The city of indeterminacy

Development of methodologies and strategies for its intervention

Abstract

Contemporary cities, mainly those from Latin American countries, undergo complex processes of not only physical but also social and symbolic dispersion. In this context, public space is not allowed to properly define itself as articulator and condenser of social life. Moreover, the current conditions of production are far from
providing certainties and solid foundations from which to start thinking about. Recognizing this disciplinary scenario, the present article tries to reflect on the possibilities of intervention on non–consolidated, peripheral, marginalized urban situations.
These unstable, entropic territories are questioning conventional methodological tools, this leading to imagining creative and novel forms of observation and action in the city that account for this complex reality instead of reducing it to simple or synthesized expressions. Thus, this work makes a double review: on the one hand, it proposes to explore alternative methodologies to perform analysis on how to go
about experiencing the public space; on the other, it tries to encourage the development of diagrammatic strategies for architectural / urban intervention in contexts of indetermination.