How was i so lucky to trip over this? UBA (University of Buenos Aires) has a Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño, y Urbanismo with a class dedicated to finding need-based architecture projects around the city. They're all fairly small projects--so i thought--to design and build homes, kitchens, clinics, etc. for people who don't mind our inexperience. The coordinators are this really cool architecture couple who check in on me (their poor little exchange student) every week. The class is an amazing machine of 11 projects going on at once. I am in one group who gets to travel up to San Martín, put myself in the shoes of yet another world only a few miles away, and build basic shelters for nine families up there. I said before that Argentina is chaotic, but after being in this class for a few weeks and seeing what we're supposedly going to get done before December, i think it's that they're just much less preoccupied with the useless logistics!! Code? Construction documents? Forget those. I have a measuring tape and two hands haha.
The first week we visited San Martín, a troop of locals welcomed us into their middle-class barrio. (If that was middle class, i cannot begin to imagine what the poor villas are like. These peoples' bathrooms were a stream running through their front yard.) A bubbly, enthusiastic, super-hospitable woman vested in a purple jumpsuit and many gold necklaces invited us to her table for tea and sweets to talk about the future of the neighborhood. Since her house was only two small rooms and there were at least 20 of us, we all quickly uprooted the tables and cloths to the alley right outside. It was the coolest teatime i've ever had. I was mostly--actually entirely--just listening. We spent an hour learning each others' names, another hour talking about the culture of the people, and while some group members explored the houses i got caught up talking to the woman and her best friend. Everything is SO RELAXED and yet SO PURPOSEFUL. Argentines are a people very intent on living the moment at hand, and seem not to worry about things more than about 30-seconds into the future. It really is a bizarre time-warp feeling--i'm always thinking about what we should be doing, and then have to think quickly and creatively to keep up with the intense spontaneity. I guess i'm learning pretty well, because when i saw something interesting or someone i wanted to talk to, i followed normal Argentine behavior and went to investigate. The group called me on a phone a few times to get me back haha. I guess i really am that annoying exchange student.
It was worth it, though, as one young guy invited my friend and i into his house that he had just built for his family. The walls were made of thin scraps of wood patched together, and had a membrane (tarp-like) roof. His kitchen, one bed, electricity wires all over the place, TV, fridge, wife, 2 kids, and everything else you need to live life were inside a room about as big as this bedroom i get to live in right now. We talked to them for a while. Their spirit was happy, the kids were gorgeous, and the guy seemed really proud to have built this himself. I was impressed, as it was pretty clear he invented all the construction techniques himself. He assured me it was just fine to take this photo (even though i still felt horribly exploitative for weeks.)
We have made a few more trips up to the barrio since, each time running our plans by the families with whom we're working. My friend Diego and i are building a roof, a third room, and tiling the bathroom of of Tuli's house. With $2000 pesos (about $500 US dollars), you can't do a whole lot. So we're thinking in stages, doing it step-by-step the Argentine way, and getting as far as we can. An example of some of the MAJOR things to keep in mind: make a space for neighbors to take maté together outside (OF COURSE), involve the family in everything so they're learning techniques as well as getting what they're looking for, and make it a house that lasts into the future (whether that means planning the stages wisely, orientating the rooms carefully so they use the sun's energy really well, building the grade up so it never floods again, or all of the above!).
This is so, so exciting for me. On the one hand, i'm stoked to give some unique skills i suddenly realized i've acquired over the past three years of school (it's suspiciously coincidental how these visions of sustainable architecture in Argentina and Oregon are merging, no?:)). And on the even bigger hand, i am floored at how much these people are giving back to me. There's a concept here that doesn't translate into English: it's called "solidaridad." It's the all-inclusive concept of volunteerism, that equally recognizes the giver and receiver. It describes how we're all benefiting equally from each other. This value is so central to the mindset here--people help each other out without considering the payback they'll receive, or without feeling validated by their "good deed." There is no better-off person in the equation. The needs of the receiver are never ever met from a sense of charity, but a sense of "i am contributing what i have to give because someone needs it, KNOWING automatically they have just as much to teach/give/contribute to me in SOME way. We help each other like one organism. That's just what we do." It's pretty amazing to see it in subconscious action in the rhythm of a society. And quite humbling to admit this is somehow a new concept.
