Labor and Construction Systems in Self-Produced Environments

Since 2014

Professor / Lecturer:

Ignacio Cardona

Institutions:

Harvard Graduate School of Design; Universidad Simón Bolívar

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Developed through lectures, workshops, and academic consultations, this teaching material examines construction systems through the relationship between materials, tools, labor, and the socioeconomic environments in which architecture is produced. It proposes a taxonomy of labor to investigate how different forms of production shape architectural processes within an unequal global service economy.

Through a comparative analysis of canonical architecture—including Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House—and typical housing construction in Latin American self-produced environments, the lectures reveal differences and unexpected continuities between seemingly distinct modes of building. Particular attention is given to how construction labor moves fluidly across formal and informal economies, challenging rigid distinctions between these categories and positioning labor as a critical dimension for understanding how architecture is produced.