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We want to take the time to highlight the work that Studio Luz Principal Hansy Better Barraza has been doing as part of the Editorial Collective for the independent peer-reviewed journal CriticalProductive, which explores topics related to culture, arts, and architecture and is run by Editor-in-Chief Milton Curry and published by MIT Press. Hansy first joined the editorial board in 2023, and has since helped bring their first issue to print.
In this issue, which seeks to explore how the ideas of sovereignty and populism co-exist in today’s interconnected global landscape, Hansy contributes to discussion in the piece “Conversation: Sovereignty and Social Practice,” where she interviews Teddy Cruz (UCSD Professor of Public Culture, Director of Urban Research at UCSD Center on Global Justice and Principal of Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman), Dana Cuff (UCLA Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and Director and Founder of cityLAB), and Fonna Forman (UCSD Professor of Political Theory, Founding Director of UCSD Center on Global Justice and Principal of Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman).
Exploring each interviewee’s expertise and lived experience, Hansy asks about embodying principles of spatial justice in architecture and evolving their practices, striking a balance between the ideals of academia and the realities of the profession in the design space, and the future of education and social justice issues in architecture. Throughout the conversation, there was an emphasis on the importance of community and collaboration. “Confronting social justice through architecture requires an entire ethic that you must bring to the work you’re doing, that understands the world as not solely from your own perspective but from a multiplicity,” Dana shared. “You can’t do that with the idea of the architect as auteur, working alone. I know all three of us speaking here today have developed practices with co-creation with communities at the heart of them.” The conversation is available in full and for free online — click here to download the PDF.
The figure above illustrates Santuario Frontera, an emergency housing project in Tijuana developed by Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, that exemplifies the principles of their work.
CriticalProductive Journal is dedicated to interrogating the ways in which politics is entangled with spatial and aesthetic production. Their mission for this project is to mobilize the consciousness and potential of unfinished social movements through the publication of peer-reviewed creative work and scholarship, including essays, creative design, and visual art. In line with our own mission and our values, CriticalProductive works to build community by collaboratively addressing these important issues and sharing scholarship and creative work with a wide audience. Click here to read the first issue in full, and stay tuned for the next issue!
