Transitional Justice and the Production of Space in Post-Conflict in Colombia: The Case of Granada

The Colombian Peace Agreement between the government of Juan Manuel Santos and FARC-EP presents the opportunity to analyze the proposed transitional justice model that aims to address the past violent events and offer the acceptable vision of the future for the victims. The lack of involvement of spatial and architectural matters in the post-conflict dialogue on transitional justice, however, reveals the broken relationship between the operational fields of architecture and realpolitik. To fill the gap, this paper discusses the role of architecture in Colombian political environment after the agreement. It studies the spatial implications of transitional justice models, whose goal is to achieve reconciliation and peaceful coexistence between people – both perpetrators of violence and their victims – who continue to live in the contested territory. In particular, the paper focuses on the potential of agrarian practices in Granada to tackle the challenging economic condition following forced displacement and conflict. At the end, we will offer a range of architectural design tools and spatial strategies that can be used universally in this and similar conflict situations.