His research proposal, Projectless: Architecture of Informal Settlements, focuses on traditional architectures and informal settlements, revisiting the subject of “architecture without architects” as articulated by architect and social historian Bernard Rudofsky in the landmark 1964 Museum of Modern Art exhibition. Bravo plans to visit dozens of sites in South America, Asia, and Africa, with the goal of developing strategies to integrate vernacular, collective practices with the modern architectural project.
Bravo was one of four finalists selected this year from more than 200 applicants in over 45 countries. He was also a finalist in the 2016 Wheelwright Prize competition. A graduate of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (BArch 2009), he leads his own practice and has realized a variety of projects in South America. His past work includes organizing community-based rebuilding in earthquake-damaged Tarapacá, Chile; designing and building a lodge/shamanic center and school for the Shipibo people of the Amazonian rain forest in Peru (a collaboration with architect Sandra Iturriaga); and several private residential commissions.
Bravo’s Wheelwright proposal Projectless begins by acknowledging that formal architecture addresses a minority of the world’s population, while the vast majority live in informally built dwellings. Rudofsky characterized the projects in his 1964 exhibition as “not produced by the specialist but by the spontaneous and continuing activity of a whole people with a common heritage, acting under a community of experience.” Bravo extends this notion to his study of the traditions and methods that enable formal architecture to operate “within the paradigm of projectless environments,” sensitive to the potential “cultural frictions” associated with restructuring problematic settlements.
Bravo’s travels will begin in the Amazon basin, home to 400 ethnic groups including some still-isolated tribes, and continue to the Amazon flatlands, where he will visit dozens of settlements, large and small, from Peru to Colombia to Brazil. He will observe pristine settlements as well as those that are pressured by the forces of development, resource extraction, and migration. He will continue to Africa, where urban centers (such as Lagos, Nigeria) are experiencing extreme population growth. In Asia, he plans to visit Bangladesh, Nepal, and India, where he has identified a range of case studies, from traditional villages to global slums. As with past Wheelwright winners, the $100,000 prize is intended to fund two years of Bravo’s research travel.
Bravo’s work has been exhibited in the XVII and XVIII Chile Architecture Biennial in Santiago (2010) and (2012), earning a Jury Selection in the latter; and in the Chilean Pavilion at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2010). His projects have been published in ARQ, Casabella, Engineering + Research (Colombia), Journal CA, and other publications. Bravo was also one of the four finalists in the 2016 Wheelwright Prize cycle.
Bravo follows 2016 winner Anna Puigjaner, whose project Kitchenless City: Architectural Systems for Social Welfare has brought her to sites in Senegal, Malaysia, Thailand, Mexico, with Canada, Russia, Japan, Peru, and elsewhere on her forthcoming itinerary.
Now in its fifth year as an open international competition, the Wheelwright Prize supports travel-based research initiatives proposed by extraordinary early-career architects. Previous winners have circled the globe, pursuing inquiries into a broad range of social, cultural, environmental, and technological issues. The Wheelwright Prize originated in 1935 as the Arthur C. Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship. In 2013 Harvard GSD relaunched the prize as an open international competition, available to candidates who received an architecture degree in the previous 15 years.
Jurors’ Comments
Bravo was one of four finalists selected this year from more than 200 applicants in over 45 countries. He was also a finalist in the 2016 Wheelwright Prize competition. A graduate of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (BArch 2009), he leads his own practice and has realized a variety of projects in South America. His past work includes organizing community-based rebuilding in earthquake-damaged Tarapacá, Chile; designing and building a lodge/shamanic center and school for the Shipibo people of the Amazonian rain forest in Peru (a collaboration with architect Sandra Iturriaga); and several private residential commissions.
Bravo’s Wheelwright proposal Projectless begins by acknowledging that formal architecture addresses a minority of the world’s population, while the vast majority live in informally built dwellings. Rudofsky characterized the projects in his 1964 exhibition as “not produced by the specialist but by the spontaneous and continuing activity of a whole people with a common heritage, acting under a community of experience.” Bravo extends this notion to his study of the traditions and methods that enable formal architecture to operate “within the paradigm of projectless environments,” sensitive to the potential “cultural frictions” associated with restructuring problematic settlements.
Bravo’s travels will begin in the Amazon basin, home to 400 ethnic groups including some still-isolated tribes, and continue to the Amazon flatlands, where he will visit dozens of settlements, large and small, from Peru to Colombia to Brazil. He will observe pristine settlements as well as those that are pressured by the forces of development, resource extraction, and migration. He will continue to Africa, where urban centers (such as Lagos, Nigeria) are experiencing extreme population growth. In Asia, he plans to visit Bangladesh, Nepal, and India, where he has identified a range of case studies, from traditional villages to global slums. As with past Wheelwright winners, the $100,000 prize is intended to fund two years of Bravo’s research travel.
Bravo’s work has been exhibited in the XVII and XVIII Chile Architecture Biennial in Santiago (2010) and (2012), earning a Jury Selection in the latter; and in the Chilean Pavilion at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2010). His projects have been published in ARQ, Casabella, Engineering + Research (Colombia), Journal CA, and other publications. Bravo was also one of the four finalists in the 2016 Wheelwright Prize cycle.
Bravo follows 2016 winner Anna Puigjaner, whose project Kitchenless City: Architectural Systems for Social Welfare has brought her to sites in Senegal, Malaysia, Thailand, Mexico, with Canada, Russia, Japan, Peru, and elsewhere on her forthcoming itinerary.
Now in its fifth year as an open international competition, the Wheelwright Prize supports travel-based research initiatives proposed by extraordinary early-career architects. Previous winners have circled the globe, pursuing inquiries into a broad range of social, cultural, environmental, and technological issues. The Wheelwright Prize originated in 1935 as the Arthur C. Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship. In 2013 Harvard GSD relaunched the prize as an open international competition, available to candidates who received an architecture degree in the previous 15 years.
Jurors’ Comments
Gordon Gill : “Samuel Bravo’s work is thoughtful and meaningful. His ability to develop architecture that is contextually and technically specific to a targeted skill set is compelling from a design as well as an educational perspective. His proposal to study architecture that ‘happens’—that is defined by its construction processes and collective efforts—reflects his own evolving process. I am pleased that the Wheelwright Prize will support his investigations and nurture ideas that have exciting consequences for architecture.”
K. Michael Hays: “Samuel Bravo’s proposal relates to the current architectural desire for self-reflective practice with social impact, and a spate of exhibitions and publications about designing for expanded audiences and publics. But what makes Bravo’s work and research proposal stand out is his particularly strong articulation of design as a response to a host of complex issues, from the experiential qualities of building materials to the systems of their extraction and distribution, from preserving craft to allowing for sustainable development, from promoting autonomy with regards to local labor to planning for urban connectivity. Bravo’s intelligence and rigor cut through multiple layers architectural concerns.”
Mariana Ibañez: “Samuel Bravo’s work manages to combine two important architectural conditions that are not easy to combine. His work holds the promise of innovation while dealing with some of the most urgent issues that press the architecture profession. His proposition of merging local knowledge—a mix of techniques and tools that have been developed over time—with contemporary sensibilities and technical possibilities has the potential to produce an exciting body of work. Bravo’s proposal clearly continues a line of investigation to which he has been committed throughout his young career, and the Wheelwright Prize will no doubt help him strengthen his approach as he grows.”
Mohsen Mostafavi: “Samuel Bravo is a sophisticated designer and a mature thinker, qualities that make him an ideal candidate for the Wheelwright Prize. His work on its own is striking, and the participatory design-build process he has refined over time is additionally compelling. In resurrecting ideas about so-called ‘non-pedigreed’ architecture and expanding the scope of his research and practice internationally, Bravo’s project opens up new and exciting paths for the next generation of architects.”
Gia Wolff: “The Wheelwright Prize is unique in its power to propel an architect on his or her particular career trajectory. Only a prize that prioritizes travel and open-ended discovery could allow an architect to do what Samuel Bravo wants and needs to do—to experience situations likely to range from primitive to chaotic, to live with and learn from diverse communities, to document common building knowledge, with the goal of transforming this knowledge into practicing concepts. It’s thrilling to anticipate the possibilities of someone transforming an idea, a research proposition, into something tangible through travel. I look forward to the wealth of information that his experience will bring.”
K. Michael Hays: “Samuel Bravo’s proposal relates to the current architectural desire for self-reflective practice with social impact, and a spate of exhibitions and publications about designing for expanded audiences and publics. But what makes Bravo’s work and research proposal stand out is his particularly strong articulation of design as a response to a host of complex issues, from the experiential qualities of building materials to the systems of their extraction and distribution, from preserving craft to allowing for sustainable development, from promoting autonomy with regards to local labor to planning for urban connectivity. Bravo’s intelligence and rigor cut through multiple layers architectural concerns.”
Mariana Ibañez: “Samuel Bravo’s work manages to combine two important architectural conditions that are not easy to combine. His work holds the promise of innovation while dealing with some of the most urgent issues that press the architecture profession. His proposition of merging local knowledge—a mix of techniques and tools that have been developed over time—with contemporary sensibilities and technical possibilities has the potential to produce an exciting body of work. Bravo’s proposal clearly continues a line of investigation to which he has been committed throughout his young career, and the Wheelwright Prize will no doubt help him strengthen his approach as he grows.”
Mohsen Mostafavi: “Samuel Bravo is a sophisticated designer and a mature thinker, qualities that make him an ideal candidate for the Wheelwright Prize. His work on its own is striking, and the participatory design-build process he has refined over time is additionally compelling. In resurrecting ideas about so-called ‘non-pedigreed’ architecture and expanding the scope of his research and practice internationally, Bravo’s project opens up new and exciting paths for the next generation of architects.”
Gia Wolff: “The Wheelwright Prize is unique in its power to propel an architect on his or her particular career trajectory. Only a prize that prioritizes travel and open-ended discovery could allow an architect to do what Samuel Bravo wants and needs to do—to experience situations likely to range from primitive to chaotic, to live with and learn from diverse communities, to document common building knowledge, with the goal of transforming this knowledge into practicing concepts. It’s thrilling to anticipate the possibilities of someone transforming an idea, a research proposition, into something tangible through travel. I look forward to the wealth of information that his experience will bring.”
The 2014 Wheelwright Prize winner Jose Ahedo traveled over 100,000 miles over the past two years, visiting eight countries on four continents. He presented the video below as part of his lecture at the GSD on November 17, 2016:
