Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The forms of intervention and transformation of motels in America are based on the typological and historical study between 1920 - 2020. Although it is true, they were created in North America as spaces for rest and accommodation on the road, upon reaching Latin America their meaning changes and they become spaces for casual sexual encounters; breaking with the domestic and giving way to eroticism. Apart from the historical and typological areas, the social and symbolic changes of the structural elements of the architectural language of the motels, both exterior and interior, will be considered to define how societies perceive, use, ignore and judge them through time. The objective is to understand the transformation of the design, the esthetics and architectural configuration of this establishment, through a chronological study of the last century, starting from the understanding of its essence: the direct connection it has with the street and the concealment for the privacy of its users.

Fashion is not only considered as an activity that belongs to the economic or productive spheres but it’s also considered as a complex art with the capacity to generate and communicate experiences, so that it is possible to address its sociological dimensions to understand which elements of the historical, social, cultural or political are immersed in the production of clothing, especially to reflect how this aspect is aligned with the processes of certain times. This article aims to look, through a documental revision, at the construction of women’s identity from some clues found in dress codes, especially those identity aspects related to the phenomenon of female empowerment or the conquest of women of power spaces. It will be argued that the decision to wear certain clothing can contribute to supporting social transformation movements that seek to build an egalitarian society.

Through this paper, it is possible to observe the role that advertising has in the construction of gender identities. The approach is at first, theoretical-cualitative, and interprets gender through its different dimensions: material, social and symbolic. Later, some sources, statistic data, laws, development goals and regulatory communication policies in the ecuadorian context are researched. Finally, the paper goes through some successful advertisement examples that reflect on the new social values concerning women and their role in modern society. In order to conclude the article, we have stated recommendations and remarks that we have considered important for advertisement media.

The COVID19 pandemic affected daily life, two positions emerging in contrasting ways: one that affirms that we will be able to return to our “normal” life and another that raises the emergence of a “new normal”. This raises questions about life in cities and, particularly, mobility. With the pandemic, global mobility fell precipitously, as it is considered a vector for the spread of the virus. The reactivation of activities has brought with it the problem of how to move around avoiding contagion. Therefore, Argentina generated a series of restrictions on the use of public transport, only for essential workers. But how does it affect urban mobility? The present work aims to analyze urban mobility in pandemic and the use of public transport, taking the city of La Plata as a case study and reflecting on the change in user behavior. The research is based on data collected by Google Mobility and on an ad hoc survey that reveals mobility situations during the isolation period and future trends. The first results show a critical mobility pattern of majority use of the private car, followed by walking and cycling. This pattern produces a territorial and socioeconomic bias that accentuates social inequalities in the population. Public transport fulfills a social role that must be considered in the application of policies. The post-pandemic future will not be without inequalities; therefore we must consider the needs of the entire population, with an efficient transportation system, with freedom of choice and guaranteeing the safety of all.

Based on a spatial equity and efficiency concept, the present research shows the calculation of a neighborhood-level accessibility index to collective services for Quito city. Due to COVID-19, various academic and technical areas related to urban planning suggested the importance of walkable proximity to goods and services. The article purpose is to provide methodological approaches that allow quantifying this proximity for informed decision making. The population data, at the block level, were analyzed starting from the census sectors  and population distribution for 2010, using as a measure the distance, real and ideal, from the centroid of each neighborhood to the closest collective services. Among the main findings it is emphasize that the applied methodology allows identify, through design and urban planning, priority intervention areas.  Also, the age group disaggregation analysis suggests some sources of inequity in access, which should be addressed as a primary’s issues. This type of analysis should be complemented by considering other dimensions of services accessibility.

This text seeks to reflect on fundamental, but not exclusive, aspects that influence the quality of housing programs (mainly public) from the urban point of view: location, density and communal / public space, based on a literature review. It is noted that, despite the vast evidence on the social, environmental and economic advantages of locating collective housing for low socioeconomic strata within cities, aspects such as the value of the land pressurize its expulsion. It is concluded that social interest housing programs should protect the quantity and quality of communal and public areas for interaction, but unfortunately they are reduced for the sake of a greater number of housing units. This type of discussion seeks to motivate decision makers and academics to investigate alternatives for land management that avoid segregation and gentrification, and that guarantees a better quality of life for the inhabitants of these programs.

This article reflects on the relationship between an architectural space and who experiences it and the interpretation of this space, explained from an academic experience. What do the drawings of an architectural journey like the one Le Corbusier did to the East, the book “Invisible cities” of Italo Calvino relates and the sketches made by a student during an architectural visit? The answer is that all of them are architectural interpretations through graphic or narrated images, and they result from a journey through, whether physical or imagined, spaces. Based on these premises, the elective subject Cuenca 4D was planned at the School of Architecture, Faculty of Design, Art and Architecture of the University of Azuay. As part of the course, site visits to projects designed by renowned local architects are organized. The visits give special importance to the student’s individual spatial perception, and how can it be represented in drawings. The objective is to demonstrate that the same object and space can be understood and interpreted from different points of view. This article synthesizes the history of this initiative, exposes the way in which the program is run, as well as it highlights the results obtained to date.

Within the multiple dimensions contained in the reconstruction process, we focus on how  postdisaster housing is rebuilt through the  experience of inhabitants in constant tension with  the reconstruction policy. Based on the limitations  posed by formal policy, through a reflection from post-politics on the concept of consensus, we discuss the alternatives that the knowledge and practices of the inhabitants contribute to the reconstruction of housing in the municipality of Ixtepec, state of Oaxaca in southwestern Mexico after the earthquakes of September 2017. This is done through the approach of Institutional Ethnography through observations of the reconstruction process, interviews with affected people and is complemented with institutional documents. This paper argues that state reconstruction policy is pressing reconstruction alternative forms to market interests which don’t allow new ways of understanding politics.

This article covers the problem of sustainable social housing, dealing with the conception of an adaptable system to specific conditions of different sites, moving away from the production of a generic prototype. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, collective housing projects must allow diverse socio-spatial dynamics, new ways of living through the application of local technologies and construction processes. Until now, academia and public and private institutions have addressed specific topics from their own competencies. However, this article provides a model with a holistic perspective. The study proposes the model application in intermediate cities, through the optimization of resources and a complete understanding of site. When collective housing considers all these parameters, the success will be the recognition of its quality, not its charity.

During the first months of 2020, many countries in all continents restricted its citizens´ mobility and closed its borders to contain the COVID-19 declared as a pandemic in march 2020. Cities try to anticipate the invisible virus, the media attempts to materialize it and the citizens generate a pandemic imaginary related to agglomerations, markets and public spaces. The study focuses on the city of Ambato-Ecuador, whose urban life was restricted almost entirely as in other parts of the world. Based on information collected on confirmed COVID-19 cases, registered agglomerations, population density and the syntactic analysis of the urban grid, the aim of this research is to identify how the virus becomes visible and if there is any relationship with the structure of the city. The overlapping data shows that the sectors with high levels of integration and high number of crowds, present low number of cases, while sectors with low levels of integration and low number of crowds, have high levels of confirmed cases. These preliminary analyses show the correlation between accessibility of the urban structure and the daily movements made by residents. Namely, low levels of integration force higher city movements, thus, during the pandemic this could mean higher vulnerability for people living in low integrated zones.