Summary of UIA2021RIO - Zaida Muxi Martinez

00:00:00 - 00:05:00

In the video, Zaida Muxi Martinez discusses how cities were originally designed to be places where businesses could flourish, with obstructions to the city-dwellers' ability to freely move about the city being commonplace. This has led to a situation where many people do not have access to a quality of life that is adequate, and the right to housing is considered sacrosanct, but is increasingly being defended by the neoliberalism. Zaida argues that, in order to achieve truly livable cities, we need to prioritize pedestrian and bicycle transportation, as these are the most inclusive and sustainable forms of movement.

• 00:00:00 The video discusses the importance of cities being mixed and melded together in a way that allows for everyone to have equal access to opportunity and space, without distinctions based on gender, social class, or origin. Zaida Muxi Martinez discusses how cities were originally designed to be places where businesses could flourish, with obstructions to the city-dwellers' ability to freely move about the city being commonplace. This has led to a situation where many people do not have access to a quality of life that is adequate, and the right to housing is considered sacrosanct, but is increasingly being defended by the neoliberalism. Zaida argues that, in order to achieve truly livable cities, we need to prioritize pedestrian and bicycle transportation, as these are the most inclusive and sustainable forms of movement. In addition, by thinking about transportation in terms of public and private vehicles, as well as self-contained neighborhoods, we can help to self-contained and contain urban sprawl.
• 00:05:00 This video discusses how private vehicles will eventually become irrelevant, and we've been living in cities where we've moved and lived in homes designed for a generic, neutral universal human that doesn't actually exist. Some needs and circumstances are specific to certain men, while others are not. We need to disarm the idea of the universal human in order to be attentive to the innumerable differences between men and women, and between people of all economic, cultural, and educational backgrounds. All of these differences point to the need for houses that are not based on gender inequality, and architecture has much to contribute to this because we would have enormous challenges, as architects, in responding to this city that is able to accommodate diversity without generating inequalities. We could regulate minimum wages so that all people can afford an adequate, dignified, and sufficient home, regardless of their income.