School of Design and Construction

Architecture has often been described through its part-to-whole relationships, particularly within the Western tradition. The harmonic interplay of these relationships was historically understood as the source for beauty, justice, and truth. The value systems stemming from this ideology continue to underpin much of today’s architecture, albeit with adaptations over time. However, cities are shaped significantly by the unlikely adjacencies, intersections, and overlaps of objects vastly different in kind, origin, and scale. The lecture will introduce a series of design concepts and projects that seek to present an alternative view on the part-to-whole paradigm.

This presentation will look at the architecture of Latin America and its entangled relationship to an architectural material: concrete. From material performance to aesthetic appeal, concrete permeates the urban landscape and the domestic space.
Florencia Pita is the principal of the Los Angeles-based design office Florencia Pita & Co., a creative platform dedicated to exploring architecture’s multiple capacities, from the domestic, the urban, and the landscape.