Post-capitalism Urban Cultures: An approximation to Social Sustainability in Architecture

In the 21st century, at least three widespread architectural narratives have been elaborated to describe post-capitalist urban scenarios: shrinking cities, informal cities, and resilient cities. Their formulation was an attempt to disclose the urban domain of today in contrast to the inherited, functional, and well-known modern city. However, their focus is on specific locations, depicting a partial and limited perspective. Today, the reformulation of the urban as a global domain is calling for approaches that take into account all its complexities, beyond what merely stands out for its significance, density or scale.

The notion of urban cultures responds to this situation by adding extra operational meaning to the urban. New discourses are asking to reintroduce the criticism of the mid-20th century to the capitalist urban development, which put the social commitment at the forefront of the debate for the formulation of more livable and equal cities. The renewed claim for the right to the city relocates the citizens and the social movements to a central position, seeking the recovery of inclusiveness and spatial justice, and the value of the urban sphere as an open field for experimentation. By applying the idea of urban cultures, we are considering the social agents, influent organizations, and alternative systems that operate within a particular territory. The experiences and interactions between different groups and the connections they have with processes operating at other scales are also an integral constituent of the urban domain. According to this approach, what qualifies the urban is not physical density but relational intensity.

This paper will explore and present the work of selected exemplary urban cultures whose architectural production is the result of a deep engagement with the local communities, and analyze their influence in current sustainable narratives and dissemination media.