Brick by Estudio Rafael Freyre

The brick is a generic constructive element that constitutes part of the urban imaginary. In Peru, moreover, its image is linked to the phenomenon of migration from the countryside to the capital that began in the 1940s and involved new constructions of collective space on the outskirts of Lima, new urban centres in the different regions of the country and new forms of self-construction of housing. Based on the concept of constructive material, Bricks suggests the question of whether there is continuity between the materiality of the natural territory and the materiality of the contemporary urban Habitat; and whether it is possible to recover the relationship with the diversity and particularity of each of the ecosystems we inhabit. The pieces pose the fragile balance between the processes of material transformation within nature and the systems of production, extraction and construction of our society.

ESTUDIO RF is located in Lima, Peru. We are dedicated to the research of the contemporary Habitat and natural environments in the Peruvian context, seeking to dissolve established limits between them.
Our multidisciplinary team is conformed by visual artists, architects, traditional artisans, performers, designers, actors and writers. We regard art as an open field that functions like a hub that establishes new relationships between nature and human activity.
We aim to rebuild the continuity between natural landscape, art and architecture by reconnecting the current urban condition with the bodily experience of being free in the wilderness. We acknowledge fluidity and non-definition of the landscape; a wild and dynamic setting were everything coexists without visible hierarchy or law.
In opposition, the urban landscape is defined by social codification, segregation and segmentation of space. The values of the global market and technological modernity are creating distance and alienation in everyday life.
Faced with this, we return to the heterogeneous, through natural ecosystems, to raw materials, to organic processes and to traditional local Craft; we bring to light its real value, and reestablish contact between these elements and the body.
We consider the human being and society not as nucleus, but as part of an ecosystem; a big Community of living organisms. In a society governed by images, noise, artificial light and Industrial materials, we find solace and intimacy in the darkness of the wild environment that meet us through the opaque and warm qualities of the natural shadows surrounding us.
We create a balance between visible and palpable, between sound and silence, between Industrial or digital production and natural or artisanal materials. Our goal, beyond ideologies or artistic intent and manifestos, is to reimagine the intimate acts of daily life as a potential means for future transformation.