Let us walk you through it. The first ideas for Patio came in June 2020 when, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, we at the Latin GSAPP student group discussed the difficulty of materializing Latin American perspectives in the mainstream. The student board came together to found Patio, an endeavor to establish a new precedent at Columbia GSAPP: a first-of-its-kind, student-curated archive focused on the work of Latino/a students’ interests in U.S. architectural institutions. Working within Columbia University to maximize institutional knowledge and international reach, our team built this corner brick by brick, working shoulder-to-shoulder across disciplines to open up space for complex discussions that are often overlooked by the architectural canon, and frankly, by our own peers.
The concept is simple: in the Patio, we hang our hammocks, lounge in our favorite butaca, and drink caipirinhas with friends as we prepare for the Sunday asado. The Patio is the field where inside meets outside. It is defined by a sense of interiority and belonging, yet it opens itself to outsiders with unequivocal joy. In this joy, the Patio makes equal room for critique and celebration.
Comprising a digital platform and printed publication, we hope that the fluidity of the journal across digital and printed media will breed different understandings in our discussions. Our mission is twofold: to amplify the voices of Latino/a/x designers and thinkers in the United States and to connect them with global practitioners whose work addresses critical issues of the Latin American built environment. The platform will thrive on the diversity of its contributors, who will meet “en el Patio” to carry out open discussions from an intersectional perspective. Patio is the domain of todos/todas/todes. This pluralistic space welcomes all humanistic expressions of nationality, gender, race, color, or creed and advances a critical attitude on the complexities of identity.
Every year, Patio will select an overarching topic that speaks to the lived experience of its student editors and sets the framework to tackle the decolonization of the architectural canon from fresh angles. Issue No.1 proposes Alterity as the critical framework that facilitates the acknowledgment of the “other” as a singular, subjective person. Alterity speaks to our own mystifications around the collective identity of “Latin Americans” in a widely diverse community and our puzzlement on what that means in the built environment.
Following our first Call for Submissions, we were expecting only a few local entries from which we would happily work up to a more extensive base. Instead, we were surprised with the influx of submissions from far beyond our gates at the Morningside Campus —from Boston to Chile— indicating a broader appeal for the project. We organized featured works in five categories: Design Projects, Essays, Interviews, Artworks and Photographs. They represent contemporary and historical approaches to the Latin American built environment, reflections on the effects of the pandemic and political protests, and imaginations on the transformative power of space. Patio has been a passion project for our editors and graphic designers, who have hoped to bring their voices together to make a louder, collective call.
Now, as the sunlight pokes through the branches and the hammock swings from left to right, we want to thank you for picking up this book.
So pull up a chair and make yourself at home. This is your Patio too.
