Politics of Fabrications Laboratory (PFL) is a research-through-design initiative which explores the changing political implications of material experimentation when applied to the construction of urban public space. This initiative explores the changing political implications of material experimentations when applied to the construction of urban public space. PFL Visiting School also addresses new ways of teaching, alternative ways of developing architectural practices, innovative trajectories between digital fabrication and lowtech construction, and new ways of redistributing the role of architects and users. It is precisely this link between the social, economic and cultural dimensions of design and the new ways of practicing architecture which allows us to assess the sociopolitical potential of alternative modes of making.
Dancing Structure for Havana City Carnival by Lyza Rudky AA PFI (2010)
As part of an interest in the relationship between particular socio-cultural conditions and fabrication techniques, the three first workshops proposed will be based on Latin-American contexts. The energetic everyday life in these cities has been paralleled with radical experimentations since the early 1950s. From Felix Candela’s double curvature concrete shells to Eladio Dieste’s undulated brick surfaces, Latino American architecture has demonstrated an outstanding vitality in material expression. The capacity of this work to change the relationship between architecture and the public will be used to open up creativity in current digital fabrication experiments.
