Earth Scientist (National Autonomous University of Mexico)
Elena teaches Histories and Theories and Policy Design seminars at the Landscape Urbanism MSc and MArch programme at the Architectural Association. She is a research fellow at the Groundlab Research Residency at the Architectural Association, where she has been conducting semi quantitative and qualitative studies of site-specific projects in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and the UK in collaboration with the British Geological Survey, the University College of London, and the British Council. She has taught in the Mexico Visiting School at the AA, at the Royal College of Art, and at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Her work focuses on the verticality of territories, its imaginaries, epistemologies, and disciplinarian tensions in relationship to contemporary design praxis. She also conducts workshops situated in the interstices between soil sciences, collaborative ethnography, its imaginaries and materialities in site specific practices in collaboration with UK Landscape Design institutions.
Her work is also situated alongside community approaches through soil and land management. These collaborations take place within London, South East Wales, and the periphery of Mexico City. The collaborations unfold as cartographies, archives, and other forms of media.
Research & Design
Soil Health Clinic London
Patlachique common lands and ecologies
Architectural Association Landscape Urbanism tutor
Royal College of Art Environmental Architecture studio tutor
Decentralised Water Solutions for Mexico City and its Metropolitan Area
Field Office Workshop 1
Infográficos de campamentos en riesgo en Chile
Just Transition: the (Un)intended consequences of Greening
WritingsArchitectural Design. Just Transition: Rewiring Carbon-Pollutant Landscapes and Labour into a Community Forestry Framework.
World Landscape Architects. Landscape architecture Insights | The next generation | Part 3 – Our Future Woodlands
AArchitecure 46. The Commodification of Carbon: a Paradox in Scotland’s Peatlands
Exhibitions
2020 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture Shenzhen Biennale
Field Office Workshop 1
October 2023
London
The workshop attracted over 250 applications, from which 50 participants joined in person and 50 joined online. Participants joined from 10 countries, 20 universities, and 15 independent practices. Through a combination of lectures, site visits, workshops, and panel discussions, participants explored three questions: firstly, how projects create equitable and meaningful engagements with communities; secondly, how data that is collected and generated can be made accessible to communities that are part of sites; and thirdly, how study and design of a site/project, such as Sayes Court, can be distributed across a wider area.
https://fieldofficeworkshops.org/workshop-01/