Architecture as Urban Link: Public Connectivity in the Self-Produced City

2014

Faculty:

Ignacio Cardona, Instructor; Rodrigo Guerra, Visiting Professor

Student:

Karen Mata

Institutions:

Universidad Simón Bolívar

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Developed within the Delirious Self-Production studio in Petare, this student project exemplifies how architecture can operate as an Urban Link across the topographic fractures that contribute to the isolation of self-produced environments. Rather than treating the building as an autonomous object, the proposal transforms a vertical tower into an extension of the city’s pedestrian and public-space systems.

The building establishes vertical and horizontal connections between different elevations, while its lower levels remain open to create public space and continuity with existing pedestrian paths. Commercial programs animate these connections while maintaining public circulation through and across the building. The project deliberately blurs the boundary between architecture and urban design, transforming the building into civic infrastructure through which public space extends continuously across open and enclosed spaces.