Andres Souto

The Aesthetics of Hope is a research project that investigates architecture made outside the boundaries of official culture. It explores the methods and processes in which popular culture appropriates and interprets official architecture and speculates on how these might evolve.

The self-built tiny chapels scattered throughout Mexico City represent the most faithful examples of how popular culture appropriates and interprets official architectural language. They reveal our reading and use of space through a collectively understood application. Both the archetypes and the aesthetic language render the buildings visible. This idea is further evidenced by the tiny chapels that try to resemble the New Basilica of Guadalupe and raise the question of when, how and why do new archetypes emerge and how is an archetype brought into cultural understanding?

The potential for broader and global influence is manifested in the way popular culture and the DIY community have spread into the digital world. As a relevant platform, I use SketchUp and its 3D Warehouse as a means to test these ideas and speculate on how such industries and cultures might affect each other in the creation of archetypes, architectural meaning, style and taste.

Through the use of film and video the project legitimises the construction of The New(er) Basilica de Guadalupe living inside the 3D Warehouse. Youtube channels appear that teach new techniques on how to translate the architecture of the digital cathedral into the real world. Self built versions of the cathedral begin to appear throughout the city. An architecture that references and valorises itself.

“Architecture must be conducted as an exploration into an uncharted territory where the map is invented while proceeding; otherwise all that is discovered is the same old normal architecture, but with kinks.”

- Charles Jencks