How Can We Design Cities Against Violence?

From exclusion to control, architecture can be a powerful tool of oppression. In a fierce manifesto, Jorge Javier demands a shift toward solidarity in urban design.

Since we formed societies as human beings, we have gradually created elements that identify us according to our geographical location. Initially, this was based on a need for integration or protection before it became the foundation for consolidating action and defining ourselves as a group, eventually leading to an urban nucleus.

Thus, as a global society, we must understand our differences—those social and cultural points that make us similar—and if we understand them appropriately, we can break the boundaries of thought, creating a framework of respect that prioritises what makes us unique.

Over time, civil and military conflicts around the world have fostered an ideological and social bias that manifests in hatred based on misunderstanding local cultures and globalisation. This led to an imminent sense of destruction that simply erases key traces of each individual’s identity, demonstrating intolerance in the face of adversity, ultimately attacking architectural heritage while employing control systems that limit accessibility, damaging or destroying constructive manifestations.

Mexico City from above. ‘We must have wider pavements, better lighting, and more public space for mixed uses,’ says Jorge Javier. © Jorge Javier

For example, in Guanajuato, Mexico, there is a very important mining town called Mineral de Pozos that became a ghost town for almost 100 years due to the revolutionary wars and the change of government at the time, leaving a set of mines in oblivion, as well as the first primary school in the country, now reconverted into a magical town and tourist attraction because of this.

Or perhaps, scattered all over the country, there are a large number of archaeological sites buried under new contemporary housing developments without considering the cultural heritage of the former urban settlements surrounding the pyramids, forever losing the pre-Hispanic vestiges.

We have to raise awareness of the importance of preserving the built environment and the significance it holds for people, the immaterial value of the past inscribed in those structures, and to prevent them from becoming ruins within the living context of the city. We must avoid the provocations that accentuate our differences, deny our freedom, and create a state of authoritarian power that blinds us to the limits of our responsibility as citizens.

What Role Does Architecture Play in Addressing Violence in Cities?

Architecture – a medium of social, political, artistic, and commercial expression – is one of our most powerful tools. It represents us from various angles: first, our capacity for organisation; second, our technical ability to go further, higher, and deeper; and finally, as a means of identity, reflecting what we think and know.

‘We have to raise awareness of the importance of preserving the built environment and the significance it holds for people.’ © Jorge Javier

We must educate our peers on architectural principles while embracing each region and country’s local culture. In doing so, we can understand the necessary tectonic needs for good development and timeless design to provide better proposals for the society inhabiting that region.

We should avoid an endless repetition of copies and ubiquity around the world to follow a Western trend. We must respond to the challenges of sustainability and environmental crises to mitigate climate change. We need to go beyond merely commercial criteria in expressing our architectural solutions and address the underlying problems.

We need to pose the right questions regarding the new social challenges arising from migration, internal social displacement, and poverty. As a society, we need to reflect on the intervention of insatiable consumerism altering our surroundings, observing what we have achieved and improved in recent years.

We are on the path to reclaiming local customs, reapplying empirical knowledge to architecture that offers easily executable solutions, approaching modulation through traditional methods that help users understand their built environment and generating the sense of belonging that is essential for cities.

We must begin to avoid having gated communities on the grounds of security, and instead, have wider pavements, better lighting, and more public space for mixed uses that promote the use of the streets, that make them feel alive and above all, that generate a collective consciousness of social responsibility to keep our city clean and stable.

If we measure the scale of the city from the pedestrian perspective, we can have polycentric cities that allow the controlled use of automobiles. According to Jan Gehl, the human vision is horizontal: “We must build attractive and cohesive cities at eye level.” Only then can we mitigate the constant segregation, avoiding the borders generated by wide streets.

Exemplary Projects of Designing Against Violence

For several years, numerous international competitions have been held to foster cultural reconciliation among peoples as well as to understand their emerging issues – such as adequate housing, recycling of abandoned buildings, or the integration of parks and walkways. Hundreds of proposals have been made through social initiatives like Architecture for Humanity, playful solutions like the Migrant Bridge between the United States and Mexico and cultural integrations like the PILARES centres in Mexico City – small neighbourhood hubs that provide social, educational, and cultural infrastructure – have been developed.

Perhaps the most notable were the projects that emerged as part of a national initiative led by the Ministry of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU), led by the collective C733, where they made 36 proposals in 36 months, such as Mercado Matamoros. Mercado Matamoros is a commercial space open to the community, embedded in Matamoros, one of the most conflictive cities in Mexico with very high rates of violence. Through a simple and meaningful architectural project, the space allows cohesion to the environment and dignifies the public realm, intervening and improving the urban context with a set of simple proposals but with great depth to meet local needs.

In addition, the documentary “Urbanized” (2011) provided a global analysis of various social development strategies suited to their environments, featuring diverse expert opinions while understanding the site’s characteristics. More deeply, “The Human Scale” (2012) emphasised the perception of urban life and prompted us to question how we should tackle urban problems centred around pedestrians, recalling the primordial idea of humans as city dwellers.

Finally, let us achieve a rethinking from academia and the professional field regarding the density of urban spaces, creating proposals that guarantee a return to public and mixed-use spaces, promoting social interaction for pedestrians over cars, to have vibrant, safe, and multifaceted cities.