BALANDRA

Counter-mapping as a tool for social change

Balandra is a social design practice that uses the ‘power of maps’ to encourage critical reflection and establish meaningful community engagement in architectural and urban design processes.

We make critical cartographies with communities in a process of co-creation, responding to specific spatial questions related to the urban living place.

MISSION

Our mission is to visualize the multiple stories that are embedded in an urban living place to build more livable and inclusive urban environments.

We use counter-cartographies to protect human rights, exposing and dismantling the processes that contribute to housing and ecological instabilities in cities.

We belief that (counter) mapping is an instrument of inclusion, integrating multiple concepts, scales and viewpoints — particularly those of unattended or marginalized communities — involved in the dynamic and challenging process of building a just city.

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‘Maps have many powers’

Balandra’s counter-maps: reveal historical processes that have shaped our current living environments and that should not be forgotten — visualize urban policies, projects, systems and data, making it accessible for the crowd — display people’s lived experiences of a place — integrate multiple voices, practices and stories that belong to a living place — engage with local communities — show the ways in which socio-cultural and environmental practices are rooted in a place — re-imagine conventional typologies of urban dwellings and public spaces — and negotiate alternative solutions grounded in social-spatial realities - … - …

inspiring words

  • REBECCA SOLNIT

    “Whose maps are we trying to read? And what are we trying to draw? It's so common to live in a place without truly knowing its history, its systems, and the people who are different from you and who move through different versions of the city.”

  • Orlando Fals Borda

    “Do not trust the elitist version of history and science that answer dominant interests, but be receptive to counter-narratives and try to re-capture them.”

  • Iconoclasistas

    “Maps promote the activation of playful narratives, pointing out aspects that have been made invisible, referring to anecdotes and experiences, encouraging the exchange of knowledge.”

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