Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

Different forms of socialisation and representation have historically produced spaces of encounter. Such is the case of social clubs as spaces pursuing the integration of a given group around social, cultural, economic, sportive and recreative activities. In the mid-twentieth century, in different cities in Colombia, the consolidation of social elites gathered in such spaces creating outstanding modern buildings. One of the most prominent firms of architecture, Obregon & Valenzuela, designed four social clubs in Bogotá, Pereira, Ibagué, and Manizales between 1949-1959. This paper will reflect on how the built environment and cultural studies have also been challenged to habilitate new spaces of divulgating the research outcomes. An alternative stands out by adopting new socialisation spaces to reach broader and more diverse audiences by introducing a balance in the media and language of communication. By creating interactive platforms to visualise traditionally exclusive spaces, where congregation and segregation get intertwined, innovative spaces and forms of representation might habilitate new forms of space experience and increase the awareness of valuable buildings traditionally excluded from the canon. Original drawings, photographs and 3D reconstructions of buildings and their surroundings are some of the resources of visualisation, making more accessible specialised historical knowledge. These social spaces have been rarely represented in architectural journals by fragmented images making ambiguous the comprehension of the buildings addressed to the socialisation and encounter of a reduced community. A different representation infrastructure as a didactic virtual exhibition enhances a thought-provoking discussion on the conditions for the conception and implementation of collective encounters, enhancing equal and autonomous educative spaces about the analysis and comprehension of the built environment.