PLAS Graduate Works-in-Progress: Elis Mendoza & Felice Physioc

Photo: courtesy of Cuny Foundation

PROJECT KUCHUBA’L: ARCHITECTURE AS PROCESS, EXHIBITION, AND LIVE-LEARNING MODEL

Elis Mendoza (Architecture)

In 1976, after a devastating earthquake hit Guatemala, dozens of international relief and voluntary agencies arrived at the capital to assist in the emergency. After the government divided the territory among the newly arrived specialists, and with no clear focal point, each agency developed a response according to what they saw as immediate needs. Oxfam and World Neighbors, who already had operating development programs in the region, brought in disaster specialist Fred Cuny to design a housing strategy. Cuny came up with a multi-focus project that used self-building and roof lending principles common to development programs. However, the proposal included novel additions like a “model house,” in which aid workers alphabetized and trained residents in local trades, and engineers taught masons how to build seismic-resistant houses.

Photo courtesy of Cuny Foundation

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TRAVERSING THE COLONIAL ANDES: SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS OF CIRCULATION FROM THE PAMPAS TO LIMA

Felice Physioc (History)

Physioc’s dissertation explains how Spanish colonial merchants used Inkan roadways, waystations and patterns of organizing labor to meet the needs of commercial expansion. She looks at how the increasing volume of commerce caused material transformations of the landscape and placed pressure on social relationships that founded local community organization.

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