Poetics of Brick & Water | Rogelio Salmona + María Elvira Madriñán

Poetics of Brick & Water: María Elvira Madriñán on Rogelio Salmona and the Human City

Photographer–architect María Elvira Madriñán invites us into the living city she built – and documented – alongside Rogelio Salmona: a Bogotá of brick, water, and light where courtyards choreograph public life. In this talk, Madriñán traces “la idea continua” – the continuous idea – through decades of collaboration, fieldwork, and stewardship of Salmona’s legacy, revealing how material, landscape, and memory nurture collective belonging. Drawing on her own images and on the Fundación Rogelio Salmona’s research and prize initiatives, she connects Latin American modernism to today’s conversations about World Heritage and the human city. Come for the architecture; stay for the ethics of place-making.

María Elvira Madriñán is a Colombian architect, photographer, and President of the Fundación Rogelio Salmona. For nearly three decades she collaborated closely with Salmona, documenting and advancing his humanist vision in projects, archives, and public programs. Her photographs of Salmona’s works have been widely published; she lectures internationally on architecture as social art and on Latin American contributions to World Heritage. Madriñán leads the Foundation’s award and educational initiatives that extend “la arquitectura de la ciudad humana” across the region.