AAD_SU21_009

in transit Tittle

Session

Migratory Entanglements

Fall2020

La Feria De La Paz Y Confraternidad Del Mundo

Fall2020

PHOENIX2100

Fall2020

The Room

Su2021

Reptilia Regno: Geoengineering of Cerro de Cristo Rey Uplift, El Paso Del Norte Borderlands The Oldest House Wrap It Up!

Su2021 Fall2020 Sp2021

Latinx Architectural Identities and Their Entanglements

Sp2021

Blue

Sp2021

Angel Castillo ::: GSAPP MSAAD 2021

This portfolio documents an array of concepts and ideas focusing on the movement of bodies, histories, attitudes, culture, geometries, and empathies through multiscalar spaces.

This digital document is also a reflection of a year spent mostly online. This led to this document being designed primarily as a digital document and not a book. For the ideal viewing experience, please follow the instructions bellow. Thank you.

Ideal Viewing Experience: Adobe Acrobat Ideal Settings: • View > Page Display > Enable Scrolling • View > Page Display > Disable “Gaps Between Pages”

:::text

LA FERIA DE LA PAZ Y CONFRATERNIDAD DEL MUNDO

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n the year 1955, the ribbon was cut at the opening of La Feria de la Paz y Confraternidad del Mundo Libre in Ciudad Trujillo (now Santo Domingo), Dominican Republic. The fair was celebrated on the 25th anniversary of the regime of dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, also known as “El Jefe”.

It is an urban complex made up of modernist diplomatic and governmental buildings and plazas west of the capital. It was intended as a celebration of all the progress the Dominican Republic had accomplished in those 25 years under the rule of El Jefe. Today it is an architectural microcosm of the cultural dynamic of the island-state.

The truth was that La Feria was an attempt at hiding the economic downturn of the country and the various human rights violations being executed by Trujillo and his government. La Feria was largely considered a failure. Onethird of the nation’s budget was spent on it which only served to worsen the economy of the country. Attendance from international diplomats was low and the Dominican Republics’ international image none the better. Five years later, Trujillo was assassinated by a cohort of CIA-backed dissidents of his regime, ironically another victim of the American imperial machine.

Many of the structures built for the government in La Feria, like the Palacio del Congreso (Palace of Congress) and the Edificio de la Suprema Corte (Building of the Supreme Court) are still in use today. This part of La Feria, “El Centro de Los Heroes” (Heroes Center) as it is known, has a stately stature similar to that of Capitol Hill in the United States. These institutions sit in contrast to the state of decay and disuse the diplomatic structures are in today. Surrounded by multitudes of informal commerce, play, and sex work. The once lustrous El Teatro Agua y Luz (Theater of Water and Light), which today sits dilapidated, yet not abandoned. As it sat empty, marginalized Dominicans moved in and turned the once modern icon into their own homes. The neighborhood kids play in many of the makeshift pools that have been jerry-rigged by the theater’s new inhabitants. At night, this

It was critical for me to not only think about my home and roots while at GSAPP, but also to use the tools and courses available to dig deeper at the underlaying conditions of the contemporary struggles taking place around immigration on the island of Hispañola.

:::illustration ES

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Charting the expansiveness of site and disenfranchisement of Haitian and DominicoHaitian labor in the Dominican Republic.

Dominican “Capitol Hill” is populated by sex workers searching for an income to support themselves and their families, people are driven to sex work by the very policies passed in their own workspace.

La Feria was a monument inspired by the modernism of Francoist Spain to maintain and elevate the white upper-class hegemony, nationally and internationally. It was built on record time and on the backs of the very people against which the government carried out human rights violations and aimed to erase.

However, today it sits in a striking dichotomy that juxtaposes its original intentions. Trujillo was one of the most ruthless dictators of the Caribbean Basin. His legacy is ever-present in the Dominican culture, from the antagonistic treatment of Haitian Immigrants to the hostility towards queerness.

Yet, La Feria he left behind serves as a refuge for those very people.

It is this rigid dichotomy between La Feria of the present and La Feria of the past that highlights how the associations of modernism are ever fluid. The architectural style was promoted as being simple and functional, but ultimately employed by and designed for the powerful to remain in power. But it is precisely these qualities of the style that allows it to fall to the background, forgotten, where the marginalized can reclaim it. Modernism was sold as the staple of a progressive and thriving society. An architecture less worried about grandstanding and more focused on being functional. However, only when it is stripped of its authority and power that marginalized citizens can gain agency in these structures.

Album de Oro de La Feria de La Paz y Confraternidad Del

Mundo Libre (1956-1957 : Santo Domingo.

Vol. no. 1 and no. 2. n.p.: El Mirador, 1956.Borch, Corinne van der. Una Mirada, Dos Realidades (One

Gaze, Two Realities), 2015. https://vimeo.com/128309869.

Crassweller, Robert D. Trujillo: The Life and Times of a

Caribbean Dictator. Macmillan, 1966,

pp. 293-299.

Raya, Alejandro. “The Idea of Hispanidad in the

Relationship of Francisco Franco and

Rafael L. Trujillo,” 2004.

PHOENIX

2100 A R P S: O N M E N T N CO IR D E S IG F O R E N V E T A RE C L IM CT U 0 H IT E A L L 202 IN ARC JAM /F -9 5 BEN A410 : D AV ID IC C R IT

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As we approach certain extinction by our own hands, it is time to consider how to make the best out of our predicament. Looking across the United States, Phoenix, Arizona is a city that will become uninhabitable due to extreme heat and dust storms. All the while receiving millions of climate refugees by centuries end. We must make sure those most vulnerable are protected. For these reasons, Phoenix must be transformed for a 22nd-century apocalyptic climate. Let’s take a look at our future, not a future that will be but one that might be. This is not a new world, it is simply an extension of what began in the old one.

Climate Refugees will be accepted into the United States and given a path to Citizenship

Just / Adapt / Develop / Sustain ///

Guaranteed housing, vocational training, income, and citizenship status in exchange for 2 years of service

G. PLAINS SOUTH • Inspired by The Manhattan Project

MID-WEST

• Making the development of new technologies public property • Horizontally organized

TH

EST 2040

LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE RETROFIT

NORTH-WEST G. PLAINS NORTH

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Launched as an effort to accelerate the adaptation all regions of the United States to meet the extreme climate of 2100. Founded under the jurisdiction and principals of the The Green New Deal

LOCAL VOCATIONAL TRAINING

SOUTH-EAST

• Focused on various different industries • Unlike its predecessor it is an open-source effort

NORTH-EAST

• Actively collaborating with other international groups

flow of information and resources

flow of information

Housing / Training / Citizenship ///

AEC

LOCAL BUILDING MATERIAL R+D

LOCENE PRO

CLIMATE CITIZEN CORPS

CT

HO

THE HOLOCENE PROJECT

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SOUTH-WEST

:::script

Year: 2022 In the year 2022, the Thwaites Glacier collapses in the Antarctic bringing about catastrophic sea-level rise worldwide as well as much-needed climate alarm. This motivates the US government to pass a version of The Green New Deal in 2023, however, the stress of climate change begins to be felt across the country. Affluent families begin to flee north, leaving behind urban skeletons.

18 years later, the watered-down Green New Deal helped, but was too little too late, nations were behind in meeting their climate goals. To meet the moment, the US Government undertook its largest effort to date, The Holocene Project in 2040. By redistributing the wealth of the top 400 richest Americans, the project was set up to accelerate the development of technologies and infrastructures to mitigate the effects of cli-

far from their experience. Large efforts by international groups have been made to make asylum-seeking travel in Central America safe. This was largely an effort to discourage the “coyote” human trafficking network.

The Torres family arrived at the US border in November of 2055, where they were welcomed and processed. The United States had reversed its centuries-long policies of asylum and adopted a truly open border policy. They are granted asylum, which now includes climate destruction. Along with being granted asylum, they are also inducted into the Climate Citizen Corps which guarantees housing, income, and training in return for two years of service. After these two years of service, they and their children will be granted US Citizenship and all the benefits that come with it. The Corps sends them to Phoenix Arizona where their journey continues.

vated. They found their new apartment far more cooler and comfortable than their temporary lodging. The Silo also recycled its water and tapped directly to the aquifer below to both replenish it and occasionally source water from it.

Jose Maria, Mateo, and Alejandra were thrilled to learn that they had the freedom to take part in the decoration and painting of the Silo along with their neighbors.

The Torres had to adjust to a new way of life as well. The day and night cycle was mirrored, Night was Day and Day was Night. Mateo was curious about this and his parents explained that because the daytime is so hot, all work and play had to be done at night when it was more pleasant outside. Luckily, their Housing Silo had an artificial Sun that behaved like the real Sun, making it feel daytime. They soon got used to this new way of life.

mate change as well as to accelerate the climate goals of The Green New Deal.

From housing to the power grid, The Holocene Project, which was inspired by The Manhattan Project, established the Citizen Climate Corps to garner the necessary labor force to accomplish its goals. The Corps not only helped those who could not afford to emigrate north but also treated those communities justly during and beyond their mandatory two-year service by providing a liveable income, healthcare, and training.

It accepted all, including the climate refugees coming from the global south seeking safety, like The Torres Family: Year: 2055 Jose Maria and Guillermo Torres lived with their two children, Mateo and Alejandra outside the slum of La Limonada in Guatemala City. They have been living in United Nations-sponsored housing “La Esperanza” for the last year. The Torres family is originally from rural Guatemala and like all their fellow farmers, climate change made it impossible to maintain their farm. They left their land and moved to Guatemala City to find work and continue to provide for their family. It has been 3 years since and even with international help, living conditions continue to worsen. They have decided to move once again, but this time North.

The journey to the United States takes between three to four days via the UN Climate Refugee transportation program. Generations of family and friends painted the trek north as grueling, dangerous, and demoralizing. However, this was

Phoenix, Arizona In the year 2055, Arizona is the top generator of clean energy in the United States. Its location and climate make the state an important resource of solar energy. The Holocene Project’s South-West division has transformed Phoneix into the US Department of Energy’s National Solar Array headquarters, which aims to power the entire nation in a decade. However, climate change has made living in Phoenix difficult.

Month 1 Climate Refugee families that arrive in Phoenix through the Climate Citizen Corps are assigned a liaison and given that time to adjust and get comfortable and familiar with their new environment. During this time they are introduced to their temporary home and the community around them. They are oriented in the way of life in the desert.

Their temporary home in Westglen Square was initially owned by a family that fled North only a few years prior. The house was heavily modified to withstand the extreme desert climate and occasional desert storms. Now it was the property of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development which uses abandoned homes to temporarily house Climate Refugees while more adequate and safe housing is built.

A few weeks later they moved into their new permanent home in a newly constructed Housing Silo.

All new construction is underground and built using the very earth and caliche that is exca-

Guillermo and Jose Maria were assigned new jobs by the CCC. Guillermo joined the Solar Array Development team and Jose Maria The Holocene Design And Construction team. There they both were trained and educated in the aspects of both trades.

Guillermo learned about the recent developments in solar photovoltaic technologies and energy storage while Jose Maria gained a new understanding of the subsurface buildings as well as the low carbon benefits of rammed earth and cob construction. Interesting to her was learning about the techniques of turning caliche into an earthen cement resource to aid in construction.

Their kids meanwhile attended school and gained the education they were missing.

After finishing their two-year contract with the CCC, they decide to renew it and continue to work and live in the new Phoenix.

Decades later, Climate Change was significantly slowed down, but it will be centuries before it’s reversed. However, the adaptation of Phoenix was successful. At the end of the century, the city is unrecognizable. Life in the desert was never the same again, but the community is strong and vibrant among the new generation in the desert.

:::script

THE ROOM: GOWANUS2100

AT E: C L IM N IN G S H O P IO IS K ENV ER WOR M S U M E R 2021 E IT H M SA K S U M : VA N E S IC IT CR

IN THE DARK ROOM Welcome to the room.

This is a space of the known and the unknown, the familiar and the strange, the despair and the possibilities.

This is a space to explore, to contemplate, to create and to change.

Human beings like you distinguish themselves from other creatures by their cognitive capabilities.

This room helps you to envision, imagine, feel and connect with the futures that you believe in.

Now, it’s time for you to take the journey to your future in the year 2100.

4 DEGREE This is a future where global temperature is four degrees higher than our world now. Maybe you have never realized it at all, but as a resident of Gowanus, you are officially a climate refugee.

Sea level rise inundated your neighborhood and your home is severely damaged in the increasingly stronger and more frequent storm events.

Repairing your coastal home is, basically, economically infeasible.

Architecture’s role in our climate crisis is usually only though of as building our future sustainable structures.

However our tool set is far more versatile. Using engaging technologies like Virtual Reality, we are capable of crafting uniquely architecture futures to trigger empathy towards our climate crisis. The Room is a interactive virtual reality experience that has the user meet an alien voice offering guidance. The user is then sent to three futures of Gowanus, Brooklyn: 1.5 Degree Warming, 4 Degree Warming and 6 Degree Warming. Each one worse than the last. Is the experience enough to evoke empathy?

To make matters worse, you are also leaving your home because you fear being intoxicated by the pollutants in the Gowanus river.

Remember, the Gowanus river is heavily polluted by chemicals from the Industrial Age. The storm water now washing over you mixes with enormous amounts of toxins from the city’s streets into the coastal water.

That murky, disgusting and dangerous water is rising rapidly underneath you now.

What would you do, if you were to live in a future like this? Can you find a way to thrive? Can you restore your habitat?

BACK IN THE ROOM If you thought nothing could be worse than the last future you visited, you are wrong.

6 DEGREE You are now in a future where global temperature is six degrees higher.

Maybe the number does not make sense to you, but the popularized account of the end of the Jurassic may be an illustrative reference point for a drastically warming planet.

Look around you.

Similar to the end of the Jurassic, life is going extinct.

Microorganisms, fungus, and algae are taking over.

They claimed the ground, the walls and every structure.

How did you get here?

Are you still alive?

Where do you call home?

BACK IN THE ROOM

This is only a future that could be, not one that will be.

1.5 DEGREE Your future may be different.

Human scientists estimate that containing global warming to below 1.5 degree would “reduce the odds of initiating the most dangerous and irreversible effects of climate change And this is what a 1.5 degree future may look like.

This is a brighter future, one where your offspring can continue to live in and expand to the rest of the Universe.

IN THE ROOM AGAIN Welcome back.

How did that make you feel?

What are you thinking about ? What are going to do tomorrow?

Whatever you take away from this intervention, we hope you understand that giving up is a selfish act.

An act that robs those who come after you of their agency.

Remember, your species has it’s future on its hands.

1.5 Degree World

4 Degree World

6 Degree World

REPTILIA REGNO: GEOENGINEERING OF CERRO DE CRISTO REY UPLIFT, EL PASO DEL NORTE BORDERLANDS

ES TUR ER RUC UELL IO S T 21 B D EN M N H 20 A P R L E E R ST DE MM BOR IPA + / SU A KR 3-10 A485 S: E R S E L IC C R IT C Y) N (A G E

The Exotic wildlife trade is the 2nd most expensive illicit trade in the world behind drugs, and the United States is one of it’s largest costumers. Trade threatens biodiversity, and the fight against it in the US border seems to only reinforce it. This project attempts at imagining a different type of border. One that serves as a sanctuary for species that are victims of illicit wildlife trade. Using geoengineering and re-structuring of government jurisdictions at the US Borderlands, “Reptilia Regno” turns Cerro de Cristo Rey near El Paso, Texas into a sanctuary and hatchery for Exotic Reptiles to become less so as well as safe.

:::physical model

THE OLDEST HOUSE

R IE S MET GEO N A L 20 IO N S IT A L L 20 N TRA F RDA 6-1 / A JO A485 : J O S H U IC C R IT

The Oldest House explores tilling and modular geometric practices via casting practices. Exploring the application of silicone, cement and metal as a three dimensional geometric design tool. This course was used as an excuse to entertain other interests outside of architecture and building. I gained new skill-sets and learned a thing or two about metal casting along the way.

The physical making process proved therapeutic during this pandemic.

WRAP IT UP! The Williamsbridge Workshop is a community centered initiative where underserved young adults between the ages of 18-24 have access to paid handson training and education in a range of trades and skills from local master workers. The workshop aims to bridge trans-generational divides through the exchange of knowledge that gives young adults the skills necessary for economic mobility.

Together, via the Williamsbridge Workshop, neighbors can create “something from nothing” by building a healing landscape that forms the foundation for a prosperous and thriving community.

E, S PA C IT IO N G UP ED IN X K N TA RO D IO: C E: B 21 STU PLA 20 IN G R IN G E J O H N P MAK S 6-8 / OOK A410 : N IN A C IC C R IT

:::book

LATINX ARCHITECTURE AND ITS ENTANGLEMENTS AT IN R IC L

S @/X

L PAT IA

NT X-C E R N: E ODE M ) (U N ES 21 IL LO CT IC R IN G 20 AST ZA PRA EL C RAN / SP G R 9 N A 8 A A43 U IS C U O P P & IC: L R C R IT : E M ILY P U O GR

This book seeks to understand the nuances of how Latinx architects working in the United States navigate issues of identity, cultural appropriation (complete acceptance of U.S. culture), and counter appropriation (complete rejection of U.S. culture). There are also firms who are somewhere in between who practice acculturation (a balance of both). As you will learn, whether on the cultural appropriation side of the spectrum, like that of Arquitectonica, or on the counter appropriation side, like that of Estudio Cruz + Fonna Forman, Latinx architects struggle to assimilate into American culture and this rejection creates issues of identity. In other words, Latinx architects are damned if they do (cultural appropriation) and damned if they don’t (counter appropriation).

To emphazise the concept, the book is split in two. Read on side of the book first, then flip it to read the rest. Each side is dedicated to one architect

:::book

BLUE

RAP POG + TY N IG S 2021 I: D E G A P / S P R IN G C H O I 6 AI A471 : YO O N J IC C R IT

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Blue is an imaginary “Modern Museum” catalog that an unsuspecting patron has picked up. What this patron will come to realize is that a stranger has slipped pieces of

loose vellum with printed text in between every spread of the book. Upon further inspection, the patron recognizes the excerpts from Ta-Nehisi Coates book “The Water Dancer”. The patron then spends the rest of their time in the museum reading the text and deciphering its connections with the paintings of the catalog.

Blue is a typographic intervention on an imaginary existing museum catalog.

Thank you viewing.