MAUD Urban Ecologies UDP 2 

Green infrastructure for the informal city.

Bogotá (COL)

Over the past 6 weeks, we studied the area between Las Lomas creek and the new Transmi-cable project in Bogota.  This area is located in the upper Tunjuelo watershed in the locality of Ciudad Bolivar. In this area, most of the neighborhoods had an informal original.  Limited public spaces and social facilities, landslide and flood risk, and restricted accessibility due to the steep topography coupled with substantial socio-economic

inequalities are critical issues affecting vulnerable low-income in this area. For instance, the average per capita of a metropolitan and zonal public park is only 0.19 sq.m., which is much lower than the 1.09 sq.m. median for Bogota and the density of trees is less than 6 trees per 100 inhabitants.

 

Our design proposals aim to test spatial strategies to consolidate a public space network, that integrate the elements of the ecological structure, provide solutions to inhabitants needs and also increase resilience towards climate change. We aim to radically transform the area and to create a robust urban network that improves the well-being of the local population. Taking advantage of the new  Transmi-cable project and the ongoing works to complete the sewerage system along Las Lomas creek.

 

We took the challenge of working remotely, using a range of online resources (lectures, google earth imagery, databases, videos, and social networks) and remote sourcing techniques to unpack some of the complexities of life and urban development in low-income neighbourhoods of Bogota. The interpretation of this material gave us the tools to design site-specific proposals that advance alternative forms of intervening in low-income settlements.

 

We worked across two different scales. First, the landscape-city scale, a section of 5x2 kilometres that covers the area between Las Lomas creek and the Transmi-cable project. And second, the neighbourhood scale, according to the specific challenges that we wanted to address.