Chilean university hosts UB architect for weeklong trip

Kristine Stiphany, director of the Design with Resilient Environments Lab in the School of Architecture and Planning and assistant professor in the Department of Architecture, was invited to Chile in October to give a presentation on a new book she edited titled “Insurgent Urbanisms in the Americas” (Routledge).

“Insurgent Urbanisms in the Americas,” co-edited by Stiphany and Edna Ely Ledesma of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, brings together 22 scholars and practitioners from across the Americas to explore how urban insurgencies reshape cities and challenge dominant paradigms. Crossing the disciplines of architecture, urbanism, sociology, public policy and geography, the volume offers a transgeographic perspective on alternative spatial practices that are redefining the future of urban life.

“There is a shared project that threads through this book: to learn from Latin America’s experiments in collective urbanism how to build resilience in cities across the Americas,” Stiphany said.

The Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV) invited Stiphany to present at an event on Oct. 17 hosted by the Escuela de Arquitectura y Diseño (e[ad]) in Santiago. The event united academics and members of the public in reflections on the relationship between cities, housing and landscapes, bringing together Chilean and international perspectives on the spatial and social challenges of contemporary urban transformation.

Stiphany presented with Adriana Marín Toro, associate professor at PUCV, and Francisca Bogolasky, assistant professor at the University of Chile.

“This book looks at old problems through new contexts of design action, reminding us of what we might yet transform together,” Juan Carlos Jeldes, director of the architecture master’s program at PUCV, said in opening the book launch event.

During the presentation, the three scholars shared reflections on the many forms of localized urbanisms emerging across the Americas, exploring how communities — through their own practices and resistances — transform territory and propose new ways of inhabiting it.

“Dr. Stiphany develops the concept of an ‘architecture of rent,’ a notion that has been key to strengthening the interdisciplinary perspective through which we approach this line of research,” Toro said, adding that Stiphany’s work has particular importance for research in the region. “Her framework has allowed us to articulate reflections from both architecture and sociology, expanding the conceptual and methodological lens with which we analyze contemporary transformations of rental housing in Chile and Latin America.”

At the close of the event, the panelists held an open conversation with attendees, generating a rich exchange around the contemporary challenges of architecture, design and urban management in Latin America.

While in Chile, Stiphany engaged in academic exchanges with students and faculty at both the Universidad de Chile and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, including PUCV’s Escuela Abierta campus.

She served as a visiting critic for thesis reviews in the Engagement, Investigation, and Livability seminar, where students presented projects on urban verticalization at the rural-urban divide, agricultural commons as urbanism, and territorial and housing transformations. She also reviewed research led by  Bogolasky and Toro in her primary areas of expertise — housing informality, rental markets and urban redevelopment — across several research groups.

Stiphany’s weeklong trip, hosted by PUCV, reinforced the shared commitment of UB’s School of Architecture and Planning and the Escuela de Arquitectura y Diseño (e[ad]) at PUCV to critical reflection on the role of design in cities, while promoting academic exchanges that link research, teaching and creative practice around pressing urban issues.