Tierra de Nadie: Urban imaginarum for Caracas failures and losses = No one Land: Urban imaginarum for Caracas failures and losses

The following thesis presents a study developed during July 2023 and July 2024 on the territory of Caracas, capital city of Venezuela, in relation to the political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis that has unfolding throughout the 2000’s. The research focuses on how this crisis shaped the generation of citizens born and raised in Caracas during this period, called in this research The Lost Generation, and its impact on citizen relations and the use of the city. The examination of how the unfulfilled promises and urban dysfunctions of Caracas manifest as urban failures that affect identity, community and historical continuity is carried out through a historical and critical analysis of Caracas spanning the periods of conquest, independence, national founding, oil discovery and exploitation, and the current crisis of the 21st Century. The study examines the series of historical and political events that led to the current state of Venezuela’s social crisis, and how the overlapping of these events has given way to the creation of a fragmented urban landscape characterized by exclusion, isolation and social disintegration. At the core of this research is the concept of Pixels City, a term used to describe the disjointed and pixelated urban environment of Caracas. The city is understood as a unbecoming metropolis, haunted by the unfulfilled visions of prosperity and modernity of its golden years. This haunting is particularly evident in the citizen relations of The Lost Generation, which experience and relates to a city marked by historical traumas, socioeconomic disparities, and stigmatization. The research identifies and deconstructs the concepts of City Patches and Citizen Bebris as central to understanding the urban morphology of Caracas and its citizen dynamics. City Patches refer to the spatial manifestations of collective trauma, materialized in gated neighborhoods and slums, commonly known in Venezuela as barrios; while Citizen Bebris represent the residual urban dynamics and practices that have emerged in response to these conditions. The exploration of these socio-territorial dynamics of Caracas is conducted through a projectual lens of speculative urbanism, underpinned by Judith Halberstam’s concepts of Failure and Avery Gordon’s theory of Social Haunting. By applying Halberstam’s framework, the study seeks to reinterpret urban failure not as a negative outcome, but as a potential catalyst for creative reconfigurations and critical urban narratives. The speculative scenarios seek to imagine a city that embraces its failures, transforming them into opportunities for new forms of social and spatial interaction. This approach advocates for a shift from traditional urban recovery strategies to a more multidimensional understanding of urban failures as integral to the city’s identity and evolution. It calls for urban interventions that are not merely reparative but also provocative, encouraging a broader and more inclusive urban discourse.