Natalia Solano-Meza

Architect, teacher, architectural historian

Talks


EAHN Conference, Writing from the South of the South: Challenging Categories and Excercising Dissidence. Athens, June 2024.

ROUNDTABLE

Architectural Histories after the Global Turn Roundtable. @National Technical University of Athens.


Exploring Entanglements between Capitalism and Environmental Transformation. ETH-Zurich (online), April 2024.

ROUNDTABLE

Seen from the South, teaching seminar. Invitation by Hans Teerds @ETH, Zurich.


Hidden From the Naked Eye:Contamination within and Beyond the Agricultural Landscapes of the United Fruit Company. Collegium Helveticum, June 2023.

COLLEGIUM HELVETICUM

Disturbing the Swiss African Commons, Workshop. Organized by Hannah Le Roux and Tom Avermaete @Collegium Helveticum.


Contaminated Forms, Agricultural Landscapes Infrastructure and the Architecture of the United Fruit Company. Deparment of Architecture, Ghent University. March 2023.

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

Invitation by Johan Lagae. Non-European Histories and Theories. Department of Architecture and Urban Planning @Ghent.


La Arquitectura by Ofelia Sanou, online Lecture, 2023.

THE 20TH CENTURY

Third intervention on the work of Ofelia Sanou, focusing on “La Arquitectura,” (2004), an overview of Costa Rican architecture in the 20th century. Link to YouTube.


Colonial and Post-Colonial Landscapes, Lisbon, Portugal, 2023.

COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL LANDSCAPES II

Violent environments: Banana corporations and city forms in the Costa Rican Caribbean, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal, 2023. Link to Program.


EAHN Conference, Toxics Roundtable, Madrid, Spain. 2022

Contaminated forms: agricultural landscapes, infrastructure, and spatial configuration in Costa Rican banana spaces, Toxics Roundtable, EAHN Conference, Madrid, Spain, June, 2022. Link to Program.


The legacy of Guido Saenz, MBCCR, online lecture, 2022.

The legacy of Guido Sáenz on the production of architectural forms and public spaces in San José.. Museos del Banco Central de Costa Rica, May, 2022. Image @MBCCR. Link to YouTube.


MADC, San José, Costa Rica, 2022.

Tropical Architecture: A working tool. Acercamientos a lo Tropical, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San José, Costa Rica, March, 2022. Image: MADC.


ISUF-H, San José, Costa Rica, 2021.

Enclaves bananeros en la región caribeña costarricense: cuestiones de territorio, paisaje y arquitectura. Congreso Internacional ISUF-H. December, 2021.


Bicentennial International Congress, San José, Costa Rica, 2021

Free Trade Zones: Corporaciones transnacionales, grupos empresariales locales y arquitecturas globales. Jornadas de Investigación, Faculty of Engineering, University of Costa Rica.October, 2021. LINK


Jornadas de Investigación, UCR Engineering Faculty, keynote lecture, 2021.

Ofelia Sanou Alfaro: Aportes para la exploración del entorno construido. Opening Lecture, Jornadas de Investigación, Faculty of Engineering, University of Costa Rica. October, 2021. YOU TUBE


CEEA, Oporto, Portugal, 2020.

Searching for Dissidence in the School of Architecture at the University of Costa Rica: Performative arts as a medium in redefining architecture’s disciplinary boundaries. Dramatic Architectures, Theatre and Performing Arts in Motion, Escola Superior Artística do Porto-Center for Studies Arnaldo Araújo CEAA, Oporto,. November, 2020. Link to CEEA.


Archives and architectural practice, online, 2020.

In conversation with Víctor Hugo Acuña, Archivo y prácticas arquitectónicas, School of Architecture, University of Costa Rica, October, 2020.



Colonial and Postcolonial Landscapes, Lisbon, Portugal, 2019.

China in African, Latin American and Caribbean territories: Examining spatial transformations around diplomacy and economic aid, co-chair. Colonial and Postcolonial LandscapesCenter for Studies on Socioeconomic and Territory Change (Dinamia-CET) of IUL / ISCTE, Calouste-Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon,Portugal. January, 2019. Proceedings.


Conversations. San José, Costa Rica, 2018.

Interventions to the building of the School, School of Architecture, University of Costa Rica. November, 2018 (organized by students).


Women Architects, San José, Costa Rica, 2018.

Architectural histories in Costa Rica can be masculine and imprecise in “Artistas y Arquitectas: A propósito de dos intervenciones”, School of Architecture and School of Visual Arts, University of Costa Rica. June, 2018 (organized by students).


An archeology of the Campus, San José, Costa Rica, 2018.

An archeology of the University Campus, School of Architecture, University of Costa Rica. May, 2018 (organized by students).


AIARG Conference, Waterford, Ireland, 2017.

AIARG

Against a pedagogical colonization: The case of the School of Architecture at the University of Costa Rica. All-Ireland Architecture Research Group Conference; Waterford, Ireland. January, 2017.


This thing called theory, Leeds, United Kingdom, 2015.

Think, teach, learn: The origins of the School of Architecture at the University of Costa Rica. This thing called theory, Architectural Humanities Research Association, Leeds Becket University, Leeds, United Kingdom. December, 2015.


Philosophy and Architecture, Lisbon, Portugal, 2015.

The creation of the School of Architecture at the University of Costa Rica from the perspective of power, knowledge and nationalism. Philosophy and Architecture International Postgraduate Conference, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal. November, 2015. LINK to BOOK OF ABSTRACTS


Talk series, San José, Costa Rica.

Think-Make The pedagogical experience at the Escola do Porto. School of Architecture, San Pedro, Montes de Oca, Costa Rica, 2014.