Urban Interiority and the Spatial Processes of Securitisation in Medellin

Medellín, Colombia, a city best known for its violent history and subsequent radical transformation, hosts multiple political forces of varying degrees of legitimacy. In this context, architecture was mobilised as a physical weapon in the city’s urban regions. As an extension of this architectural c...

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Main Author: Christina Deluchi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Department of Architecture Universitas Indonesia 2018-02-01
Series:Interiority
Subjects:
Online Access:https://interiority.eng.ui.ac.id/index.php/journal/article/view/7
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author Christina Deluchi
author_facet Christina Deluchi
author_sort Christina Deluchi
collection DOAJ
description Medellín, Colombia, a city best known for its violent history and subsequent radical transformation, hosts multiple political forces of varying degrees of legitimacy. In this context, architecture was mobilised as a physical weapon in the city’s urban regions. As an extension of this architectural condition, the city’s landscape has repeatedly been appropriated and repurposed to enforce state and criminal agency. Medellín’s cultural geography became increasingly unstable as both real and imagined threats lingered in the spaces of every day – apartment towers, gated communities, supermarkets, TV and radio, imbued with violent operational spatial logics. In detecting processes of regulation, protection, and surveillance, the political instrumentality and larger urban implications of interior space in Medellín are revealed through architectural objects and spatial devices of control. As techniques of securitisation, these processes provide evidence for the construction of Medellín’s interiority, an urban condition founded on political violence and withdrawal. The objects and devices of this interiority are often remarkably ordinary, yet they are the political tools that indoctrinate a military-style urbanism that interprets, registers, and shapes territorial conflict. The mobilisation of Medellín’s interiority in the pursuit of power and control has manufactured an urban imaginary governed by the constant threat of violence.
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spelling doaj.art-e10abcfaab6d45eeaabf92d584266a322022-12-22T03:37:49ZengDepartment of Architecture Universitas IndonesiaInteriority2614-65842615-33862018-02-0111374810.7454/in.v1i1.77Urban Interiority and the Spatial Processes of Securitisation in MedellinChristina Deluchi0University of Technology Sydney, AustraliaMedellín, Colombia, a city best known for its violent history and subsequent radical transformation, hosts multiple political forces of varying degrees of legitimacy. In this context, architecture was mobilised as a physical weapon in the city’s urban regions. As an extension of this architectural condition, the city’s landscape has repeatedly been appropriated and repurposed to enforce state and criminal agency. Medellín’s cultural geography became increasingly unstable as both real and imagined threats lingered in the spaces of every day – apartment towers, gated communities, supermarkets, TV and radio, imbued with violent operational spatial logics. In detecting processes of regulation, protection, and surveillance, the political instrumentality and larger urban implications of interior space in Medellín are revealed through architectural objects and spatial devices of control. As techniques of securitisation, these processes provide evidence for the construction of Medellín’s interiority, an urban condition founded on political violence and withdrawal. The objects and devices of this interiority are often remarkably ordinary, yet they are the political tools that indoctrinate a military-style urbanism that interprets, registers, and shapes territorial conflict. The mobilisation of Medellín’s interiority in the pursuit of power and control has manufactured an urban imaginary governed by the constant threat of violence.https://interiority.eng.ui.ac.id/index.php/journal/article/view/7interioritypoliticsurban imaginaryMedellínColombia
spellingShingle Christina Deluchi
Urban Interiority and the Spatial Processes of Securitisation in Medellin
Interiority
interiority
politics
urban imaginary
Medellín
Colombia
title Urban Interiority and the Spatial Processes of Securitisation in Medellin
title_full Urban Interiority and the Spatial Processes of Securitisation in Medellin
title_fullStr Urban Interiority and the Spatial Processes of Securitisation in Medellin
title_full_unstemmed Urban Interiority and the Spatial Processes of Securitisation in Medellin
title_short Urban Interiority and the Spatial Processes of Securitisation in Medellin
title_sort urban interiority and the spatial processes of securitisation in medellin
topic interiority
politics
urban imaginary
Medellín
Colombia
url https://interiority.eng.ui.ac.id/index.php/journal/article/view/7
work_keys_str_mv AT christinadeluchi urbaninteriorityandthespatialprocessesofsecuritisationinmedellin