual language generating an opportunity for collective creation of open and critical contents. Especulopolis TV developed a programme schedule that explored different TV formats (Infomercials, Talk shows, Game show, Music Clip, Weather Report, News, Documentary), as an exercise for the production and circulation of contents. These programs were developed and created by number of collaborators and external guests. They were open to the public, and the edited material was published as online chapters.
“Allegados” Cultural Centre of Spain Year: 2017 Location: Providencia, Santiago. The meaning of the word “allegado” in Chile and Latin America is someone who lives temporarily in someone else’s house, usually without being a relative of the owner.The Cultural Centre of Spain in Santiago de Chile commissioned TOMA to build a series of furniture for three spaces: a residence laboratory for artists called “Mate Sur Lab”, a workshop called “La Nube” and a communal terrace called “La Isla Verde”. Instead we proposed them to make a residence in the Cultural Centre for a period of three months to refurbish these three spaces. The idea was to have all the process of research, design and construction inside the place, in order to pursue a deeper relation with the spaces and the inhabitants of the Centre. The process would be open to public and also part of the project, in a performative way. Never Discuss Politics at Home the TV Show Year: 2018 Location: Melbourne and Santiago A TV show that explores the relation between domesticity, global conflicts and media, through the development of a fictional TV programming of a fictional territory. The project aims to question and subvert the complex figure between contemporary global socio-territorial conflicts, mass media, domestic space and our discipline. NDPAH proposes to re-explore the enormous communicative capacity of architecture through a hand-made domestic-television format, in order to construct critical narratives about the most relevant territorial conflicts. The general structure of the project is based on the action of zapping, and it’s developed as short TV capsules to navigate through, arranged in 8 episodes. Its realization was accomplished with several international collaborations from artists, architects and activist. The project was funded by the Graham Foundation Grant for Advanced Studies, in the Fine Arts, awarded by Grupo TOMA in 2016. Bricks and Mercury, a story of buildings and ideas – Article for Architectural Design Magazine Year: 2018 This article self-explores the five years life and work of TOMA, a collective based in Santiago, as an architectural experiment -a disciplinary, social, material and discursive practice- to discuss and disrupt the way the neoliberal project -after 45 years of intensification and expansion- shapes our territories, bodies and minds. Temporal occupations, self-construction, ephemeral communities, independent publications and TV shows, are combined to build a practice that is about the construction -both physical and immaterial- of a collective project, and the disarticulation of the current neoliberal way of life. THE NEVER SCHOOL AND THE OTHER FUTURES- an odissey into alternative politics, architecture, culture and territories Year: 2019 - 2020 A latin-american, para-institutional, anti-bureaucratic, deeply personal, non-hierarchic, horizontal, collective, independent, free, open school. A school to challenge the disciplinarian structure of schools, of which our society is its mirror: its producer and product. A school to learn, not to teach. as a generative and non-productive place, as a collective experience of thinking together. A school as a stimulus for imagination.