The Rebirth of Radical Pedagogy in Latin America through Integrated Gender Frameworks (2020 - present)

The above mentioned concept "Radical Pedagogy" is born within DisLocal from a book published by Princeton University. Through our own understanding, we have enhanced the concept to bridge greater cross-sectional understanding of how to build architecture through social science integration into the field as well as cultural awareness combined with incorporating socio-political local awareness to each engineering-architecture project. We work on applying nature-based solutions, building from women-led and community sourced resource management within landscape governance models. We layer the latter with foundational expertise brought to each project with multi scalar and multimodal solutions bridging expertise with inherited knowledge. 

In 2021, two innovators in social and environmental design, Marcos Coronel Bravo and María Beatriz (Mabe) García Rincón, established a connection with marginalized communities, igniting a radical feminist epistemological twist in architecture, design, urban planning, and urban-rural development. Initially, María Beatriz envisioned and spearheaded the creation of an educational platform to combat outdated education and fragmented design. This platform integrates pedagogy, grassroots activism, and architectural innovation. Khristian Ceballos was engaged as the organization's social media coordinator, leveraging his background in detailed architectural design to support operations. He contributed ideas for a curriculum that shifted architecture pedagogy away from CAD exercises and theory toward practical application, focusing on community needs.

However, aspirations need a vision — and that’s where María Beatriz's extensive experience at the International Finance Corporation Housing Platform came into play. Khristian executed these strategies through a creative process, collaborating with Daniel Otero. Marcos Coronel contributed his series from "Thinking Outside the Box," which had already been pushing boundaries beyond traditional education while incorporating thoughtful cross-sectoral thinking that offered communities an active role in architecture design.  

At the same time, María Beatriz, affectionately known as Mabe, had dedicated seven years (since 2014) at El Calvario, where she developed and refined a method of analysis that utilized the Harvard Health Assessment method alongside Sang Cho's ethnographic participatory first-person observation, as well as sociological content analyses, statistics, and finance. By 2021, she had established herself as a proactive strategist in urban, gender, and environmental matters. Her serendipitous online meeting with Marcos ignited their first collaboration.  

One afternoon at Hansin, a cultural heritage café in El Hatillo, Marcos and Mabe drafted their manifesto to amplify female voices within communities. Together, they gathered talent from Universidad Central de Venezuela, including Luciano Landaeta and Alfredo Brillembourg. Within weeks, they established governance structures, created curricula, and launched a movement combining climate finance with gender and environmental initiatives, paving the way for financial opportunities. 

The consortium includes Ricardo Armas, Julio Kowolenko (from Caracas Atelier), Rafael Machado, Luciano Landaeta, Sara Valente, Marcelo Ertorteguy (from Stereotank), Daniel Otero, Ricardo Sanz, Joao, Alessandro Famiglietti, Antonio Salas, Walter Leone, Henry Rueda, and Dean Javier Caricatto (joined 2023) from Universidad Central de Venezuela. 

For three years, the organizational governance included a leadership committee composed of Maria Beatriz (MABE) Garcia Rincon, Marcos Coronel, Khristian Ceballos, Sara Valente, Marcelo Ertorteguy, and Antonio Salas. These individuals together organized the contents of the original projects into an international learning community, that includes to this day: France, Norway, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Colombia, Sweden, India and Spain. 

María Beatriz’s (Mabe's) role as convener forged strategic alliances, creating climate and social bonds to unlock blended finance investments for community real estate improvements. This initiative offers city officials equity-aligned designs under the Paris Accord and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  

In 2021, DisLocal signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Bjorn Bertelsen, Director of GRIP at the University of Bergen. In 2022, Marcos initiated a new MoU with Universidad de Morón (Dean Alejandro Borrachia), building on earlier collaborations. Maria-Beatriz (Mabe) and Marcos jointly negotiated this agreement: Marcos led the signing while Mabe developed the framework using her multilateral MoU expertise. Marcos applied Chilean in-situ prototyping models, while Mabe contributed eight years of World Bank/IFC housing expertise. Together, they established a Global North-South partnership model for the organization.

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