![Elisa Silva looking off into the distance, blue sky and white clouds behind her, surrounded by unique architecture](https://web.faa.illinois.edu/app/uploads/sites/3/2024/07/elisa_silva_mia_enlace-2-500x0-c-default.jpg)
Elisa Silva
Lecture
Elisa Silva Lecture, Fall ’24 Cesar Pelli Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, Plym Auditorium
Lecture title: Embracing Messiness
This lecture makes a case for why architects should reframe their approach to self-built communities, unlearn some of the habits the modernist tradition has embedded into the discipline, and strengthen skills and ways of approaching people and the built environment that could greatly benefit the profession and its relevance today, not to mention its potential to affect urgent changes we must assume in the face of escalating social conflict and environmental degradation.
About: Founded in 2007 by American-Venezuelan architect Elisa Silva in Caracas, Venezuela, enlace embodies a participatory commitment to communities through design. Projects are born from observation and dialogue with a multitude of voices, facilitating experiences of social integration and the repair of degraded environments. Interdisciplinary processes combine research, design and collaborations with various actors. Enlace’s work has been recognized in national and international exhibitions, publications, awards and biennials, including the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 and the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021. Elisa is the author of CABA Cartography of the Caracas Barrios (FE 2015) and Pure Space: expanding the public sphere through public space transformations in Latin-American spontaneous settlements (Actar 2020). She is Associate Professor at Florida International University FIU and invited professor at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and the Central University in Caracas, Venezuela.
Reception in Temple Buell Hall Atrium beginning at 5:30PM.
Lecture in Temple Buell Hall Plym Auditorium beginning at 6PM.
![Elisa Silva looking off into the distance, blue sky and white clouds behind her, surrounded by unique architecture](https://web.faa.illinois.edu/app/uploads/sites/3/2024/07/elisa_silva_mia_enlace-2-500x0-c-default.jpg)
Elisa Silva