BOND Five Star (LATAM)

Synopsis

Latin America is recognized as one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to the effects of climate change. This vulnerability is exacerbated by structural problems such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, and soil degradation, which are particularly severe in the region. Furthermore, high levels of urbanization coexist with an unequal distribution of infrastructure, persistent housing deficits, and the occupation of areas exposed to risks, increasing the exposure of large urban sectors to climate impacts.

In this context, urban Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) – such as floodable parks, green-blue corridors, microforests, wetlands, green roofs and walls, or rain gardens, among other sustainable urban drainage systems – emerge as key strategies to reconcile urban processes with natural ecosystems. This presentation explores how these solutions can be integrated into established urban areas, transforming underutilized spaces into multifunctional environments that provide environmental, social, and economic benefits.
Based on experiences in Buenos Aires and other Latin American cities, case studies will be analyzed that incorporate Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI) in low-income neighborhoods, urban watersheds, and public spaces, demonstrating their contribution to flood reduction, improved thermal comfort, increased biodiversity, and the creation of more livable and inclusive places.

The role of urban and architectural design as a mediator between strategic planning and local action will also be addressed, highlighting the relevance of collaborative and transdisciplinary approaches. Co-creation methodologies, participatory evaluation, and urban financing applied within the framework of the European Horizon 2020 CONEXUS project (2020–2024) will be presented, which promote the implementation of NBS in partnership with local governments, universities, communities, and international organizations.

The talk aims to share lessons learned from these processes, emphasizing how GBI can be linked to land policies and urban development mechanisms that ensure its long-term sustainability. From a Latin American perspective, the exhibition invites reflection on how making space for nature in densely populated cities involves not only innovating in terms of design and technology, but also rethinking the relationships between space, environment, and urban justice.

Synopsis

In a world where competition is increasingly intense and clients seek genuine connections, authenticity becomes the greatest differentiator. This talk is designed for architects, designers, and industry leaders who understand that it’s no longer enough to be good; you also need to be visible, trustworthy, and memorable.

Andrea will demonstrate why personal branding is a strategic asset and how it can boost a company’s reputation through the voice of its leader.

Based on her Infinite Visibility methodology, she will explain how to design an authentic narrative, build authority in the industry, and become a thought leader, combining public relations, digital marketing, and reputation management.

The talk is structured around three essential pillars:
1. The importance of having an authentic personal brand, based on your story, purpose, and achievements. Because what you don’t communicate doesn’t exist.

2. How personal branding directly impacts your company’s reputation and perception, accelerating trust and, consequently, sales.

3. Implementing a 360° infinite visibility strategy through a content pyramid, communication channels, and practical tactics to position yourself as an expert voice.

In addition, attendees will discover how to strategically leverage their accomplishments, how to captivate with a 15-second pitch, and how to transform their experience into valuable content for the media, clients, and the industry.

Synopsis

This presentation introduces the curatorial project for the Chilean Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, an investigation that addresses how the accelerated expansion of data infrastructure—especially data centers associated with artificial intelligence—is transforming territories, ecologies, and forms of governance in Chile. In a country actively pursuing an agenda to become a Latin American digital hub, with more than 28 data center projects under development, these infrastructures reveal impacts that extend beyond the technologically abstract: intensive water and energy consumption, alterations to hydrological landscapes, pressure on urban wetlands, and tensions with local communities, as is the case in Quilicura with Google’s PARAM Data Center.

The presentation synthesizes research and territorial collaboration sustained by the curators alongside community organizations, researchers, and students. Field trips, conversations with geographers, anthropologists, and ecologists, and dialogues with collectives such as Resistencia Socioambiental Quilicura have made it possible to highlight material, social, and environmental dimensions that are rarely considered in the planning of digital infrastructure. These processes have generated critical perspectives on the relationship between AI, territory, and ecology, and constitute the conceptual starting point of the pavilion.

In dialogue with the international curatorial framework “Intelligens,” the project proposes rethinking the notion of intelligence not only as a technical capacity, but as a situated practice of negotiation among multiple actors: human, institutional, ecological, and more-than-human. To address this idea, the Chilean Pavilion takes the table as its central element: an institutional object that, at the same time, can be reconfigured as a space for voices and presences normally excluded from discussions about AI to enter.

The pavilion’s installation consists of a table-wetland, where water, sound, and materials reconfigure the space as a living territory. Through a water circulation system, a soundscape, screens with audiovisual material, diagrams, and maps of the data centers projected in Chile, the work demonstrates how digital infrastructure has concrete consequences on bodies, territories, and intelligences that often remain invisible. Rather than representing a conflict, the table proposes a meeting place where technologies and ecologies can be considered together.
Reflective Intelligences invites architects, designers, and professionals involved in digital infrastructure to reconsider how to imagine technological futures that are environmentally and territorially responsible, incorporating expanded forms of intelligence and cohabitation.