Alexandra Heritage Centre

Contemporary architecture counts numerous examples of projects that blend into or echo the historic urban fabric of their host city. By the same token, there are many possible takes on how to preserve and restore cultural heritage. These range from urban microsurgery aimed at preserving the memory of the past, to building on what has already been built, right through to more radical reconstruction operations that build over the original vestiges of the past. Considering the city as a research laboratory, this article looks specifically at the question of social and collective housing, and how continuity is today interpreted and designed in different cultural contexts. But before examining the project dealt with in this issue, it is useful to mention the work of two architects – both winners of the prestigious Pritzker Prize – for whom the relationship between architecture, community, and social housing is of significant importance. On the one hand, Álvaro Siza, whose Portugal pavilion at the 15^th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice (2016) reconstructed the architect’s dialogue with the end-users of his neighborhood renovation projects in Porto, Berlin, The Hague, and Venice, revealing how he went about approaching the resident communities, welcoming observations, accepting direct exchange, and taking account of the opinions – devoid of cultural filters – of local inhabitants, the future occupants of his projects. On the other, Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, founder of the practice Elemental, whose approach to the underlying issue facing social housing – limited economic resources, and urgent housing needs – is illustrated by the radical strategy developed with his emblematic Quinta Monroy project (2003). Instead of building minimal, self-contained dwellings, Aravena adopted an incremental system. Each building was given a solid, concrete structural base predisposed for future...

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