Architectural ethnography as a method of working with non-human animals. The case of Alcalá de Henares.

Abstract

How to proceed in architecture to work on the possible relationships between architecture, humans and non-human animals? How to proceed, if only the presence of animal figures in the architectural representations has been anecdotal or under an attention that moves away from the current look that is had on them? Architectural Ethnography, as a work and approach methodology, which was valued at the 16th Venice Biennale in 2018 by Momoyo Kajima, opens up a possibility of approach that remains to be explored in a more concrete way for this case. To this end, the article explores a specific institutional framework where architecture is expected to play an important role, as guides for the integration of urban wildlife. It inquires about the potentialities and limitations of the ethnographic methodology in the hands of Madden, Deprest, Hartigan, Escobar and Sánchez Maldonado. It defines the contributions and limitations of a possible Multispecies Architectural Ethnography that can be added to the existing guides. And he exemplifies this approach through the case of Alcalá de Henares, one of the cities with the largest colonies of storks in Spain and Europe.