Construction of Informality

My project is inspired by Abraham Cruzvillegas and the development of his body of work and series titled ‘autoconstruccion.’ Cruzvillegas associates autoconstrucción with an improvised approach to domestic architecture informed in the development of his childhood neighborhood in Mexico City. He appropriated this term to describe an approach of inventive improvisation and instability which presents change arising from the fragmentary nature of life. Construction has become the basis of Cruzvillegas's own thinking and methodology as it also works as a rich metaphor for the manifestation of individual and collective identities. Similar to Cruzvillegas, I am interested in the techniques employed in the same urban landscape. I relate his relationship with informal architecture by drawing connections with my paternal family's self-constructed home built by my grandfather in Iztacalco, Mexico City. I also discuss the creation of community through informality while considering the circumstances and examining the conditions that allow us to be seen.