New Architecture Writers

ARCHITECTURE VS ARCHITECTURE by Bryant Mclaughlin Van-Low

“ARCHITECTURE vs ARCHITECTURE” provides a commentary on the duality of space, observing the

ability for a built environment to work for and against its actors. Explored through the lens of the
selected agricultural space: the greenhouse, the essay provides a commentary on this spatial
condition through migrant labour in EU. The Greenhouse acts as an omnipresent structure present within
the historical and contemporary agricultural landscapes across the EU, existing as small- and large-
scale assemblages of material: glass, plastics and steel, these spaces act as integral sites of food
production and labour within EU.

Although transparent in its materiality these structures consist of an element of obscurity, encapsulating
a dichotomy of social, economic and environmental issues. Withholding the ability to concurrently
provide prosperity and violence within its core function of food production, this duality is exhibited
through the lens of labour, specifically migrant labour within EU. Taking an archipelagic approach
towards observing this spatial condition, we look at the way this duality exists across various
geographies.

El Ejido located in Almeria, Andalusia, Spain exists as the largest concentration of greenhouses in the
EU, consisting of an estimated 30,000 hectares of greenhouses, it is commonly described as an “sea of
plastic”. El Ejido historically a low-income region prior to aggressively engaging in vegetable
production, now exist as a high-income community. Andalusia agricultural success is greatly attributed
towards its proximity to the North African coast (Morocco) providing easily accessible and cheap
migrant labour supply, in turn cultivating a prosperous environment for businesses to engage in
agriculture. Although within this region over 120,000 labourers work within these greenhouses
experiencing unequal pay, poor ventilation, working conditions and long working hours. Additionally,
the lack of visibility enabled by these greenhouse structures masks a violent cycle of exploitation of
migrant works for the prosperity of local and global food production of El Ejido.

We observe this commentary as inquiry or textual intervention in developing our understanding on the
ways of which Architecture works against Architecture and its associated elemental relations: Space vs
Invisibility, Prosperity vs Violence, Labour vs Use. Within further commentaries we aim to develop our
understanding on how these relations, dualities and elemental relations exist across various
geographies.