VIEWPOINTS

Grassroots Design
— Sergio Veyzaga

Lessons from the Abya Yala grassroots social movement in Bolivia

The Monobloc at the UMSA university campus in La Paz Bolivia is the product of an aesthetic interpretation of the ruins in Tiwanaku, a city originally built on the shores of Lake Titicaca in the Andes, which is still a cornerstone of the Aymara people's identity.

This strong identity, combined with social engagement, helped to create one of the most avant-garde social movements in Bolivia of the twenty-first century, the Abya Yala grassroots social movement. While the lessons for social and political sciences are quite obvious, this paper will focus on their translation to architectural design.

Aruskipasipxañanakasakipunirakispawa[1]

Must communicate with each other, despite our differences, and solve issues through communication

If communication is the core of the Aymaran concept Aruskipasipxañanakasakipunirakispawa, it has to act as a bridge between people if “good living” is to be achieved. While communication has to be reproduced through state policies, its grassroots processes guarantee a non-hierarchical, or horizontal, perspective as a means to increase participation.

Starting from the individual, or Suma Jaqaña[2], communication encompasses an individual introspection compatible with the deconstruction of, or a different perspective on, the established order. In other words, there is no negation of Yyambae[3], or individuality and its faculty of dissent. The communication process, or Jaqiaru[4], is the means to achieve Suma Quamaña[5] or “good living” at the communitarian level. “Good living” dispenses with sectarian positions, achieving instead a pluri-diversity of perspectives or viewpoints in order to achieve harmony of living, or Khuska Qamaña[6].

While pluri-diversity and tolerance are at the forefront of Abya Yala[7] Native American cultures, its application through grassroots organizations is a practical way of developing this understanding of reality. The Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples or IPSP[8] in Bolivia has been a vanguard of Abya Yala grassroots organizations, while having as its core Indigenous leading concepts of Jaqiaru, where a pluri-diverse number of communities and collectives can find common ground. This diversity includes organizations with strong cultural roots, such as Ayllus[9] and Markas[10], which tend to be related to Abya Yala movements. It is not unusual for a variety of labour unions representing factory workers and miners, for example, to be included in the broader Indigenous Feminist movement, or Bartolinas[11]. The pluri-diversity is expanded by more ideologically led organizations like communist, feminist, and anarchist organizations in the form of political or individual associations.

To complete the path from Suma Jaqaña to Khuska Qamaña, pluri-diversity needs a process of deliberation in the Suma Quamaña, with the main requirement being that we see with our ears[12]. Jaqiaru is a tool for learning to listen, to share, and to have empathy. The Khuska Qamaña is only achieved when the pluri-diversity of communities share common agreements. These agreements are not static and may be modified over time as needed. 

The achievement of common ground and harmony, or Khuska Qamaña, involves Jaqiaru for agreements and Chacha-warmi[13] for opposing views. Chacha-warmi works to resolve dichotomies rather than to expand misunderstandings. In the words of the Aymaran philosopher David Choquehuanca, “It requires that we be free and balanced individuals to build harmonious relationships with others and with our environment; it is urgent that we be beings capable of sustaining equilibrium for ourselves and for the community.”[14]

The Social Construction of Reality

Since society exists as both objective and subjective reality, any adequate theoretical understanding of it must comprehend both these aspects.[15]

One of the major concerns in social sciences is the systematization (and separation) of societal and individual behaviour. Beyond any methodological individual or collective[16] assessment, it needs to be noted that society is a social construction[17]. As a result, we use normative statements[18] which result from subjective interpretations. 

Architectural design since Alberti[19] has heralded a sense of authorship, or the design systematization of the living environment. This involves looking to music scales during the Renaissance, or following the aesthetic path of abstract painting in the early twentieth century. Architectural theory has been the foundation on which this sense of an author- or designer- centered approach has been legitimized, basically deconstructing and inverting the pyramid under which the process of the social construction of reality is built.

Society is a human production that externalizes some behaviours as activities. These behaviours became a Habitus through a process of repetition. To be absorbed into the local culture, they are institutionalized, and finally justified, as a means to being legitimized.

While this social construction of reality has a less participative path than Khuska Qamaña, it still retains grassroots values. On the contrary, the sense of authorship in architecture is problematically hierarchical.

Similar issues occur when a placemaking process combines with a phenomenological approach[23] (phenomenology being the study of structures of consciousness), leading to the experience of a first-person point of view being exercised upon the built environment.

A Continuous Placemaking Process

“The wellbeing of all, is our own personal wellbeing, that to help is a reason to grow and be happy, that to resign for the benefit of the other makes us feel strengthened. That to unite and recognize ourselves in the whole is the path of yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever, a path from which we have never strayed.” —David Choquehuanca[24]

A sense of wellbeing can (re)produce an attachment to a built environment, enacting a transition from space to place, following an organic, grassroots path. In design theory and its translation to the design practice, phenomenology tries to produce meaningful spaces or places, claiming to reveal a richer understanding of the world. Yet, it is in its “claim” to understanding that the weakness of the phenomenological project is revealed. 

The conceptual basis for the translation of placemaking experience from phenomenology to architecture complicates space. It causes space to be perceived not as abstract, neutral space, but as the space of lived experience. This leaves the architectural project as an exclusive field for designers, where users are only allowed to have sensorial engagement (no authorship or creation). Although phenomenology lacks normative foundations and does not institutionalize its purpose, habitualization still happens, which remains a preconceived path to produce built environments and likewise remains another means to a priori legitimization.

In a search for a meaningful experience within our surroundings, one can look to a cross-cultural conceptual experience: from Alvar Aalto[25] to Tadao Ando[26], for example. The design might go beyond the theories of Martin Heidegger[27] or Maurice Merleau-Ponty[28], who explore phenomenological or the conscious effects of place, but the design still lacks the user’s touch in the process. The essential user engagement in the design of the built environment is still missing.

In projects where users are not only data, they need to be essential participants in the design process. If there is a basic human need, a group or collective will search for design alternatives. The role of the architect, then, is to give them the necessary tools for deliberation and for the creation of a self-design process. This role opposes the phenomenological approach that aims to  create places that ultimately function as mere spaces realized as a built product. Architects need to be observers in the initial/primary design process rather than translators of the users’ experiences.

 One of the prime examples of community engagement is Francis Kéré’s concept of architecture as "a process held together with people"[29]. This concept acts as a cornerstone of his built projects in Burkina Faso[30] and circumscribes the collective into their own appropriation and awareness of the primary design process. When the primary design process is finished, architects should look for flexibility so that a project can be adjustable, dynamic, and moveable; for example, Archigram’s proposed “Plug-in City,” which can be transported between continents[31], and Metabolist’s design proposed to mimic organic growth on buildings[32]. During the mid-twentieth century, this inherent flexibility was a component of open floor plans and one of Le Corbusier’s “Five Points of Architecture”.[33]

In the same way that Khuska Qamaña is an open conversation ontologically, the architectural project is understood as an open-ended built product.

A grassroots design approach emerges as a deconstruction of the grand narrative of a codified architectural theoretical approach, as deconstruction is just a different way to approach similar environments. The validity of any deconstruction is to present itself as an alternative to an existing method, which does not imply the erasure of the prior design narrative.

The scale of a grassroots design approach can be achieved through the development of the capacity to go beyond groups or ethnographic applications, which, most importantly, enables continuous improvement and adaption over time.

[1] Aruskipasipxañanakasakipunirakispawa is an Aymara term that emphasizes the need for communication to solve issues. Contreras Baspineiro, Adalid. “2-La Comunicación Para El Vivir Bien / Buen Vivir.” In La Palabra Que Camina, 63. Quito, Pichincha: Ciespal, 2016.

[2] Suma Jaqaña is an Aymara term which emphasizes individual wellbeing. Contreras Baspineiro, Adalid. “2.-La Comunicación Para El Vivir Bien / Buen Vivir.” In La Palabra Que Camina, 76. Quito, Pichincha: Ciespal, 2016. 

[3] Yyambae is a Guarani term which means a person without an owner. Choquehuanca, David. “Speech of David Choquehuanca.” Debates Indigenas, December 1, 2020. https://debatesindigenas.org/ENG.html. 

[4] Jaqiaru is an Aymara term that emphasizes the people’s word. Contreras Baspineiro, Adalid. “2.-La Comunicación Para El Vivir Bien / Buen Vivir.” In La Palabra Que Camina, 76. Quito, Pichincha: Ciespal, 2016.

[5] Suma Quamaña is an Aymara term which emphasizes communitarian life. Contreras Baspineiro, Adalid. “1.- El Vivir Bien/Buen Vivir: Una Cosmovisión Que Comunica.” In La Palabra Que Camina, 76. Quito, Pichincha: Ciespal, 2016.

[6] Qamaña is an Aymara term that emphasizes the harmony that comes from living well. Contreras Baspineiro, Adalid. “1.- El Vivir Bien/Buen Vivir: Una Cosmovisión Que Comunica.” In La Palabra Que Camina, 76. Quito, Pichincha: Ciespal, 2016.

[7] Abya Yala is a term that describes  Amerindian cultures. Choquehuanca, David. “Speech of David Choquehuanca.” Debates Indigenas, December 1, 2020. https://debatesindigenas.org/ENG.html.

[8] Barrientos, María Reneé. “MAS-IPSP, A Structure In Resistance,” November 3, 2020. https://latinoamerica21.com/en/mas-ipsp-a-structure-in-resistance/.

[9] Ayllus is an Aymara  term that means community. Choquehuanca, David. “Speech of David Choquehuanca.” Debates Indigenas, December 1, 2020. https://debatesindigenas.org/ENG/ns/81-speech-david-choquehuanca.html.

[10] Markas is an Aymara  term that means village. Choquehuanca, David. “Speech of David Choquehuanca.” Debates Indigenas, December 1, 2020. https://debatesindigenas.org/ENG/ns/81-speech-david-choquehuanca.html.

[11] Hammad, Luzdary. “Building Women’s Solidarity to Advance Women’s Rights in Bolivia.” USF Scholarship: a digital repository, no. 12 (2013): 80.

[12] Choquehuanca, David. “Speech of David Choquehuanca.” Debates Indigenas, December 1, 2020. https://debatesindigenas.org/ENG/ns/81-speech-david-choquehuanca.html.

[13] Chacha-warmi is an Aymara term that emphasizes how opposites complement each other. Choquehuanca, David. “Speech of David Choquehuanca.” Debates Indigenas, December 1, 2020. https://debatesindigenas.org/ENG/ns/81-speech-david-choquehuanca.html.

[14] Choquehuanca, David. “Speech of David Choquehuanca.” Debates Indigenas, December 1, 2020. https://debatesindigenas.org/ENG/ns/81-speech-david-choquehuanca.html.

[15] Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann. “Three: Society as Subjective Reality.” In The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, 149. New York: Open Road Media, 2011.

[16] Methodological individualism was introduced by Max Weber as a methodological precept for the social sciences, most importantly in the first chapter of Economy and Society (1922). It claims that social phenomena must be explained by showing how they result from individual actions while methodological holism/collectivism includes a form of explanatory generalization. Heath, Joseph. “Methodological Individualism,” April 27, 2020. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/methodological-individualism/.

[17] Berger and Luckmann argue that all knowledge, including the most basic, taken-for-granted common sense knowledge of everyday reality, is derived from and maintained by social interactions. Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann. “One: The Foundations of Knowledge in Everyday Life .” In The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, 43–43. New York: Open Road Media, 2011.

[18] A normative statement is a claim about how things ought to be. Both of its components, normativity and its essentiality to meaning/content, can be interpreted in a number of different ways. Glüer, Kathrin and Åsa Wikforss. “The Normativity of Meaning and Content.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, January 12, 2018. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/meaning-normativity/.

[19] Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472 CE) was an Italian scholar, architect, mathematician, and advocate of Renaissance humanism. Alberti famously wrote the treatise On Architecture, in which he outlines the key elements of classical architecture and how these might be reused in contemporary buildings. Cartwright, Mark. “Leon Battista Alberti,” February 01, 2021. https://www.ancient.eu/Leon_Battista_Alberti.

[20] Legitimation is a means by which something can be “explained” and justified. Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann. “Two: Society as Objective Reality .” In The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, 79. New York: Open Road Media, 2011.

[21] Ways by which something can be “explained” and justified. Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann. “Two: Society as Objective Reality.” In The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, 79. New York: Open Road Media, 2011.

[22] A human activity is subject to habitualization. Any action that is repeated frequently becomes cast into a pattern, which can then be reproduced with an economy of effort. and which, ipso facto, is apprehended by its performer as that pattern. Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann. “Two: Society as Objective Reality .” In The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, 71. New York: Open Road Media, 2011.

[23] Smith, David Woodruff. “Phenomenology,” December 16, 2013. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/.

[24] Choquehuanca, David. “Speech of David Choquehuanca.” Debates Indigenas, December 1, 2020. https://debatesindigenas.org/ENG.html.

[25] Team, AD Editorial. “Spotlight: Alvar Aalto,” February 3, 2018. https://www.archdaily.com/326424/happy-115th-birthday-alvar-aalto. 

[26] Allen, Katherine. “Spotlight: Tadao Ando.” ArchDaily. ArchDaily, September 13, 2018. https://www.archdaily.com/427695/happy-birthday-tadao-ando.

[27] Wheeler, Michael. “Martin Heidegger.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, October 12, 2011. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heidegger/.

[28] Toadvine, Ted. “Maurice Merleau-Ponty.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, September 14, 2016. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/merleau-ponty/. 

[29] Hill, John. “Diébédo Francis Kéré: Architecture Is a Wake-up Call.” World. Accessed March 02, 2021. https://www.world-architects.com/en/architecture-news/film/diebedo-francis-kere-architecture-is-a-wake-up-call.

[30] Cardenas, Daniela. “Primary School in Gando / Kéré Architecture.” ArchDaily. ArchDaily, April 22, 2016. https://www.archdaily.com/785955/primary-school-in-gando-kere-architecture.

[31] Merin, Gili. “AD Classics: The Plug-In City / Peter Cook, Archigram.” ArchDaily. ArchDaily, July 10, 2013. https://www.archdaily.com/399329/ad-classics-the-plug-in-city-peter-cook-archigram.

[32] “Metabolist Architecture:  Japanese Architectural Movement.” ArchEyes, December 11, 2020. https://archeyes.com/tag/metabolism-architecture/.

[33]  Kohlstedt, Kurt. “Machines for Living In: Le Corbusier's Pivotal ‘Five Points of Architecture.’” 99% Invisible, May 24, 2018. https://99percentinvisible.org/article/machines-living-le-cobusiers-pivotal-five-points-architecture/.

References

Choquehuanca, David. “Inauguration speech David Choquehuanca, Bolivia 2020.”

YouTube, Nov. 12, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcOKNs8hfsU

Kéré, Diébédo Francis. “Diébédo Francis Kéré: How to build with clay... and community.” YouTube, Dec. 10, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD23gIlr52Y

Dezeen. “Archigram's Instant City concept enables ‘a village to become a kind of city for a week’” | VDF.” YouTube, May 13, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzVutKhNsq8&t=12s

Huang, Xin. “Japanese Metabolism & Prefabrication Modularization.” YouTube, Dec. 21, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsO_ix6jVf4&t=163s

Sergio Veyzaga is a Calgary resident with cultural ancestry from the Aymara people of the Andes.