 
Peru Embassy Project
20 June - 18 July
Peruvian Embassy
52 Sloane Street, SW1X 9SP
 
  
GROWING PAINS: THE ‘RE-INVASION’ OF THE SHANTYTOWN
Within the framework of the LFA 2008, the Embassy of Peru in the United Kingdom with the collaboration of four young Peruvian architects living and working in London presents an exhibition of ‘hypothetical architectural projects’ which embark upon the exploration of ideas, concepts, theories and utopias in relation to the urban amalgam originated from the expansion of shantytowns around the city of Lima in recent decades.
The abstract yet innovative visions introduced here have been inspired both by the reality of the milieu faced by the squatter settler, and the peculiar coexistence of traditional urban centres with non-traditional, unregulated and rather chaotic processes of urban settlement in the surroundings of the enlarging metropolis.
Architecture has more often than not been considered the precinct of large-scale, futuristic models for the city. By refocusing its attention to the existing clash between formal and informal approaches to urban growth in developing countries –taking Lima as a case study–, this exhibition endeavours first and foremost to raise awareness about this entangling and already unsustainable situation.
Likewise, drawing on diverse backgrounds, interests and approaches these ‘fresh’ proposals challenge existing perceptions about architecture. By maximising the use of scarce resources available to squatter settlers, the projects intend to rediscover popular idiosyncrasies and inventiveness –nurtured by modern-day life aesthetics and values– as means of dealing with practical problems in contemporary urban development in Peru.
Participant architecs: Alberto Domínguez, Federico Dünkelberg, Sophie Le Bienvenu, Lucía Pflucker and Ana Silvia Gordon.
Curator: Manuel Mindreau.
Event website
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