Founded by Gregory Melitonov and Ines Guzman of architecture and design firm Taller KEN, the program brings together 15 early-career architects and designers to realize an urban intervention, providing them with hands-on experience in design, construction, and community engagement with residents, local and global experts, and sponsor companies.
We believe in advocacy-through-architecture. Architectural projects rooted in the culture of their locales - which are often areas defined by an imbalance of growth and social inequality - can critique larger social concerns of the impact of economic transformation. FUNdaMENTAL has the power to bring people together across societal divides in the pursuit of a more equitable future through the platform of immersive and collaborative design projects.
Playfulness and resourcefulness in the context of a developing yet underserved area, doing “more with less”, and attempting to answer questions around how to rebuild a community in the process of transitioning due to external pressures, and where a lack of cohesion fosters apathy among residents is core to the ever-expanding definition of socially conscious design.
FUNdaMENTAL Architecture & Design Interns at Work (and play) in Polideportivo Park, which sits at the intersection of a contaminated river, an informal settlement, and a littered railway on one side, and a playground, farmer’s market, and public cultural space on the other.
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