María Arquero de Alarcón | University of Michigan (original) (raw)
Papers by María Arquero de Alarcón
Journal of Planning Education and Research
This article examines claims about the judicialization of the planning process. How does the judi... more This article examines claims about the judicialization of the planning process. How does the judiciary manage disputes between constitutional rights to housing and a healthy environment in São Paulo’s informal settlements? We scrutinize thirty-six legal cases from 2013 to 2016 in the State Court of Appeals, examining the litigants and their argumentations. The findings demonstrate judicial deference to planning. Court rulings defer to municipal plans by invoking separation of powers and budgetary constraints principles. The supremacy of the plan highlights the ethical responsibilities of educators and practitioners and has implications for housing and environmental activists in their organizing strategies.
Journal of Architectural Education
The Sabarmati River and Its City Water lies at the intersections of landscape and infrastructure,... more The Sabarmati River and Its City Water lies at the intersections of landscape and infrastructure, crossing between visible and invisible domains of urban space. Water forms part of the material culture of modernity, ranging from the
Journal of Architectural Education
The Sabarmati River and Its City Water lies at the intersections of landscape and infrastructure,... more The Sabarmati River and Its City Water lies at the intersections of landscape and infrastructure, crossing between visible and invisible domains of urban space. Water forms part of the material culture of modernity, ranging from the
Journal of Architectural Education
The Sabarmati River and Its City Water lies at the intersections of landscape and infrastructure,... more The Sabarmati River and Its City Water lies at the intersections of landscape and infrastructure, crossing between visible and invisible domains of urban space. Water forms part of the material culture of modernity, ranging from the
New Instrumentalities
This essay traces the story of the Narmada River and its transformation from a sacred landscape t... more This essay traces the story of the Narmada River and its transformation from a sacred landscape to one of the largest mechanized territorial systems in the world. The Narmadatravelssome 1,300 kilometers from Amarkantaktothe Arabian Sea; enabling the livelihood of millions, shaping distinct regional identities and embodying a rich cultural imaginary for those worshiping her holy waters. The infrastructural potential of the river was first formulated as a megaregional project in the 1940s to modernize and bring prosperity to the watershed. Under implementation since the 1980s, the “Narmada Valley Development Project” is incrementally transforming the river into an interstate infrastructural network of water conveyance and energy generation. Through a cartographic and photographic inventory, the project traces the transformation of the natural and cultural systems associated with the Narmada River over time. Pausing at Omkareshwar, a major pilgrimage destination, the essay unfolds the ...
This document summarizes the 2017-2018 Parallel Workshop Initiative between the Master in Urban a... more This document summarizes the 2017-2018 Parallel Workshop Initiative between the Master in Urban and Territorial Planning at the School of Architecture at Madrid Polytechnic University and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. The initiative is framed by two institutional agreements defining a shared agenda between the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the Madrid City Council and the University of Michigan. Working across neighborhood and district scales, the workshop explores strategies of urban regeneration and integration to achive sustainable, innovative and feasible proposals in the case study “Paseo de la Direccion,” Madrid. The agreement signed with the Madrid City Council (Direccion General de Estrategia de Regeneracion Urbana) includes these objectives: - Evaluation of urban planning solutions with sustainability criteria - Improvement of the energy efficiency and solar urbanism of the neighborhood. - Management measures and active...
Housing Policy Debate, 2021
How suitable are federal housing policies and slum upgrading programs for those living in young l... more How suitable are federal housing policies and slum upgrading programs for those living in young land occupations? Scholars rarely ask this question because research and policy target well-establish...
Transportation Planning and Technology
Sustainability
This article examines the role of legal actors in mediating urban land conflicts involving inform... more This article examines the role of legal actors in mediating urban land conflicts involving informal settlements and the social and environmental functions of private property. This problem reveals the challenges of conciliating two constitutional rights—the right to adequate housing and the right to a healthy environment. Methods include an analysis of the urban policy and legal framework regulating environmental protection, housing provision, property rights, and land use law. The legal case analysis of Ocupação Anchieta, a young land occupation in São Paulo’s periphery, offers additional evidence through interviews with key informants, fieldwork including household surveys, participatory planning meetings, direct observation, and mapping of existing conditions. Findings demonstrate that private property rights continue to have uncontested power in the legal system, especially during the first years of an informal settlement. Furthermore, planning regulations do little to help youn...
Michigan Journal of Sustainability, 2013
The development of collaborative, cross-disciplinary, pedagogical frameworks is an institutional ... more The development of collaborative, cross-disciplinary, pedagogical frameworks is an institutional priority at the University of Michigan that promises innovative advances in research at the intersection of ecological and urban dynamics. The Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning is well poised to foster models of scholarship and teaching, particularly those that can contribute to a better understanding of the relationships between environmental processes and the design of our built environment. Initiated in Fall 2011, Liquid Planning, a three-credit advanced graduate seminar course, enrolls students from architecture, environmental planning and policy, landscape architecture, sustainable systems, urban design, and urban planning to bring a wide range of expertise to the classroom around a shared urban challenge involving urban stormwater management. Liquid Planning is a collaborative teaching initiative that develops methods of transdisciplinary practice. In particular, the course explores approaches to sustainable design and revitalization through an investigation into the common mis-registration between urban infrastructure and natural water systems. Because water is a critical component in an understanding of past and present conditions and future paradigms for metropolitan regions, Liquid Planning utilizes watershed thinking to foster approaches that bridge scales, work within temporally dynamic systems, and establish processes that transcend established administrative boundaries. In these ways, Liquid Planning recognizes the importance of design disciplines in the innovation of more sustainable construction practices.
Michigan Journal of Sustainability, 2016
The shorelands of the Great Lakes are dynamic systems that shape the culture, economy, and ecolog... more The shorelands of the Great Lakes are dynamic systems that shape the culture, economy, and ecology of the region. The 3,200+ miles of Michigan shorelands support one-third of the state's cities and border four Great Lakes. This territory provides a rich inventory of waterfront conditions that will experience exacerbated conditions of change as future climate conditions amplify current fluctuations. This littoral zone is always in flux. Lake water levels register seasonal to decadal temporal oscillations
Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2020
This article examines claims about the judicialization of the planning process. How does the judi... more This article examines claims about the judicialization of the planning process. How does the judiciary manage disputes between constitutional rights to housing and a healthy environment in São Paulo's informal settlements? We scrutinize thirty-six legal cases from 2013 to 2016 in the State Court of Appeals, examining the litigants and their argumentations. The findings demonstrate judicial deference to planning. Court rulings defer to municipal plans by invoking separation of powers and budgetary constraints principles. The supremacy of the plan highlights the ethical responsibilities of educators and practitioners and has implications for housing and environmental activists in their organizing strategies. Keywords constitutional rights, urban environmental protection, housing rights, land-use conflicts, legal actors, judicial deference to planning, separation of powers, vorbehalt des möglichen or princípio da reserva do possível, informal settlements, São Paulo, Brazil Resumen Este artículo examina los reclamos sobre la judicialización del proceso de planificación, especialmente con relación a los conflictos de tierras urbanas que involucran los derechos de las poblaciones vulnerables. ¿Cómo gestiona el poder judicial las disputas entre los derechos constitucionales a la vivienda y un ambiente saludable en las áreas informales de São Paulo? Analizamos treinta y seis casos legales que abordan estas disputas en la Corte Estatal de Apelaciones entre 2013 y 2016 mediante el examen de los actores involucrados, sus roles y sus argumentaciones. Pese a que los jueces recurren a varios razonamientos de resolución de conflictos, dos principios constituyen su justificación central para adoptar la deferencia judicial a la planificación: la separación de poderes y el principio de la reserva de lo posible. La supremacía del plan destaca las responsabilidades éticas de educadores y profesionales y tiene repercusiones en las estrategias organizativas de activistas sociales y medioambientales. Palabras Clave Derechos constitucionales, protección medioambiental urbana, derechos a la vivienda, conflictos de uso del suelo, actores legales, deferencia judicial al planeamiento, separación de poderes, principio de la reserva de lo posible, informal settlements, São Paulo, Brasil Abstract 本文研究了有关规划过程司法化的主张 。 司法机构如何处理圣保罗非正式定居点中宪法所赋予的居住权与健康环境 权之间的矛盾？我们仔细调查了2013年至2016年圣保罗州上诉法院36宗法律案件 ， 研究了案件中的诉讼人及其论 点 。 调查结果表明司法服从于规划 。 法院的裁决通过分权和预算约束原则来执行市政规划 。 规划的至高无上性凸显 了规划教育者和从业者的道德责任 ， 并对住房和环境活动家的组织战略有所启示 。 Keywords 宪法赋予的权利 ， 城市环境保护 ， 居住权 ， 土地利用冲突 ， 法律行为人 ， 对规划的司法服从 ， 分权 ， 公民权利 保护 ， 非正式定居点 ， 圣保罗 ， 巴西 。
MONU # 32: Affordable Urbanism, 2020
Sustainability, 2018
This article examines the role of legal actors in mediating urban land conflicts involving inform... more This article examines the role of legal actors in mediating urban land conflicts involving informal settlements and the social and environmental functions of private property. This problem reveals the challenges of conciliating two constitutional rights—the right to adequate housing and the right to a healthy environment. Methods include an analysis of the urban policy and legal framework regulating environmental protection, housing provision, property rights, and land use law. The legal case analysis of Ocupação Anchieta, a young land occupation in São Paulo’s periphery, offers additional evidence through interviews with key informants, fieldwork including household surveys, participatory planning meetings, direct observation, and mapping of existing conditions. Findings demonstrate that private property rights continue to have uncontested power in the legal system, especially during the first years of an informal settlement. Furthermore, planning regulations do little to help young land occupations, vis-à-vis consolidated informal settlements, in establishing sustainable practices from the beginning. Peripheral urbanisation through informal land occupations of environmentally protected areas remains one of the most pressing problems of the Global South. Thus, legal actors and planners should develop land use laws, urban policy, and mechanisms of private property conflict mediation that distinguish between young land occupations and consolidated informal settlements.
Journal of Architectural Education, 2020
The necessity and desire to control water, a vital resource for life, have generated deep, irreve... more The necessity and desire to control water, a vital resource for life, have generated deep, irreversible territorial transformations. Resting on the banks of the Sabarmati River, the Indian city of Ahmedabad has long celebrated water as a driver of urbanity and inclusive citizenship. This essay builds on the many natures of the urban water commons and examine the ever-changing relationship of the river and its city as a productive breeding ground for architectural and urban design experimentation. The societal construction of alternative, collective water imaginaries starts by recognizing the many cultural, spiritual, and symbolic meanings around water, connecting us with an increasingly distant nature. It is this elusive condition of water that drives the studio pedagogy explored in this essay. The projects adopt different formats and disciplinary positions while reclaiming the designers' cultural agency to advance socioenvironmental agendas and instigate political action.
Journal of Planning Education and Research
This article examines claims about the judicialization of the planning process. How does the judi... more This article examines claims about the judicialization of the planning process. How does the judiciary manage disputes between constitutional rights to housing and a healthy environment in São Paulo’s informal settlements? We scrutinize thirty-six legal cases from 2013 to 2016 in the State Court of Appeals, examining the litigants and their argumentations. The findings demonstrate judicial deference to planning. Court rulings defer to municipal plans by invoking separation of powers and budgetary constraints principles. The supremacy of the plan highlights the ethical responsibilities of educators and practitioners and has implications for housing and environmental activists in their organizing strategies.
Journal of Architectural Education
The Sabarmati River and Its City Water lies at the intersections of landscape and infrastructure,... more The Sabarmati River and Its City Water lies at the intersections of landscape and infrastructure, crossing between visible and invisible domains of urban space. Water forms part of the material culture of modernity, ranging from the
Journal of Architectural Education
The Sabarmati River and Its City Water lies at the intersections of landscape and infrastructure,... more The Sabarmati River and Its City Water lies at the intersections of landscape and infrastructure, crossing between visible and invisible domains of urban space. Water forms part of the material culture of modernity, ranging from the
Journal of Architectural Education
The Sabarmati River and Its City Water lies at the intersections of landscape and infrastructure,... more The Sabarmati River and Its City Water lies at the intersections of landscape and infrastructure, crossing between visible and invisible domains of urban space. Water forms part of the material culture of modernity, ranging from the
New Instrumentalities
This essay traces the story of the Narmada River and its transformation from a sacred landscape t... more This essay traces the story of the Narmada River and its transformation from a sacred landscape to one of the largest mechanized territorial systems in the world. The Narmadatravelssome 1,300 kilometers from Amarkantaktothe Arabian Sea; enabling the livelihood of millions, shaping distinct regional identities and embodying a rich cultural imaginary for those worshiping her holy waters. The infrastructural potential of the river was first formulated as a megaregional project in the 1940s to modernize and bring prosperity to the watershed. Under implementation since the 1980s, the “Narmada Valley Development Project” is incrementally transforming the river into an interstate infrastructural network of water conveyance and energy generation. Through a cartographic and photographic inventory, the project traces the transformation of the natural and cultural systems associated with the Narmada River over time. Pausing at Omkareshwar, a major pilgrimage destination, the essay unfolds the ...
This document summarizes the 2017-2018 Parallel Workshop Initiative between the Master in Urban a... more This document summarizes the 2017-2018 Parallel Workshop Initiative between the Master in Urban and Territorial Planning at the School of Architecture at Madrid Polytechnic University and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. The initiative is framed by two institutional agreements defining a shared agenda between the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the Madrid City Council and the University of Michigan. Working across neighborhood and district scales, the workshop explores strategies of urban regeneration and integration to achive sustainable, innovative and feasible proposals in the case study “Paseo de la Direccion,” Madrid. The agreement signed with the Madrid City Council (Direccion General de Estrategia de Regeneracion Urbana) includes these objectives: - Evaluation of urban planning solutions with sustainability criteria - Improvement of the energy efficiency and solar urbanism of the neighborhood. - Management measures and active...
Housing Policy Debate, 2021
How suitable are federal housing policies and slum upgrading programs for those living in young l... more How suitable are federal housing policies and slum upgrading programs for those living in young land occupations? Scholars rarely ask this question because research and policy target well-establish...
Transportation Planning and Technology
Sustainability
This article examines the role of legal actors in mediating urban land conflicts involving inform... more This article examines the role of legal actors in mediating urban land conflicts involving informal settlements and the social and environmental functions of private property. This problem reveals the challenges of conciliating two constitutional rights—the right to adequate housing and the right to a healthy environment. Methods include an analysis of the urban policy and legal framework regulating environmental protection, housing provision, property rights, and land use law. The legal case analysis of Ocupação Anchieta, a young land occupation in São Paulo’s periphery, offers additional evidence through interviews with key informants, fieldwork including household surveys, participatory planning meetings, direct observation, and mapping of existing conditions. Findings demonstrate that private property rights continue to have uncontested power in the legal system, especially during the first years of an informal settlement. Furthermore, planning regulations do little to help youn...
Michigan Journal of Sustainability, 2013
The development of collaborative, cross-disciplinary, pedagogical frameworks is an institutional ... more The development of collaborative, cross-disciplinary, pedagogical frameworks is an institutional priority at the University of Michigan that promises innovative advances in research at the intersection of ecological and urban dynamics. The Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning is well poised to foster models of scholarship and teaching, particularly those that can contribute to a better understanding of the relationships between environmental processes and the design of our built environment. Initiated in Fall 2011, Liquid Planning, a three-credit advanced graduate seminar course, enrolls students from architecture, environmental planning and policy, landscape architecture, sustainable systems, urban design, and urban planning to bring a wide range of expertise to the classroom around a shared urban challenge involving urban stormwater management. Liquid Planning is a collaborative teaching initiative that develops methods of transdisciplinary practice. In particular, the course explores approaches to sustainable design and revitalization through an investigation into the common mis-registration between urban infrastructure and natural water systems. Because water is a critical component in an understanding of past and present conditions and future paradigms for metropolitan regions, Liquid Planning utilizes watershed thinking to foster approaches that bridge scales, work within temporally dynamic systems, and establish processes that transcend established administrative boundaries. In these ways, Liquid Planning recognizes the importance of design disciplines in the innovation of more sustainable construction practices.
Michigan Journal of Sustainability, 2016
The shorelands of the Great Lakes are dynamic systems that shape the culture, economy, and ecolog... more The shorelands of the Great Lakes are dynamic systems that shape the culture, economy, and ecology of the region. The 3,200+ miles of Michigan shorelands support one-third of the state's cities and border four Great Lakes. This territory provides a rich inventory of waterfront conditions that will experience exacerbated conditions of change as future climate conditions amplify current fluctuations. This littoral zone is always in flux. Lake water levels register seasonal to decadal temporal oscillations
Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2020
This article examines claims about the judicialization of the planning process. How does the judi... more This article examines claims about the judicialization of the planning process. How does the judiciary manage disputes between constitutional rights to housing and a healthy environment in São Paulo's informal settlements? We scrutinize thirty-six legal cases from 2013 to 2016 in the State Court of Appeals, examining the litigants and their argumentations. The findings demonstrate judicial deference to planning. Court rulings defer to municipal plans by invoking separation of powers and budgetary constraints principles. The supremacy of the plan highlights the ethical responsibilities of educators and practitioners and has implications for housing and environmental activists in their organizing strategies. Keywords constitutional rights, urban environmental protection, housing rights, land-use conflicts, legal actors, judicial deference to planning, separation of powers, vorbehalt des möglichen or princípio da reserva do possível, informal settlements, São Paulo, Brazil Resumen Este artículo examina los reclamos sobre la judicialización del proceso de planificación, especialmente con relación a los conflictos de tierras urbanas que involucran los derechos de las poblaciones vulnerables. ¿Cómo gestiona el poder judicial las disputas entre los derechos constitucionales a la vivienda y un ambiente saludable en las áreas informales de São Paulo? Analizamos treinta y seis casos legales que abordan estas disputas en la Corte Estatal de Apelaciones entre 2013 y 2016 mediante el examen de los actores involucrados, sus roles y sus argumentaciones. Pese a que los jueces recurren a varios razonamientos de resolución de conflictos, dos principios constituyen su justificación central para adoptar la deferencia judicial a la planificación: la separación de poderes y el principio de la reserva de lo posible. La supremacía del plan destaca las responsabilidades éticas de educadores y profesionales y tiene repercusiones en las estrategias organizativas de activistas sociales y medioambientales. Palabras Clave Derechos constitucionales, protección medioambiental urbana, derechos a la vivienda, conflictos de uso del suelo, actores legales, deferencia judicial al planeamiento, separación de poderes, principio de la reserva de lo posible, informal settlements, São Paulo, Brasil Abstract 本文研究了有关规划过程司法化的主张 。 司法机构如何处理圣保罗非正式定居点中宪法所赋予的居住权与健康环境 权之间的矛盾？我们仔细调查了2013年至2016年圣保罗州上诉法院36宗法律案件 ， 研究了案件中的诉讼人及其论 点 。 调查结果表明司法服从于规划 。 法院的裁决通过分权和预算约束原则来执行市政规划 。 规划的至高无上性凸显 了规划教育者和从业者的道德责任 ， 并对住房和环境活动家的组织战略有所启示 。 Keywords 宪法赋予的权利 ， 城市环境保护 ， 居住权 ， 土地利用冲突 ， 法律行为人 ， 对规划的司法服从 ， 分权 ， 公民权利 保护 ， 非正式定居点 ， 圣保罗 ， 巴西 。
MONU # 32: Affordable Urbanism, 2020
Sustainability, 2018
This article examines the role of legal actors in mediating urban land conflicts involving inform... more This article examines the role of legal actors in mediating urban land conflicts involving informal settlements and the social and environmental functions of private property. This problem reveals the challenges of conciliating two constitutional rights—the right to adequate housing and the right to a healthy environment. Methods include an analysis of the urban policy and legal framework regulating environmental protection, housing provision, property rights, and land use law. The legal case analysis of Ocupação Anchieta, a young land occupation in São Paulo’s periphery, offers additional evidence through interviews with key informants, fieldwork including household surveys, participatory planning meetings, direct observation, and mapping of existing conditions. Findings demonstrate that private property rights continue to have uncontested power in the legal system, especially during the first years of an informal settlement. Furthermore, planning regulations do little to help young land occupations, vis-à-vis consolidated informal settlements, in establishing sustainable practices from the beginning. Peripheral urbanisation through informal land occupations of environmentally protected areas remains one of the most pressing problems of the Global South. Thus, legal actors and planners should develop land use laws, urban policy, and mechanisms of private property conflict mediation that distinguish between young land occupations and consolidated informal settlements.
Journal of Architectural Education, 2020
The necessity and desire to control water, a vital resource for life, have generated deep, irreve... more The necessity and desire to control water, a vital resource for life, have generated deep, irreversible territorial transformations. Resting on the banks of the Sabarmati River, the Indian city of Ahmedabad has long celebrated water as a driver of urbanity and inclusive citizenship. This essay builds on the many natures of the urban water commons and examine the ever-changing relationship of the river and its city as a productive breeding ground for architectural and urban design experimentation. The societal construction of alternative, collective water imaginaries starts by recognizing the many cultural, spiritual, and symbolic meanings around water, connecting us with an increasingly distant nature. It is this elusive condition of water that drives the studio pedagogy explored in this essay. The projects adopt different formats and disciplinary positions while reclaiming the designers' cultural agency to advance socioenvironmental agendas and instigate political action.