Embroidering landscape and community

D. Barrañón O. Melo and E. Torres tell us about how the embroidery workshop in the Landscape Architecture Bachelor’s program at UAM creates spaces where listening, trust, and respect build meaningful bonds as a community in Embroidering landscape and community.

Understanding landscape architecture leads us to reflect on the different areas of work. From an academic perspective, it is very important to recognize the connection with various stakeholders, with communities and design in communal spaces being a fundamental part of the education of new generations of landscape architects.

Collage bordado en comuna / Embroidered collage by the community
Fotografía / Photography: Tres puntos

Based on this premise, we reflect on the importance of building community within the degree program. Our experiences both inside and outside the classroom led us to come together in various listening spaces with other initiatives and people. We discovered a love for embroidery, reminisced about our families, and honored influential women who have left a mark on us. We also recognized our own ability to acknowledge our skills in manually creating a form of expression and representation of what happens to us.

We discovered a love for embroidery, reminisced about our families, and honored influential women who have left a mark on us. We also recognized our own ability to acknowledge our manual skills as a form of expression.

The idea for this project arises from our core belief in creating spaces where listening, trust, and respect allow us to build meaningful connections as a community. As the three founders, we understand the importance of offering each person an opportunity to express their voice in a safe and empathetic environment.

Somos Tres Puntos / We are Three Dots
Fotografía / Photography: Evelyn Monserrat Torres Guzmán

Our opportunity to put this into practice at the university came during the Landscape Architecture Week, held last May, where Community Landscape was highlighted. The start of this project was conceived to offer activities with a participatory and educational approach, as we believe it is important to engage from a relaxed perspective, inhabiting the chaotic university space we navigate in a different way. This allowed the Landscape Architecture community to actively express themselves about the academic experiences they have gone through, because we believe that everyone has something important to contribute, which is why creating a space where this is possible is so important.

Bordando comunidad y paisaje / Embroidering community and landscape
Fotografía / Photography: Andrea Polo

Being one of our core principles, we worked with different groups, adjusting the theme based on the environment and the needs of each community. We invited respectful, reflective dialogue and listening, while intertwining it with the embroidery activities we proposed for each occasion. In each workshop, we created a support network that we embroidered together.

In this way, we brought this idea to the workshop: “Embroidering Housing and Care,” in collaboration with the UAM, participating in the week of the Practices and Knowledge Laboratory. The goal was to offer various workshops that would help share and learn local practices, knowledge, and experiences that enable community work and social impact through participatory workshops and social innovation. With this in mind, the purpose of our workshop was to explore the experiences of each participant in the care of the home by embroidering meaningful objects for each person, ultimately creating a little house.

Faithfully from experience and work, we see how with each stitch we make, a space is created where creativity, expression, and respect intertwine through embroidery and listening, forming a support network for those who wish to share their story with us.