DU&P JOURNAL PRESENTATION DU&P is indexed by: • DOAJ, Directory of Open Access Journals. EDITORIAL BOARD Directors and Editors-in-Chief EDITORIAL TEAM N° 46 DU&P ASSESSORS GRAPHIC DESIGN: Sebastián Chandía. JOURNAL CONTACT Editorial We have titled the current issue 46 of DU&P journal “Symbolic Spaces”. We refer here to the contributions of environmental psychology to understand the symbolic aspect of space in its double perspective: the symbolic, as a property of space itself and its characteristics, or else, space as a binder of socially determined meanings by the community it represents. Several articles in this issue dialogue with this concept and, in particular, with the ideas of Enric Pol (1997) on a priori and a posteriori symbolisms of space. Pol argues that the symbolic aspect of space can be imposed by dominant powers, being in line with their institutional political ideology (a priori symbolism); and that said meaning can later –or not– be reworked in a communitarian social construction between the individuals who use said space or relate to it, through a process of spatial appropriation (a posteriori symbolism). In this way, government entities signify public spaces, or the objects contained within them, with hegemonic power narratives, whether inclusive, such as the exaltation of their political projects (commemorative monuments) or the construction of national imaginaries (valorisation of heritage), or exclusive, as a response to regional “security” contingencies (migrant population). The reworking of these symbolic aspects by societies, in processes that are equally dynamic over time, allows us to understand their legitimate permanence over time, or, conversely, the expiration of their message (ephemeral monuments). In the understanding that a priori symbolism can create spaces of fear and insecurity, spaces devoid of symbolism, uses and intentions can also acquire this burden for vulnerable social groups, requiring new interventions through their social re-signification and reappropriation. The research presented here directly or indirectly addresses these spatial symbolisms, from their elaborations in specific sociopolitical contexts to their results in the perception and habitability of territories. URBAN AND TERRITORY STUDIES In this section we address different views and issues around the territory and landscape from the field of Urban Studies, with emphasis on the cultural and societal dimensions of spatial and symbolic production. In “Emergency Architecture for the Transient Habitability of Migrants: The Case of Iquique (Northern Chile),” authors Cristina Gómez Johnson and Ludmilla Santos de Aquino explore a relevant and complex topic, namely, the government’s response to the transient habitability of migrant populations arriving in northern Chile through unauthorized crossings, understood as basic humanitarian assistance. Combining anthropological and architectural perspectives, the authors critically analyze the temporary emergency border camps of migration programs, especially the cases of Colchane and Lobitos (Tarapacá Region), revealing a standardized infrastructure that is deficient in terms of habitability, permanence, and social inclusion, and that responds to government criteria of only “momentary” emergency and securitization. In this light, other non-functionalist ways of understanding this architectural space and its inhabitation are examined, as well as the solutions proposed by ephemeral architecture to meet the needs of a dignified habitability in accordance with the transience (migratory intention) of a vulnerable population. CITY AND POLITICS The city expresses a set of phenomena of diverse nature, both social and political, where the ideological dimension manages to crystallize in dynamics of a normative, instrumental, material and spatial order. Both public policies and citizen action appear in this area together with critical theory, aesthetics or political philosophy. The text by María Victoria Correa, Liuba Alberti, Carlos Muñoz and Luis Poo analyses the first processes of declaration and restoration of historical monuments in Chile between 1925 and 1954, a period that goes from the creation of the CMN (National Monuments Council) and its first legal body of conservation to the end of this first series of State actions. It describes the motivations and criteria that guided the declaration or restoration of 39 monuments, following the then prevailing logic of attributing an exceptional, monumental and punctual heritage value by experts. It shows that these monuments correspond mostly to colonial buildings, both religious and military, with historical and artistic values, concentrated in the northern and southern parts of the country. In this way, its listing as heritage would be part of the process of constructing a nationalist ideology, typical of the early days of a Chilean republic that sought to incorporate into the territory and national memory the events associated with its construction and the new provinces annexed to the country, a century and a few decades after its independence. Thus, they highlight the role of heritage architecture as a symbol in the construction of a nation and its imaginary identity. In his article “The Cutzamala Plan Fountain: an ephemeral monument to the irrigation of Mexico City,” Aldo Solano takes us back to the symbolism of public monuments, reconstructing the history of the creation, in 1982, of the Cutzamala Fountain in Mexico City. The fountain, conceived by the government to commemorate the inauguration of the Cutzamala water pumping system for the Federal District, is situated by the author in a century-old tradition of commemorating state hydraulic works in the capital’s public space, this time only for decorative purposes. The work, both monumental and ephemeral, which was removed after 10 years, became an atypical aesthetic object in the urban landscape of the emblematic Paseo de la Reforma, due to its scale, its abstract and brutalist style, its high cost and its novel and excessive introduction of water, in a country context of economic crisis, areas without water supply and an authoritarian government. These aspects, as well as the hydraulic work it commemorated, were criticized in the press of the time, emphasizing its status as a highly politicized monument that did not connect with the collective imagination of citizens. Closing this section, Leyda Rondón offers us in her work a look at the organizational structure of Latin American municipalities or local entities, whose deficiencies she identifies as one of the main aspects that hinder efficient local public management. To this end, she provides some topics to consider a proposal for a non-linear organizational structure that reduces the gap between planning and effective execution of public policies, integrates team functions, optimizes operational efficiency and strengthens internal communication and coordination, as well as transparency, sustainability and citizen participation. Likewise, she analyses the importance of the types of management to be implemented, with an emphasis on the synergy of three dimensions of municipal local management and their interrelations: urban, political, and territorial management. URBAN AND ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTS We conceive of the city as an order in constant transformation and dispute. Its design would come to embody the various conceptions, representations and aspirations of making the city and architecture. Authors debate project and design theories in this thoughtful effort for different scales of intervention.. In the manuscript “Mapping paths: experiences and perceptions of fear and insecurity”, the authors Olivia Fox, Nathaly Contreras and Amira Corio analyze the public space of La Serena city (Chile) as a place that exposes the female body to experiences of insecurity and violence due to sexual and verbal harassment, with its consequent effect on the quality of life and mobility of urban dwelling. To this line of research, which has developed strongly in recent years, the authors, based on previous references, contribute the originality of a double teaching perspective, both in the evaluative aspect of the spatial experiences in journeys to and from the university educational space of academics, officials and students, as well as in a project facet of specific urban intervention proposals, with a focus on gender and inclusion, carried out by architecture students, in the face of perceptions of insecurity correlated with a deficient urban design in infrastructure for care and security. Additionally, this issue includes CEAUP NEWS and PUBLICATION REVIEW sections. .
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