DAVID GARCIA /// Architectures of Quarantine & Containment

Each architecture that was thought as a physical implementation of private property contains already in itself the potential for containment in a legal situation like the one of quarantine. David Garcia talks about the origins of such a situation, its territorialization (lazaretto, Ellis Island etc.) as well as its application on bodies, but also on entire landscapes like in Chernobyl and Fukushima. We discuss about Michel Foucault’s definition of biopolitics through the historical example of the quarantined city that suffers from the plague, as well as David’s own architectural projects in response to the various problems tackle by quarantine.

David Garcia is the founder of MAP Architects (Copenhagen). He teaches at Lund School of Architecture and at the Bartlett UCL. His main site of investigation consists in extreme environments like Greenland, Antarctica, or Fukushima. He is also the editor of the Manual of Architectural Possibilities.

WEBSITES:

– http://www.maparchitects.dk/
– http://davidgarciastudiomap.blogspot.com/

REFERENCES BOOKS:

– MAP (Manual of Architectural Possibilities) 1-6 (2009-2012)
– Michel Foucault, Abnormal: Lectures at the College de France 1974-1975, New York: Picador, 2004.
– Exhibition “Landscapes of Quarantine” curated by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley, March 10 to April 24, 2010.

SYNTHESIS ARTICLE ON THE FUNAMBULIST:

– “Quarantine and Containment: David Garcia’s Vital Ethics”