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ABOUT

Architectural Frictions is a space for experimentation and thinking within the sociopolitical dimension of architecture. Its practice encompasses architecture, curatorship, and teaching in the fields of project development and critical thinking. It has fostered initiatives ranging from the formalization of diverse architectural programs to the creation of alternative learning experiences. The platform is organized around three lines of work: Material Frictions, Conceptual Frictions, and Pedagogical Frictions.

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MATERIAL

Put your hands on it. Here is a collection of built projects derived from architectural practice. It explores construction techniques, materials, and spatialization. Ultimately, it serves as a formal repository of diverse tangible experiences of friction.

CONCEPTUAL

(Re)thinking about it.

This is an archive of thoughts, essays, and research on various topics, ranging from ecological concerns to architectural representation and communication. What links them is a shared pursuit of friction, the encounter between architecture and the “otherness,” with the ultimate goal of making conflicts visible.

PEDAGOGICAL

Learn with it. 

A series of academic learning experiences delivered across different institutions and within various areas of architecture, design, and urbanism programs. From critical thinking to technical or design exploration, all are connected by a common thread: the performativity of the body in space, learning through experience, discovery, and friction.

NEWS

CONFERENCE PRESENTATION

10.06.2025

Presentation of the research “Suelos Húmedos” at the International PhD Seminar – Learning from the South: Cultural Landscapes and Transnational Dialogues on Urbanization in Transition. Organized by the Habitat Research Center, with the participation of Indian-British activist, pacifist, and ecologist Satish Kumar.

BOOK PUBLICATION

31.03.2025

The presentation of the book FRICCIONES took place at @estudiocafe in Montevideo, Uruguay, moderated by Carolina Tobler and Inés Pereyra.

ALEJANDRO VARELA LÓPEZ

Alejandro Varela López is an architect from the Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo (FADU-UdelaR), where he has also taught in design, history, theory, and criticism, and technology. He holds a Master's degree in Architectural Communication from the Escuela Ténica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM-UPM), where he defended his thesis Fricciones: Atlas de un Viaje de Arquitectura. In 2023, he co-directed the Architecture Trip with the proposal Atlas of Cultural Landscapes. His professional practice, developed across Montevideo, Madrid, Porto Alegre, and New York, brings together architecture, curatorship, and teaching. His projects range from architectural design to the creation of alternative pedagogical experiences, such as the third edition of Edumeet, Fricciones: International Meeting on Exchanges in Learning, co-curated with the collective MAca7.

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ONGOING RESEARCH

Understanding architecture as an infrastructure of relations, his research focuses on redefining and expanding the concept of surface in its relationship with water. Interested in the interaction that architecture generates with its environment while operating simultaneously at multiple scales, his project addresses the main threats derived from urban growth and the energy transition on planetary and local hydrology, microclimate, biodiversity, and communities. These processes have triggered emergencies such as floods, droughts, and shortages of water and food, to which the most vulnerable communities have had to respond collectively. His hypothesis posits that the forms of reaction emerging from the commons open up the possibility of revaluing collective processes with the potential to be translated into architectural terms and replicated in different critical zones, making visible the urgency of establishing a dialogue between the programmatic and spatial organization of the city, nature, and communities. His doctoral proposal is therefore grounded in the study of the surface as a common, integrating in a transversal way socio-spatial, ecological, and political dimensions in which architecture is ontologically involved.

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