CROSSED LINES // EMU FINAL PROJECT by Bettisabel Lamelo

C R O S S E D

L I N E S

Re-thinking infrastructure in the search for urbanity A strategy for urban regeneration & development

The Case of MĂŠrida, Venezuela

Bettisabel Lamelo ViĂąa_ EMU 2015 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

B. Lamelo_E MU 2015

C R O S S E D

L I N E S

Re-thinking infrastructure in the search for urbanity A strategy for urban regeneration & development

The Case of MĂŠrida, Venezuela Bettisabel Lamelo ViĂąa_ EMU 2015

M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

COLOPHON

Bettisabel Lamelo Viña European Postgraduate Masters in Urbanism UPC Barcelona Spain Master Thesis _ June 2015

This thesis has been developed through the guidance of the mentors:

This thesis has been reviewed by the readers:

Prof. Dr. Julián Galindo UPC - ETSAB Departamento de Urbanismo y Ordenación del Territorio

Prof. Dr. Paola Viganò Università IUAV di Venezia Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning

Ir. Daan Zandbelt TU Delft – Faculty of Architecture Department of Urbanism Chair of Metropolitan and Regional Design

Prof. Viviana d’Auria KU Leuven Department of Architecture

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CONTENT

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

Methodology

The Case Study Historical Evolution Things that Shaped the City The Drivers of Transformation

24 26 64 122

Crossed Lines Vision Spatial Strategy

136 138 150

Testing Experiments T1 - Three ways of crossing T2 - The River Park T3 - The Crossing

162 164 192 212

Reflexions

226

References

228

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I would like to thank first of all my parents, who have supported me both economically and emotionally through my whole studies, and that although being far away they remained close to me during this journey. I thank my partner Edson Sousa, for cheering me up in the toughest times and always encouraging me to continue in order to achieve my goals. To all the amazing people I have met in the EMU program and that today I can call my friends, this has been a fulfilling learning experience thanks to you guys. I give special thanks to the Professors Maritza Rangel and Alberto Pérez of the ULA, great enthusiasts and advocates of the city I chose to work with; their knowledge and perspective was very relevant in the development of this work. I am also deeply thankful to the Prof. Luis Jugo Burguera, as his work and knowledge was of great help in this research but more than that, because his passion for urbanism and the city of Mérida inspired me. And last but not least, I am very thankful to my mentors, Daan Zandbelt and Julián Galindo, who have guided me with great dedication through this thesis journey.

Bettisabel Lamelo Viña

M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

P R E FAC E

My relation with Mérida started because of academic purposes; I have never lived there, but since I visited the city when I decided to study it during my architecture degree I have developed a passionate interest for its morphology and its urban dynamics. In that time I was greatly interested in how natural limits could condition a city’s growth and development, and for that matter I chose Mérida as case study because as a mountain city, its rivers and topography represented strong defined limits inside the city and divided the urban area in different fragments. I was interested in the power of infrastructures, in their capacity of generating urbanity in a city, especially of the bridges as the maximum relators between urban and natural situations. The bridge as a space of encounter and exchange between two fragments of a city that looked so different yet relied on this connection in order to work as one economic system fascinated me, especially as it was a tridimensional spatial interaction where it wasn’t only about the limit that was being crossed but also about how the urban dynamics could change drastically with the construction of new infrastructural elements. This interest has remained until today, so now that I have completed all the courses of the European Postgraduate Masters in Urbanism, I decided to re-take Mérida as a case study and learning experience, trying to envision what the future holds for the city. Thanks to the courses about Projecting the Territory in the UPC, I could built a deeper understanding on how to read the territorial elements that constitute Mérida as a city of regional importance, and how a premise of territorial synergy is necessary even for the proposals at local scale. In addition, with the courses of the Urban Region Networks’ semester at TU Delft, I learned to structure the analysis, visioning and strategy of a region towards a particular topic, at the same time it made me understand how the endogenous economic resources of a region could work as the drivers for its transformation. That semester addressed the topic of knowledge economy, which was useful for me in the understanding of Mérida’s case, as the city is said to be “a city within a university” (Mariano Picón Salas), because of the strong presence that the Andes University has in Mérida. The consolidation of the city into a Knowledge City is something that has being evolving throughout the years, nevertheless for this to happen the drivers need to be understood and integrated in the city’s planning. In that sense, this was also an opportunity to reflect on the role of spatial planning in the structuring of urban transformations and in the construction of urbanity in our cities, when the design of infrastructures is in question. Mérida is also an exemplary case of how the urban space has evolved during the urban stages of Latin-American cities, going from compact traditional cores to overextended metropolitan areas, where the priority has been given to private transportation modes and where the urban space has entered in a process of degradation. In the specific case of the Venezuelan cities, this degradation of the urban space has transformed the streets in insecure places for the regular citizen, so working in the space of infrastructures has also a social relevance as it can contribute to improving the life quality of Venezuelans. This thesis intents to take advantage of the potential of the city, that is embedded in its landscape and the richness of its urban configuration, at the same time that it bets on the recovery of the urban space as a way to regain the urbanity in the city. 8

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The Bridge as a place for interactions_Miranda Viaduct, MĂŠrida 2010 Source _Espasa Arcadia

M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

INTRODUCTION ABOUT INFRASTRUCTURES

In order to understand the main problem from which derived the motivation to do this thesis, it was mandatory to introduce the topic of infrastructures. Historically, streets have been considered longitudinal urban elements that interact with the functions that take place along them, and with special intensity of interaction in their junctions. As linear elements, they are constituted not only by the canal that facilitates the mobility flows, but also by the sidewalks or public space associated to them where the interactions occur and the border that constitutes not only the façade of buildings but also the functions the interact in this public space. These three elements; the street per se, the sidewalk and the thick border, are the ones that conform the urban space, the place where city life and urban relations are held. Over time, streets started to lose their ability to relate different functions and activities and became autonomous elements. When planning and constructing the infrastructures of modernity, the attention was given more to guaranteeing the connections at high speed to the new developments rather than to the adaptation and interaction of this infrastructure with its surroundings, with the landscape, the topography and the existing urban tissue. A separation between the constituting elements and systems of the street supposed a lack of interaction between them. This provoked a separation between street and territory and accelerated a process of degradation of the urban space, causing a distance between urban relations, between the different parts of the city and between the people. Physically, this translates into hermetic borders, new tissue that doesn’t fit with preexistences, topographic separations, pedestrian flows crossings over or under the street level, infrastructures that act as barriers and cut the territory, and so on. Also, this new infrastructure that caused new types of urban relations had evident effects on urbanization: diffused and fragmented growth, with pieces that are interconnected through the network but that don’t form a cohesive urban space. Against this way of conceiving the road system, several author such as Buchanan (1973); Mumford (1963) and Jacobs (1961)1, stated in their time the problematic that emerged as a result of the inclusion of cars in cities that deteriorated public and urban space. Also, authors like Lefebvre resume the problem of the contemporary city as a lack of composition and relation to the territory. 1, 2

quoted in Mayorga & Fontana (2012)

Illustration of one of Mérida’s Bridges Source _done by author

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INTRODUCTION INFRASTRUCTURES WITH URBANITY

“Since the beginning of times, cities emerge because of the existence of a bridge that crosses a river or because there is a crossing of pathways, so it is the infrastructure that enables the urban happening. Today, when we think on the cities of the future, we put special effort into making this infrastructural elements more urban.”

Joan Busquets (2003)

If we recognize that the space of the infrastructure is where the majority of urban relations occur, then it is mandatory that today infrastructure and city are thought simultaneously. Infrastructure can no longer be considered only from one of its constituting elements, it cannot be reduced only to a canal for mobility flows, we should design them in a way that they contribute to urbanity. As Jacobs, A. (1995)2 states, streets are “Something more than a public service, more than a series of linear physical spaces that allow movement. They are also places of encounter and exchange, from both social and commercial points of view; the means where some people meet others, and that is the cities’ raison d’etre.” Understood as the urban space and as the core of the city life, the infrastructure network could help to achieve cohesion and integration between the different parts of the city, therefore its design should recognize the singularities of the city rather than conditioning its possibilities. To project the infrastructure is to construct the base for the city to flourish and to establish the setting where diverse urban activities could be developed. To consider this broader concept of infrastructures as a premise could help to achieve higher levels of urbanity in our cities.

A N E W PA R A D I G M F O R C I T I E S The way of making cities should be oriented to reestablishing, strengthening and promoting urban relations through the correspondence between structure and infrastructure. The potential of infrastructure as an element that could transform and construct cities needs to be recognized in a time where urban dynamics are more strongly represented in the exchange of goods, information and people, and where relations are mixed because of proximity and connection. (Mayorga, 2011) We, as architects and urban planners, should encourage the formal and functional interrelation between structure and infrastructure in the design and construction of the city. Every infrastructure project is an occasion to reconstruct the relations between city, people and territory, and to rethink these infrastructures is an opportunity for establishing a new paradigm for the contemporary city, where the separation between the constituting elements of the urban space is diminished and therefore, the urbanity of cities is regained. M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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INTRODUCTION W H AT I S U R B A N I T Y A B O U T ?

“The search for urbanity has become a central theme in architecture” (Hillier et al, 1983:48)3, as it is said to be the core of city life. In that same way, it is commonly discussed that the lack of urbanity can kill the value of our cities, but what does urbanity mean? Many authors have reflected about the conditions that should happen in our cities in order to achieve it. These conditions range from the spatial qualities of the city to the social behaviors that the inhabitants should have towards their cities. In the Oxford dictionary, the word urbanity states for: 1 Courteousness and refinement of manner 2 Urban life Moreover, the word comes from the French urbanité or Latin urbanitas, from urbanus “belonging to the city”. So it is certainly something that is embedded in the urban space and is related to the public life in cities, even though some places have different degrees of urbanity than others. It is also commonly said that urbanity is about the mode of appropriation of a situation by its users both at the building and the city scales, more like an experience than a concrete thing, but how can this be measurable? Under what conditions could we evaluate our cities in order to establish if there is a certain degree of urbanity of not? The aim of this chapter is not to come to a close, definite concept of urbanity but to relate a usually abstract concept to the physical and social dimensions of the city in order to establish certain guidelines that are important to achieve it. Only when understanding the concept and its dimensions it will be possible to have a framework to evaluate the city and make the proposals. For these reasons, several authors have been reviewed and critically selected to establish the conditions that urbanity is about. In the following pages, the concept of urbanity will be developed as a result of three conditions:

The street in front of the Cathedral, Mérida Source _Espasa Arcadia

The quality of the urban things and how they configure the urban space

Diversity and the encounter of the differences of the city

Mediation and inter-exchange spaces 3

quoted in Vieira, D.

M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

Abo ut the qua l it y of th e u rb an th in g s an d h ow they co n fig u re th e u rb an s p ac e Many of the discussions about urbanity emerged from the complaints against the quality of the urban space that was generated under the ideas of modernism, of a higher-speed, less-direct contact society that gave less importance to the existence of urban interactions and more importance to individualistic, aesthetic means. In time, it was demanded that our cities should have a certain quality of the urban space and that meant a shift in the designing of the urban things that conform it. Authors like Sola-Morales (2008) refer to this urbanity as the urban qualities of things. For him, urbanity is a condition of the urban things and of their articulation; it is in the material constructions that are able to transmit these qualities to the citizens. Kevin Lynch mentions in his book ‘The image of the city’, about this “apparent, legible or visible city” that is constituted by the elements that configure urban space and that are capable to transmit to the inhabitants its qualities. In this sense, these components cannot be evaluated without the others, as it is the interaction between them that causes the urbanity. For this authors, urbanity is a result of the morphological quality of urban things –the roadway, the sidewalk, the buildings, the public spaces- and most important, of the interaction between them. It is the result of the configuration of built forms and the interstitial space between these forms; it is what is seen, felt and perceived by the user that is living the juxtaposition of physical elements of the environment. This is also something multi-scalar, as elements at all scales contribute to the construction of urbanity, and the form of these elements accommodate the body, individual and collective.

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Abo ut di vers it y an d th e en c ou n ter of the differen c es of th e c it y Authors like Sennett (1994) relate urbanity to the concepts of diversity and density. Moreover, some talk about a qualitative density that is more relevant than a dense environment per se. Like Sola-Morales (2008) states, it is in the “coexistence of differences where the urban qualitative energy emerges”, but is more, he argues, about the mixity than the density. This recognizes the importance of achieving a dense environment but more importantly, to achieve density of different things that affect differently the urban space.

“What I think as of urbanity is precisely making use of density and differences in the city so that people find a more balanced sense of identification on the one hand with others who are like themselves but also a willingness to take risks with what is unlike, unknown… It is the kinds of experiences that make people find out something about themselves that they didn’t know before”. Richard Sennett, 1994

Jacobs (1960) also refers to diversity as an important aspect of street life. She refers to a diversity of both architectural and social dimensions: diversity of architectural typeologies, types of public spaces, of activities; but also a diversity of human types, in the economic and the ethnic sense. As Krafta (2012), reviewed in Vieira (2012) states, urbanity would flourish more in situations founded upon heterogeneity, situations constituted by buildings of different authors, preferably diachronically, than in situations more characterized by homogeneity of authorship and synchrony. Urbanity is also the result of different agents during time. In this sense, all urban places are an accumulation of different urbanities coming from the past and the current urbanity of a place is something historically produced that captures the dialog between different authors and styles. To resume, urbanity could also be a result of how the morphological, spatial, social, functional and organizational differences encounter in the urban space.

M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

About m e di ation an d in ter- exc h an g e s p ac es Urbanity is also related to the simultaneity between the public and the private domain (Sola-Morales, 2008). In this case, urbanity happens in the public realm, understood as the streets, pathways, right of ways, parks, publicly accessible open spaces and any public and civic building and facilities than can offer opportunities for the interaction among different users and between users and the environment. It also happens in collective spaces, hybrid spaces, both public and private, where the urban forces are the spatial mediators. Sennett (2015) defines this public realm as “the place where strangers meet”. It is, he argues, a place that traditionally has been defined in terms of physical ground, and has been linked to cities. It can be identified as “the squares, major streets, theaters, cafes, lecture hall, government assemblies, or stock exchanges where strangers would be likely to meet.” But, as he also states, the most important fact about the public realm is what happens in it. “Gathering together strangers enables certain kinds of activities which cannot happen, or do not happen as well, in the intimate private realm. In public, people can access unfamiliar knowledge, expanding the horizons of their information. (…) In public, people can discuss and debate with people who may not share the same assumptions or the same interests. (…) The public realm offers people a chance to lighten the pressures for conformity, of fitting into a fixed role in the social order; anonymity and impersonality provide a milieu for more individual development”. So in this case, urbanity is about the public realm and the different types of spaces that conform it; and about the interactions that are fostered and held in it that cause different types and degrees of urbanity.

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W hy a re ur ba ni t y a nd in fras tru c tu re s o in ex tric ab l y related ? Being the street one of the main components of the public realm, it is no surprise that the search for urbanity in infrastructures becomes a relevant topic. If we consider the street as the urban space, it is there where the urban things should interact, in order to generate a response from the users. A higher articulation between its constituting elements and the dynamics they hold, like the roadway and mobility flows, the sidewalk and the pedestrian movement, the thick border understood as the façade and ground floor of the buildings, will be an important condition in the search for urbanity; as well as it is important that infrastructures recognize and enhance the differences of the city. Also, the configuration of the street network can help to achieve these certain qualities. As Lynch states, there is a structural dimension that relies on “the visual predominance of the street system and its fundamental importance as a network, through which the majority of the people experience the space of the city”. (Lynch, 1960:49, quoted in Vieira, D.) The perception of this structural character will depend on a perception of spatial continuity, and in that sense, the network of urban space –the infrastructural network- is represented as interconnected lines of movement. This coincides with Hillier et al (1983), when they talk about the network condition, which is “the global organization of space (that) acts as the means by which towns and urban areas may become powerful mechanisms to generate, sustain and control patterns of movement of people”. In this sense, we can conclude that it is mandatory to study the effect of infrastructure and its possibilities to generate urbanity at different scales, as an element –the street- but also as a network –the whole road system. Image Source _ colibri-tours.com, modified by author

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MĂŠrida and the Sierra Nevada Mountains Source_Espasa Arcadia @ skyscrapercity.com

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INTRODUCTION WHY MÉRIDA?

The city of Mérida is the case study chosen as a testing ground for this topic. Founded in 1558, it is a medium-scale city that lies in the middle of the Venezuelan Andes Mountain Range. As a state capital, it plays an important role as it gathers many of the administrative, economic and social functions of the Andes region, as well as it is a strong touristic and student city. Because of this role, the city experienced a dynamic demographic and economic growth, and like most Venezuelan cities, it passed from being a compact traditional city to a diffuse, overextended metropolitan area of differentiated homogeneous areas, that held different types of interactions in the urban space and therefore, developed different types of urbanity. As a mountain city with relevant topographic differences and disruptions because of the geography, infrastructure played an important role in guiding the growth of the city and connecting the different fragments. To rethink both the new and old infrastructure of Mérida is an occasion to reconstruct the relations between city, people and nature, which are dimensions that need to be thought together in the future planning and development of Mérida. Also, as a consolidated urban area, this could also be an opportunity for urban regeneration that starts from the infrastructure and affects the overall structure of the city.

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METHODOLOGY

The Methodology for this research started from the interest in the topic of infrastructures and their relation with urbanity. On those topics it was built a theoretical background from literature research, to get a deeper understanding both on the problematic of infrastructures and the degradation of urban space and on the notion of urbanity. Furthermore, the Analysis Chapter consisted in mapping the realities that presented the case study. In that sense, the analysis is divided in three main sections that seemed pertinent in the understanding of the city: A review on the Historical Evolution of Mérida, which passed from being a traditional compact city to an overextended metropolitan area; the things that shaped the city and the drivers of transformation. From these sections derived the problem statements that were displayed through analytical drawing of the realities and that evidenced spatially the main issues to target in the case study. To these problem statements it is added one consideration about the role of Mérida as an intermediate city and its implications in the functioning of the city in terms of time and scale. Although in the next page the methodology of this investigation will be shown organized by sections, the process was not a linear process, rather than that it went back and forward to relate theory with the findings, project and so on, as it is the case of the research questions that were raised from the problem statements, that intend to relate the problems and considerations of the city with the main problem field and notions, questioning in this way the role of infrastructures in the solving of these problems, intending to achieve at the same time the conditions for urbanity. Five hypotheses are constructed as possible solutions to Mérida’s realities, as a result of the theoretical review; hypotheses that will furthermore be tested at the end of the research with the testing experiments. Moreover, a vision is constructed to give a clear image of the path that Mérida should be lead to, and for this matter, a spatial strategy is set to establish the main actions to achieve it. For testing this strategy, the central area of the city is chosen as it gathers the requirements for applying it and more than that, as it is a space of opportunity for structuring the transformation of the city. The testing is done through three projects, each representing one of the main actions of the strategy. Finally, it is done a reflection on the planning instruments that are necessary to execute the strategy, as well as on what the role of the stakeholders and institutions should be.

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MeridaÂ´s Perspectives Source _done by author M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

INTRODUCTION

A N A LY S I S

CONCLUSIONS & P R O B L E M S TAT E M E N T S

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Building the Theoretic al B ackground

M apping Realities

Understanding the Struc ture

Q uestioning the role of infrastruc tures

Literature Research on Infrastruc ture & Urbanit y Introducing the Case Study

Literature Research on the Histor y of the Cit y S atellite Photos Mapping ArcGIS Mapping Urban Area S tatistics S pace Syntax Analysis

Anal ytic al D rawing

Relating the problems of the cit y with the main problem field and notions

HISTO R IC AL E VO LUTIO N

3 URBA N STRUC TURES, 1 CIT Y

C ASE S T U D Y: MÉ R I DA Venezuela

P R OBL E M FIELD About Infrastructures and the Degradation of the Urban Space

-1930 traditional compact city 1930 - 1966 the expansion of the traditional city 1966 - 1979 the explosion of the city 1979 - 2015 the consolidation of the diffuse over-extended city

THING S THAT SHA P ED THE CIT Y Topography & Rivers The Green Infrastructure The Gray Infrastructure

A Paradigm for the Contemporary City

NOT I ON S About URBANIT Y

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D R IVER S OF TRANSFO R MATIO N The University Tourism

The Grids The Corridors The Islands

P S 01.

•

Is it possible to improve the conditions for urbanity in the streets of the existing tissue?

•

How can infrastructure generate continuity in the city?

•

How can infrastructure foster the interactions between city & nature?

•

How can infrastructure support Mérida’s intermediation role?

the space of infrastructure

A LONGITUDINA L CIT Y OF STRIP ES P S 02. urban discontinuity P S 03. poor relation to green infrastructure TOWARDS A TRANSVERSAL URBANITY

MÉRIDA : INTERMEDIATE CIT Y 1 C O N S I D E R AT I O N time & scale

HYPOTHESES

VISION

S T R AT E G Y

TESTING

Going Back to the theor y

Envisioning Mérida’s future

S etting up the spatial strategy

Testing the strategy

Possible S olution as a result of theoretic al review

B uilding a Vision for the cit y & Struc turing its transformation

Establishing the main ac tions to achieve the vision

3 S patial Experiments of Strategic Charac ter Testing of the hypotheses

•

• •

•

The quality urban space could be improved by fostering the interaction and articulation between the constituting elements of the street

More than creating more connections is about guaranteeing the continuity of urbanity The street as an opportunity to generate relations with the green infrastructure The potential for urbanity increases in the transversal axes

A touristic and knowledge city, where the relations between city, people and territory are reconstructed and with a new reality where proximity of urban relations, vibrancy of the urban space and sustainable interactions with the environment are possible

CROSSED LINES

1 SPAC E OF OP P ORT U N I T Y

between nature and infrastructure

To steer the transformation

3 main actions:

3 testing experiments:

INTENSIFY THE TRA NSV ERSA L

3 W AY S O F CROSSING

REDEFINE THE LONGITUDINA L

THE RIVER PA R K

CROSS THE LINES

THE CROSSING

The mediation and inter-exchange spaces should be fostered as they are key in Mérida’s intermediation role

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8km

THE CASE STUDY: MĂ&#x2030;RIDA, VENEZUELA Historical Evolution Things that Shaped the City Drivers of Transformation

0 24 24

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26 64 122

SAN CRISTÓBAL 1.004.820

CARACAS* 5.289.374

BARINAS 353.442

EJIDO 99.837

Aerial view of the City Source _Google Earth 2014, modified by author Mérida in relation to the Venezuelan Urban System Source _done by author Data_CNE_DANE_Diario el Vigía

VALER A

533.720

EL VIGÍA 97.776

*Nation’s Capital **Date is uncertain, this is approximate year

Andean City M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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FOUNDED

1529 1552 1558

516.217

1561

MÉRIDA

1567

2.663.256

1577

BARQUISIMETO

1650

2.450.559

1811

MARACAIBO

1919**

CITY

P O P U L AT I O N m e t r o p o l i t a n a r e a

26 26

1 558 - 1930

1930 - 1966

TH E T R AD ITI ONAL COMPAC T CI T Y

T HE E XPA N S ION OF T HE T R A DIT ION A L C IT Y

1966 - 1979

1979 - 2015

T H E EXPLOSI ON OF THE CI T Y: SUBURBAN IZ ATI ON AND CONU RB ATI ON

T HE CON S OLIDAT ION OF T HE DIF F U S E OV E R-E X T E N DE D C IT Y

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THE CASE STUDY: HISTORICAL EVOLUTION A TYPICAL VENEZUELAN CITY

Although Mérida was founded in an atypical context that shaped its physical expansion and structure, the growth of the city followed the same stages that most of the Venezuelan cities did. In the next pages the processes and factors that shaped the city’s growth will be analyzed in these four stages: The traditional compact city, The extension of the traditional city, The explosion of the city: Suburbanization and Conurbation and The consolidation of the diffuse over-extended city. This division into stage follows the work of Amaya (2001) about the growth of Mérida, and takes into account the urban typologies that appeared during the stages, the factors that conditioned the growth and the changes in the organizational functioning of the city. A division in great part related to relevant changes in the national economic model. Methodology: Considering the reduced amount of information available about Venezuelan Cities, this analysis has been done supported by literature reading and the interpretation of historical available maps in coherence with current validated data. The study also takes as a reference the work of Marcano (1998) quoted in Herrera (2011) about the morphologic categorization of urban tissues in Latin-American cities.

Historical Evolution of Mérida Source _Done by author, Data Reference: See Annex I

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8km

1558 - 1 9 3 0

T H E T R A D I T I O N A L CO M PAC T C I T Y

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Description, Organization & Functioning

Just like many of Venezuelan and Latin-American cities, MĂŠrida has a colonial origin. The organization of the city followed the Spanish document Leyes de Indias, a series of norms enacted by the Spanish Empire to guide the settlement process of the newly found territories. The document established a semi-lattice model for development, adaptable to local topographical conditions. In the case of MĂŠrida, the place chosen for founding the city was the terrace between the rivers Chama and Albarregas, as it presented good possibilities for future growth. The traditional city was divided in four parts, as Hardoy (1972) quoted in Amaya (2011) defines: the center, where the main buildings of the city organized around the main square: the cathedral or main church, the main institutional buildings, the most important commercial facilities, the residential buildings of the most influential people, and so on. The second zone was the transition area, where employees, artisans, and mainly, middle a low class citizens lived. It had less facilities and commerce than the center. The third zone was the suburbs, diffuse urbanization that followed the traditional grid. In this zone were second residences of the wealthiest. Fourth sector was beyond the suburbs and was formed by agricultural land. In this period, the first two sectors would be considered the city, and the second two would be considered the hinterland.

1594 1628 1785 1800 1858 1910 1930 Facilities Public Space Informal Settlements Infrastructure

Population (1926)*

5,945 2

Urban Area*

96 h a 1

1930 Urban Area Source _done by author Data References: See Main References 0

Land Use*

84%

13% 3%

Constructed Plots 1594 1628 1785 1800 1858 1910 1930 Residential, Commercial, Industrial

Facilities Public Space

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1558 - 1 9 3 0

T H E T R A D I T I O N A L CO M PAC T C I T Y

Link to Agricultural Prolongation of Fields at the other traditional grid side of the Albarregas for city expansion river 30

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Original Block Typology

Center: The Church & the Main Square

Trasandean Trunk Road

Facilities in the outskirts of the city: The Cemetery

Link to Agriculture Fields at the Chama valley

Role of the city in this period

Urban Typologies Traditional Area: Urban Block Expansion Area: Highrise Multi-family Housing Expansion Area: Lowrise Single-family Housing Polygon Area: Facility Polygon Area: Infrastructure Uncontrolled Development Area: Informal Settlement

Mérida, like most colonial cities, was mainly a governmental and religious center from a functional point of view. Agriculture was the main economic activity of the region, nevertheless, Mérida wasn’t the trade center of the productive areas –trade was done in the cities around the Lake of Maracaibo- but only the provider of facilities and services for this agricultural region. Expansion of the city During this period, the expansion of the city occurred at a very slow pace, having 4741 inhabitants for 1891, 5623 inhabitants for 1920 and 5945 inhabitants for 1926. Many thing contributed to the slow growth of the city, one of them was this lack of economic importance, but also the backwardness in technological issues regarding transportation, the fact that the traditional grid could absorb the population growth without changing drastically the morphology of the city, the overall isolation of the region regarding the nation and the seismic activity that affected the city. The expansion that occurred was done linearly along the longitudinal streets and main axes, following the direction of the terrace. Two streets, the Barranca st. (now Av. 2) and the Real st. (now Av. 3), were the main axes for growth as they were the routes that connected Mérida to nearby settlements. In these avenues there were located the main religious and sanitary facilities as well. The breaking point

1930 Organization Structure Source _done by author

This organization scheme was broken in 1930s when population started to grow considerably and the wealthiest inhabitants started to abandon the city center, making the division between work and residence noticeable. This was mainly possible because of the arrivals of motor vehicles in the 1920s and because of the construction of road infrastructure in the subsequent years.

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Mérida’s Traditional Core, 1927 Source_ Steve Sleightholm_ http://www.cclausen.net/

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Cathedral and BolĂvar Square, 1930s Source_VTV Archive

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Description, Organization & Functioning 7

From 1930, the city started to suffer from the first stage of physical dispersion. Having 2.2 km per 700 m, MĂŠrida was mainly a pedestrian city, but with the arrival of motor transportation in the late 1920s, the city started a process of suburbanization: privileged groups left the city center, land use diversified and work and residence functions separated. During this period of transition between colonial and modern city, the city became a center of demographic attraction, influencing the surrounding rural areas to move to the urban areas. This was due to the construction of services and infrastructure of regional reach by the national government, such as the airport, new road infrastructure and sanitary services; and due to the construction of the Trasandean Trunk Road that helped to integrate the city to the National urban system. These actions were the result of a new economic and social model of the Nation that surged due to the shift from an agrarian to an oil exploitation economic model. *Urban Area & Land Use calculations based on study map Population data source: Amaya, 2001

Population (1961)*

46,339 Constructed 1930 - 1966 Constructed 1558 - 1930 Facilities Public Space Informal Settlements Infrastructure

Urban Area*

357 h a 1

1966 Urban Area Source _done by author Data References: See Main References 0

Land Use*

49%

17% 8%18%

Formal City: Residential, Commercial, Industrial

Facilities

Infrastructure

Public Informal Space Settlements

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1930 - 1 9 6 6

New Road starts to Polygon Areas: attract urbanization Facilities to the other side of the river 36

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T H E E X PA N S I O N O F T H E T R A D I T I O N A L C I T Y

Infrastructure Informal Link to in the outskirts: Settlements Urbanization The Airport at the other side of the Albarregas

Informal Settlements Polygon Areas in the river basin of the Facilities: Albarregas / Link to University Expansion City center & Hospital

Link to Landscape: MĂŠridaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cable Car

Expansion of the city

Urban Typologies Traditional Area: Urban Block Expansion Area: Highrise Multi-family Housing Expansion Area: Lowrise Single-family Housing Polygon Area: Facility Polygon Area: Infrastructure

The city experienced a dynamic population growth, from 5945 inhabitants in 1926 to 46339 inhabitants in 1961. This growth made the city expand following the Trasandean Trunk Road, extending to the south west to the Ejidos of Mérida, as well as it meant the beginning of spatial segregation in the city, as the growth caused the appearance of informal settlements, especially in the sector Milla and El Llano, which were the ones more distant to the city center. The construction of the Panamericana Road (today Próceres Av.) at the other side of the Albarregas River started to attract urbanization to the other terrace, however there were still no good connections to this area so urbanization remained contained. Role of the city in this period The construction of university facilities in the city and of new infrastructure, like the Tranandean Trunk Road or the Cable Car to Sierra Nevada National Park, made Mérida flourish as a touristic and student city. This made her have a floating population, what translated eventually into the construction of even more services.

Uncontrolled Development Area: Informal Settlement

1966 Organization Structure Source _done by author

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T H E E X PA N S I O N O F T H E T R A D I T I O N A L C I T Y

Mérida’s Traditional Core and Extension, Airport and New Axis are visible, Around 1940 Source_ Francisco Villa

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Expansion Around the Airport Source_Alfredo Ramos

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Description, Organization & Functioning 7

This period corresponds to an intense process of suburbanization and coalition to the nearby urban centers of La Parroquia and Ejido. In this period, motor vehicles transportation was already the main mobilization mode, and Mérida experienced an even more drastic population growth, as it passed from having 46.339 inhabitants in 1961 to have 143.805 in 1981, and 164.316 if it’s considered the conurbation Mérida-La ParroquiaEjido.

*Urban Area & Land Use calculations based on study map Population data source: Amaya, 2001 3

Population (1981)*

143,805 Constructed 1966 - 1979 Constructed 1558 - 1966 Facilities Public Space Informal Settlements Infrastructure

Urban Area*

752 h a 1

1979 Urban Area Source _done by author Data References: See Main References 0

Land Use*

61%

16% 9% 10% 4%

Formal City: Residential, Commercial, Industrial

Facilities

Public Informal Infrastructure Space Settlements

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Expansion Areas

T H E E X P L O S I O N O F T H E C I T Y: S U B U R B A N I Z AT I O N A N D C O N U R B AT I O N

Conurbation with La Parroquia

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New Transversal Axes

Bridges to connect to new urbanization

New Axis and Bridges accelerate the urbanization at the other side

Airport in central position absorbed by the city

Expansion of the city

1979 Organization Structure Source _done by author

As Amaya (2011) reviews, this process of suburbanization happened because traditional grid couldn’t absorb this population growth, also because of the construction of bridges over the Albarregas River that made possible to construct in the terrace at the other side, into what is called the “Other Stripe”. This suburbanization was mainly constituted by private residential developments that were mainly car-dependent and can be identified as two types: the ‘urbanizations’ of low-rise single family housing that remind of the concept of ‘garden city’ and the ‘high-rise multi-family dwelling complexes’. These developments translated into a disorganized way of growth and a predominance of underused space. There were also some Social Housing developments, two of them in the Chama Valley. The growth also increased the socio-economic gaps, as more informal settlements grew in the peripheries, all over the borders of the city, following diverse patterns of localization: close to the city center, close to main roads and occupying natural spaces. These areas were characterized for the lack of public space, facilities and basic services. Besides this expansion of diffuse urbanization, the other change in the morphology of the city was due to the construction of high-rise buildings in the city center. Also, new commercial facilities were constructed in the main roads, and this modified the traditional central commercial structure of the city. The university continued to grow in the opposite direction of the city’s expansion and it also started to have some uses in the city center. Also during this period the airport was no longer in the outskirts, as it was absorbed by the city and occupied central position. It became an introverted large plot inserted in the regular urban tissue, suffering from great pressure as it represented great opportunities for development in the case its use was changed.

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The Bridges over the Albarregas River Source_Espasa Arcadia @ skyscraperlife.com

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Expansion Areas - Airport in central position, absorbed by the city Source_Espasa Arcadia @ skyscraperlife.com

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Description, Organization & Functioning 7

During this period occurs a consolidation of the previously urbanized areas that constitute the current extended and diffuse city. This metropolitan area of MĂŠrida-La Parroquia-Ejido gets more consolidated, both morphologically and functionally, through the interaction in the exchanges of services. At the same time, the lack of urbanized land and the high value of the land made new developments locate in the peripheries. The consolidation of the infrastructure corridors increased the decentralization of economic activities; more commercial facilities were constructed, especially in Las AmĂŠricas Av., which became the main commercial and public transportation axis of the city.

*Urban Area & Land Use calculations based on study map Population data source: Amaya, 2001 3

Population (2013)*

330,287 516,217 Constructed 1979 - 2015 Constructed 1558 - 1979 Facilities Public Space Informal Settlements Infrastructure

(Metropolitan Area)

Urban Area*

1598 h a 1

2015 Urban Area Source _done by author Data References: See Main ReferencesW 0

Land Use*

63%

14% 5%16% 2%

Formal City: Residential, Commercial, Industrial

Facilities Public Informal Infrastructure Space Settlements

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T H E C O N S O L I D AT I O N O F T H E D I F F U S E O V E R - E X T E N D E D C I T Y

Consolidation of the avenue as a main commercial & mobility axis

Bridge over the Informal settlements Improvement of Albarregas River at the Chama Connections to River Basin Chama Urbanization

Cable Car to connect to Chama Urbanization

Urban Typologies Traditional Area: Urban Block Expansion Area: Highrise Multi-family Housing Expansion Area: Lowrise Single-family Housing

Besides from the construction of another bridge over the Albarregas River, the infrastructure investments of this period were related mainly to the construction of public transportation modes (Trolebus Tram System) to connect with the nearby city of Ejido and to improve the connections with the Chama Urbanizations with a new road and a Cable Car. Informal settlements appeared in the Chama terrace, consolidating an important area that lacks of public spaces and facilities and that has poor connections with the formal city in the foundational terrace. Also in this period MĂŠrida becomes a consolidated touristic, student and cultural center of national reach, and these activities become the base of its current economy.

Polygon Area: Facility Polygon Area: Infrastructure Uncontrolled Development Area: Informal Settlement

2015 Organization Structure Source _done by author

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MĂŠrida and the Chama Valley Source_jesusaraque @ flickr

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HISTORICAL EVOLUTION: CONCLUSION 3 URBAN STRUCTURES, 1 CITY After passing through all the stages that most of Venezuelan cities passed through as a product of the economic changes that made the colonial city transform into a diffuse and overextended metropolitan area, the city can be understood through its 3 differentiated homogeneous areas, which are: The Grids, The Corridors and The Islands This classification of the urban tissue was done based on the interactions that occur in the urban space and the way it is configured. As differentiated urban structures, each homogeneous area generates different types of urbanity, which can be seen from the point of infrastructure. The Grids

The Corridors

The Islands

Facilities Public Space Rivers Urban Area

MĂŠridaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Homogeneous Areas Source _done by author

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HOMOGENEOUS AREAS THE GRIDS

The urban space in the streets of the traditional colonial compact city, for example, was since the beginning the place where most of the social interactions of the city took place and today, in a city center that is merely commercial and institutional, this condition of the street as a place for interactions has remained but the space for the pedestrian has been considerably reduced and the discontinuity of sidewaks and predominance of car transportation over public transportation has affected negatively the urban space. The Grids of MĂŠrida Source _done by author

Standard Section, City Center Street Source _done by author

Street in the city center Source_taken by author, 2015 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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HOMOGENEOUS AREAS THE CORRIDORS

Regarding the areas of expansion that followed the longitudinal corridors, this infrastructure had both local and regional importance, as it was also used to cross the Andean Region, therefore, it was designed to be a direct connection to go through the city but in terms of the urban space, it lacked of urbanity. The lack of permeability of the borders and the lack of spaces for interaction has affected in this case the quality of urban space. The Corridors of MĂŠrida Source _done by author

Standard Section, Corridor Source _done by author

Corridor of the expansion areas Source_taken by author, 2011 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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HOMOGENEOUS AREAS THE ISLANDS

On the other hand, the high amount of facilities, specially in the clusters of university activities and the areas of informal settlements have formed islands that have few to none interaction with the surroundings.

The Islands of MĂŠrida Source _done by author

Standard Section, Street surrounding Islands Source _done by author

Street surrounding a facility Source_taken by author, 2015 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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Global Integration Source _done by author, Base Map: Open Street Map

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Local Integration, R = 3 Source _done by author, Base Map: Open Street Map

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Regarding the street network it is evident from the local and global integration maps that the streets of the grids, mainly of the historical city center are the ones that have the better integration, followed in a lesser degree by the corridors but not in a contonious way. In this sense, the most segregated streets, specially in the local scale are the side streets of the corridors and the streets that go through the foothills and into the Chama informal settlements. M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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Reduced Space for the pedestrian Discontinuous Sidewalks

Predominance of motor transportation systems affects the quality of the urban space

Permeable Facades allow interaction â&#x20AC;&#x153;e ye s o n t h e s t r e e t â&#x20AC;? Jacobs

Commercial activity Active Exchange Spaces

GRIDS

Vegetation in the Street

Good Public Transpor tation Connectivity

No sidewalks Occasionally

Introverted Facades

CORRIDORS

Street flow conditioned by facilities - low at certain hours

Vegetation in the Street

Blind Facades No permeability

Spaces of Interaction

Distant Facade

ISLANDS

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P R O B L E M S TAT E M E N T 0 1 T H E S PAC E O F I N F R A S T R U C T U R E

The understanding of the current structure of the city based on the urban structures that resulted from its historical evolution brings the first problem statement: the degradation of the space of infrastructures. In a city that has suffered from the problems of separation between the elements that constitute the urban space, which has translated into a degradation of the urban relations and interactions, a first research question arises:

IS IT POSSIBLE TO IMPROVE THE CONDITIONS FOR URBANITY IN THE STREETS OF THE EXISTING TISSUE? As a 1st Hypothesis, based in the theoretical review, it is proposed that: the quality urban space could be improved by fostering the interaction and articulation between the constituting elements of the street: the roadway, the sidewalk and the thick border so they are designed as powerful elements that foster urbanity. In the next pages, an analysis of the things that shaped the city and how they have influenced urban space is done, in order to understand the city in a wider scale and be able to act over the street network that is affected by all these factors.

Strengths & Weaknesses of the Streets of each Homogeneous Area Source _done by author

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64 64

Mérida’s Urban Area

Topography & Rivers

Green Infrastructure

Infrastructure

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T H E C A S E S T U D Y: T H I N G S T H AT S H A P E D T H E C I T Y A LONGITUDINAL STRUCTURE, A CITY OF STRIPES

When considering the city as a whole, the city developed a logitudinal organization structure, mainly conditioned by 3 factors: the topographic conditions and hydrography the natural reserves and vegetation the construction of infrastructure

These elements not only conditioned the growth, they also shaped the character and urbanity of the city.

As a city in the middle of the mountains, it is no surprise that the topography and rivers delimitated the available space for urbanization. The adaptation of the city to the narrow valley determined the growth of the city in longitudinal stripes. The national parks and Protected Areas conditioned the proximity of the urban areas with nature, as they became linear elements and borders of the city. Moreover, the infrastructure was a major contributor in shaping the linear growth of the city as infrastructure itself was conditioned by the geographic attributes of MĂŠrida. In that sense, the way this infrastructure was designed also influenced the characteristics, dynamics and therefore the urbanity of the different fragments of the city. In the next pages the elements and conditions that shaped the city will be developed, as a way to understand how they have affected the current urbanity of MĂŠrida. Furthermore it will be studied the impact of the economic activities on the configuration of the city and its current functioning. The main two activities are addressed as drivers for the transformation of the city: Tourism and University.

The things that shaped the city Source _done by author

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T H I N G S T H AT S H A P E D T H E C I T Y RIVERS & TOPOGRAPHY

The city of Mérida was founded by the Spanish Colony in the middle of the Andes Mountain Range, between the Mountains of Sierra Nevada and La Culata, in the valley of the Chama River that is born in the Mountain Range and that ends in the Lake of Maracaibo. For Mérida, this atypical location was the main determiner in the shaping of the uniqueness of the city, as it translated into economic differences in relation to other cities, mobility and accessibility issues that prevented the city form growing, but also, it doted the city with unique characteristics, in terms of landscape, climate and even culture.

The Andes Mountain Range is the world’s longest continental mountain system; starting in the Caribbean, it goes down along the western coast of South America and passes through seven countries. It is about 7000 km long, up to 800 km wide and has an average elevation of around 4000 m. In Venezuela, the mountain range is located in the western part of the country, and it involves the Andean cities of Mérida, San Cristóbal and Valera.

Urban Areas Rives & Water Bodies Main Road Infrastructure National Border

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The Andes Mountain Range Source _done by author Data_ArcGIS

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Albarregas River

Chama River

RIVERS & TOPOGRAPHY T H E C H A M A VA L L E Y

The Chama Valley represented the only terrace of urbanized conditions in the central part of the Andes Range that could offer possibilities for future growth because of the available space. The valley shaped the longitudinal development of the city, as the mountains became the limits and the Rivers Chama and Albarregas â&#x20AC;&#x201C;an affluent of the Chama- became structuring corridors inside the urban tissue.

1km

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The Chama River Basin Source _done by author, Data_Google Earth Pro, 2015

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Albarregas River

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Chama River

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RIVERS & TOPOGRAPHY THE TERRACES OF MÉRIDA

The city of Mérida sits on a terrace divided in two stripes, the “Oriental Stripe” that is very well defined by the rivers Chama and the Albarregas and corresponds to the foundational part of the city, and the “Other Stripe”, that is defined between the Albarregas and the Culata Mountains, and is where the city expanded due to infrastructure construction, even occupying the foothills. As both terraces shared the same topographic heights, The Albarregas River is more embedded in the city as it was possible to cross it with the construction of the bridges. In the case of the Chama River Basin, there is a significant topographic difference between this area and the Mérida terrace, with differences ranging between 200 mts and 100 mts. This pronounced slope that in times reaches the 90° marked a strong limit for the city, nevertheless, in time urbanization emerged in the Chama River Basin, having problems of articulation with the rest of the city because of these topographic differences (see next page).

Rivers & Topography Source _done by author based on available cartography 0 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

Slopes Map (degrees) Source _Castillo, 2011

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0-9 9 - 18 18 - 27 27 - 36 36 - 45 45 - 54 54 - 63 63 - 72 72 - 81 81 - 90

Aerial view of the city Source _Google Earth Pro , 2015

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P R O B L E M S TAT E M E N T 0 2 URBAN DISCONTINUITY

Because of the pronounced slopes and height differences between the urban areas, Mérida is physically separated in stripes and suffers from urban discontinuity. Several bridges have been constructed in order to generate continuity and resolve the mobility issues, nevertheless, there are still many areas that because of the lack of connections still suffer from this discontinuity. This has also conditioned the social segregation in the city, as the topographic differences and the lack of articulation between the Chama Urbanization and the formal city on the terrace of Mérida made that informal settlements proliferate in this area, as well as in the informal settlements located in the river basins of the Albarregas and Milla Rivers –an affluent of the Albarregas- and in the foothills of the La Culata Mountains, as these were the borders of the formal city and represented the only available land for less income inhabitants to settle around the main urban area. A second research question arises:

Urban Area Border Transversal Connections 1

HOW CAN INFRASTRUCTURE G E N E R AT E C O N T I N U I T Y I N T H E CITY? The first obvious hypothesis would be that of creating more transversal connections between the stripes, but more than creating just urban continuity, the challenge would be that the new infrastructure would have as a premise the continuity of urbanity, where the questions what to connect? and why to connect? acquire importance.

Stripes connected by the bridges Source _done by author 0 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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T H I N G S T H AT S H A P E D T H E C I T Y THE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

The location of MĂŠrida in the middle of the two National Parks - Sierra Nevada (decreed in 1952) and La Culata (decreed in 1990)- gave it a role as a touristic city of national and international scale, as the city represented the only gate to this impressive landscape.

National Parks & Protected Areas Source _done by author Data_ArcGIS M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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THE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE PA R K C I T Y

At the same time, this â&#x20AC;&#x153;Park Cityâ&#x20AC;? condition of being surrounded by vegetation gave the city many advantages, like less pollution and a better contact of the inhabitants with nature, which made it a healthy and pleasant place to live. 6

Vegetation Cover Source _Done by author Data_Google Maps 0 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

ALBARREGAS M E T R O P O L I TA N PA R K L A C U L ATA N AT I O N A L PA R K

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MUCUJÚN PROTECTED AREA

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THE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE RIVERS AS GREEN CORRIDORS

Besides being surrounded by the National Parks, in Mérida there are also two protected areas regarding the river basins of the Mucujún River (decreed in 1985) and the Albarregas River (decreed in 1973). 6

These areas were protected in order to stop the urban development that was compromising the rivers, as the Mucujún is the main provider of fresh water for the city and the Albarregas is the green lung in a central position of the urban area. Of these two, the Albarregas was established as a metropolitan park and it became a structuring axis for the city. Regarding the public space, it is scattered all over the city, and areas such as the expansion areas surrounding La Parroquia, the urbanization at the “Other Stripe” and in the Chama Urbanization have deficits in this topic.

For these parks and squares, the articulation with the Albarregas Metropolitan Park is key, in order to establish a network of public spaces that could serve the whole city.

S I E R R A N E VA DA N AT I O N A L PA R K

National Parks & Protected Areas Parks & Squares Rives & Water Bodies Urban Area

National Parks, Protected Areas and Open Public Spaces Source _Done by author Data_Google Maps 0 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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THE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE THE ALBARREGAS M E T R O P O L I TA N PA R K

With a surface of 612 ha and a length of 22 km, The Metropolitan Park of the Albarregas river is a structuring backbone for the city of Mérida; going from Hechicera University Complex to the end of the Albarregas River in the Chama River, it crosses the city in all its longitudinal extension. As Jugo (2007) reviews, in 1970, Mérida had only 29 ha of public space, which was a third part of what was demanded by the number of inhabitants. Because of this, in the urban development plan for the conurbation Mérida-La Parroquia in 1979 it was decided to establish an urban park in the rivers Milla and Albarregas, assuming 298 ha for public spaces and 47 ha for active recreation. In order to manage the Albarregas Park as a green infrastructure, units were recognized by the PAMALBA office in charge of the Park’s planning: Conservation Unit: Forest areas

Protection Unit: Terrains of structural and morphologic instability, such as the riverfront and the slopes Interconnection Unit: Parks, Squares and Open Public Spaces

Recovery Units: Areas covered with scrub and grassland of high instability

Albarregas Metropolitan Park - Units for the management of green infrastructure Source _PAMALBA, modified by author 0 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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THE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE THE ALBARREGAS M E T R O P O L I TA N PA R K The differences between the river and the terrace of Mérida range from 30 to 1 m, this translates into many types of relations between city and river, of different proximities, which mean different ways for the inhabitants to relate with the Park. But as the slopes are mainly above 35%, the river basin acts as separation between the two stripes that conform the terrace, breaking the continuity of the city, something that is only restored when a bridge appears. On the other hand, the impressive amount of vegetation that covers 90 % of the slopes adds a great landscape value to the city and reduces the pollution. But even though it was established as a protected area, the rapid demographic and urban growth changes that Mérida went through made the city unable to relate with the river and in time, it became a backyard for the city: most of the city’s constructions gave their back façade to the river, informal settlements started to appear as there was an inefficient control over land occupation in the river basin -7 slums and other smaller informal settlements that gather 25.0000 inhabitants (PAMALBA, 2015)-, it became a polluted river as it collects almost 70% of the sewage water of the city (PAMALBA, 2015) and the few public spaces associated to it have suffered from a lack of maintenance of such kind that they now represent insecure places for the users.

Albarregas Metropolitan Park in the city center Informal settlements in the river basin and connections Source _Maria, 2011 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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P R O B L E M S TAT E M E N T 0 3 P O O R R E L AT I O N W I T H G R E E N INFRASTRUCTURE

Urban Area Border Facilities Public and Recreational Spaces

Vegetation

This problematic of the Albarregas River Park transforms into the third problem statement, as even though the city is surrounded by vegetation, the interaction between the urban areas and the natural entities is either very poor or it is causing a negative impact. Today, it is mandatory to recover the relation of the city with the Albarregas River, considering the significant space that it occupies in the city: of the 6000 ha that the urban polygonal of MĂŠrida occupies, more than a 10% is destined to the Albarregas Metropolitan Park, 612 ha exactly, and thinking on the benefits it could give to the city: its longitudinal condition guarantees a shared benefit for the whole city and it could be the structuring backbone not only of a system of public spaces but of an integral planning of the city. The research question that derives from this problem is:

HOW CAN INFRASTRUCTURE FOSTER THE INTERACTIONS B E T W E E N C I T Y A N D N AT U R E ? Considering the power of intermediation that infrastructures have, it is proposed the hypothesis that the urban space of the street, and specially of the bridges can be an opportunity to generate relations with the Albarregas Park and to rehabilitate the areas where urbanization has caused negative impacts.

Informal Settlements 1

Interactions with the Albarregas Metropolitan Park Source _done by author 0 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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(408 km)

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In the origins of the city, Mérida was considered a pedestrian city, because of its scale and the way its traditional core was designed. Nevertheless, with the arrival of cars in the 1920s, the organizational structure of the city changed due to the construction of road infrastructures and the main mode of transportation shifted to private cars and buses. This had an effect on the way the city related to the infrastructures and how the urban space consolidated.

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T H I N G S T H AT S H A P E D T H E C I T Y

In a city that acts as regional center, the preference of the population for using private modes of transportation, as well as the inefficiency of the public transportation networks has caused severe mobility and accessibility problems, such as a consistent congestion in the street network and conflicts between the pedestrian and vehicle flows. In the next pages, the infrastructure network will be reviewed, regarding the modes of transportation and furthermore, the urbanity in these infrastructures. It is important to recall that different mobility systems respond to the different scales. Internationally, there is no direct connection to Mérida, the option for this scale is to arrive to the Nation’s capital and then flight to the closest airport -El Vigía-, as it is done in the National and Regional Scale, where the journeys by bus, private car and taxis are also added as modes of transportation. In a scale of the Metropolitan Area, the modes of tram and cable car are added to the system, because of the Tram system that connects to the nearby city of Ejido and the Touristic Cable Car that links to the mountains of Sierra Nevada. Locally, it is also possible to go by bike or walking through Mérida because of the scale of the city. Distances and airport infrastructure Source _Done by author Data_Time Estimated_Google Maps Modes of transportation per scale Source _Done by author

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THE GRAY INFRASTRUCTURE A CITY WITH NO AIRPORT

Opened in 1956, the airport of Mérida was the main National and International gate to the city, as well as an entrance to the Andean region. This was until 2008, when an airplane accident and changes in the regulatory norms, caused the disabling of the airport for commercial flights. Today, the closest airport is the Juan Pablo Pérez International Airport in el Vigía, located at 75 km and at almost one hour and a half of journey -without traffic- from the city. As a touristic city, airport connections are of great importance for the functioning of this role, and even if the city of el Vigía is at a relatively close distance, there is room for improvement in the way Mérida reaches it. For example, there is great pressure in the road infrastructure, as the journey from the airport to the city is done through the Rafael Caldera Highway and the Trasandean Trunk Road that become a mandatory option for all the connections that are done by plane. Because of the topographic conditions of the area, these roads suffer constantly from slides, especially during the rain season, so the flow is constantly obstructed which translates into more hours of travel and deviations. Also, there is not a strong public transportation system that connects the airport to the city, but only some private concessions that perform the route. As from the airport of Mérida, the inability to operate puts great pressure on its land, as today it is a polygon area that segregates a part of the city but that offers a central position for the developments of its future transformation. International Airport Airport disabled for commercial flights Local Airport Other Aerial Tracks Urban Area Airport Infrastructure Source _done by author Data_ArcGIS M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE A SCENIC JOURNEY TO MÉRIDA

By road, the main infrastructure to reach Mérida or to cross the Andes Mountain Range is the Trasandean Trunk Road. Constructed in the 1926, this road helped to integrate the region with the National urban system and benefited Mérida’s economy and its condition as a regional center.

Trasandean Trunk Road, Plan and Elevation Source _done by author based on the work of Sparkve @ Wikimedia Commons Plan Data_ArcGIS

The journey along this road has great scenic qualities, as it has a significant variability of heights that allow to enjoy the landscape of the mountains, as well as it has different characters, passing through natural, productive and urban environments. Because of these characteristics, the Trasandean Road as a touristic corridor is complementary to the role of Mérida as a touristic city. The landscape qualities of this infrastructure makes it even more worth it to travel the long distances to reach the city. 4000 m 3500

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ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE A REGIONAL CORRIDOR T H AT B E C O M E S U R B A N 30

If we analyze the infrastructure from el Vigía to Mérida, it is evident how it has different characteristics. The city of El Vigía, for example, is born as a result of a crossing between roads; from there, the infrastructure has a highway character, with low interaction with its surroundings, as it passes through a narrowed topography, even in the form of a tunnel. This happens until the arrival to the agriculture lands, where the intersections show that there is a higher integration with the road. Nevertheless, it keeps functioning as a high-speed road until it reaches Mérida, where it changes its character drastically: it separates into different threads and becomes a grid, it becomes urban as it relates with the city and allows interactions in the urban space.

Infrastructure and Topography, Characters of the Road Source _done by author Basemap_ESRI Maps High Speed Road Trunk Road Urban Road Path Tunnel Cable Car Intersection

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LAGUNILLAS

But because of the condition of MĂŠrida as a regional center and because of the influence the city has on its surroundings, there is an important commuting activity that causes that the local flows and the flows that are passing through the city use the same road infrastructure. This generates congestion in most of the roads, and especially in the points of entrance to the city that connect it to its hinterland. In this scale it is confirmed the importance of studying MĂŠrida from the point of view of infrastructure, as the city is the confluence of many infrastructure forces inserted in a corridor of regional importance. When analyzing the city, it is important to consider it as a part of this bigger system.

EJIDO

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ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE HISTORICAL EVOLUTION CITY & INFRASTRUCTURE

If we review the historical evolution of the road network in M茅rida, we can see it has shaped the city into a linear longitudinal structure since the beginning, when the Trasandean Trunk Road was the main corridor that connected the city to the rest of the region. This longitudinal axis was also the one the guided the expansion of the city, but when the urban functions compromised the rapid connections, the axis was duplicated in the terrace at the other side of the Albarregas, with the Pr贸ceres Av, guiding the growth of that stripe. This is a pattern that will be repeated again in the next stage with the construction of the Am茅ricas Av.

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Panamerican Road (Los Pr贸ceres Av.) To Agrarian Land

Trasandean Trunk Road Cable Car

To Cemetery To Religious Facilities To Agrarian Land Airport Chama Axis

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ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE LO N G I T U D I N A L E X PA N S I O N , TRANSVERSAL CONNECTION

In history, the city of MĂŠrida has acquired a longitudinal organizational structure because of the infrastructure has adapted to the available land. Furthermore, the longitudinal axes are the lines that guided the growth, and as they are part of different stages and respond to different conditions, the urban space they have generated has different characters and urbanities. This is different than the case of the transversal connections that more than structuring the growth of the city, their role has been of connecting the different fragments, to generate a better integration between the stripes and resolve problems of mobility.

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New Transversal Axes Las AmĂŠricas Av

Cable Car Viaducts

Connection to Urbanization

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ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE LO N G I T U D I N A L E X PA N S I O N , TRANSVERSAL CONNECTION

RO NK

In that sense, it can be seen that the city organizes along the longitudinal axes, which connect to each other through the transversal axes. At the same time, this grid is connected to the Trasandean Corridor in a regional scale. 6

These longitudinal roads are almost 90% saturated by traffic congestion, especially in the rush hours where congestion is almost total and times of travel are reduced to 0.15km/h. This fluidity and continuity of flows is increasingly compromised, as the car fleet has increased in over 20.000 vehicles in the last years (Escalona, 2011). Also, the points of access to the city have flows of more than 75.000 vehicles/day (PĂŠrez, 2012), creating conflicts between pedestrian and car movement and increasing the congestion. The Andres Bello Av., for example, is the main corridor for the connection at the conurbation level and also with nearby small settlements; nevertheless, the continuity of this avenue is affected in the traditional core, as its arterial character cannot be reproduced in the streets of the city center.

Longitudinal Axis Transversal Axis Mobility Infrastructure Urban Area Road Infrastructure & Airport Source _done by author Data_ArcGIS

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ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE PREDOMINANT LONGITUDINAL STRUCTURE

If the character of these infrastructures is analyzed, it can be said that the city the presents a duality of conditions if looked through a transversal or longitudinal perspective. 6

The longitudinal infrastructure is the infrastructure of extension, where the city is structured with a predominant continuity of its topographic conditions, natural spaces and urban tissue. It is what structures the stripes of the city that expanded in many cases by the repetition of the existing tissue, creating the homogeneous areas and causing a certain uniformity in the urbanity of the corridors.

Urban Area Border

LONGITUDINAL

Facilities Public and Recreational Spaces

Vegetation Topography 1

Mérida’s Longitudinal Structure Source _done by author

EXTENSION CONTINUITY HOMOGENEITY REPETITION UNIFORMITY

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ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSVERSAL, INTENSIFIED URBANITY

In the transversal, the city is discontinuous and in that sense very diverse in the situations that exist contiguously in reduced sections of the city. There is an alternation of the homogeneous areas, of topographic conditions, of natural and urban spaces, of uses and dynamics of the space that give as a result a transversal intensified urbanity of the city. So even though the city is structured longitudinally, it represents one economic system that functions for the whole urban area, therefore the fragments rely on the transversal connections between them in order to perform these functions.

Urban Area Border Facilities

Public and Recreational Spaces

TRANSVERSAL

Path Road

Pronounced Slope Cable Car 1

Mérida’s Transversal Structure Source _done by author

CONNECTION DIS-CONTINUITY HETEROGENEITY A LT E R N AT I O N DIVERSITY

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TRANSVERSAL URBANITY H I S T O R I C A L LY A C C U M U L AT E D

This transversality is a relation that has been built in time, as the city has tried to connect the different functions that where physically separated by the topographic differences. 6

1930 1966 MĂŠridaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Transversal Structure by 1966 Source _done by author

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TRANSVERSAL URBANITY H I S T O R I C A L LY A C C U M U L AT E D

1966 1979 Mérida’s Transversal Structure by 1979 Source _done by author

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TRANSVERSAL URBANITY H I S T O R I C A L LY A C C U M U L AT E D

1979 2015 Mérida’s Transversal Structure by 2015 Source _done by author

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EXAMPLE 01 Th e Evo l ut i o n o f Transve r sa l Ur ba ni t y i n the c it y c en ter

In this case, for example we see how transversal connections have evolved in the city center. Before 1966, these connections appeared only in the foundational terrace, as the city tried to connect the facilities located in the outskirts, like the cemetery or the hospital, to the main points of the city like the main square. For 1966, with the construction of the Panamerican Road at the other side of the Albarregas River, the appearance of informal settlements in the river basin and the construction of an important hospital, the city established its first connections crossing the river: stairs that went down to reach the slums and a road that went down the slope to reach the other side. It was for 1979 that the transversality of the city center consolidated, with the construction of the Campo ElĂas viaduct that together with the touristic cable car that was also constructed in this time, activated a new transversal axis, today the main transversal axis in the city center. The latest changes in the evolution of the transversal connections are due to new links to the Chama river terrace and to improvements of the connections between stripes. With connections at a distance of 500 m approximately, we can say that the urban discontinuity in the city center is less problematic than in other areas of the city. 1930 1966

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EXAMPLE 02 Fro m te rri to ri a l p at h to ur ba n a xi s

Another example is one of the transversal axes that before the 1960s functioned as a territorial historical path that connected the city to the agriculture land of the Chama river. The appearance of urbanization in the Chama terrace and the growth of the city in the main MĂŠrida terrace demanded the improvement of this transversal connection. Finally, the rapid growth of the city demanded the construction of a bridge, which consolidated the path into an urban axis. But it also deviated of its original route, as a new road connection was established to improve the connection with the Chama urbanization.

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P R O B L E M S TAT E M E N T 0 1 b

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ECTIONS

In the transversal connections, the first problem statement is again evident, as the quality of the urban space in these connections is very poor. This is a problem specially for the pedestrian movement as there is a preference for motor transportation and the space of the sidewalk is very reduced or inexistent. Besides the bridges and the roads that go down the river basin to cross it there are also some stairs that connect the city transversally and are only for pedestrian movement. They are mainly in the city center and have been constructed in order to connect the informal settlements to the formal city. They are a great opportunity for integrating recreational program and public space to pedestrian connections that are highly used, nevertheless this option hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been explored in the existing infrastructure.

1. Crossing over Pedregosa River, taken by author (2015), 2. Stairs to the Albarregas River taken by author (2011), 3 and 4. 2 Different Stairs to the Albarregas River in the city center taken by author (2015), 5. Crossing over the Albarregas, BolĂvar Avenue taken by author (2015), 6. Crossing over the Albarregas taken by author (2015), 7. Narrow stairs to the informal settlements taken by author (2015).

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P R O B L E M S TAT E M E N T 0 3 b P O O R R E L AT I O N W I T H G R E E N I N F R A S T R U C T

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URE

It is also a problem the poor connection with the green infrastructure, specially in the bridges which are supposed to generate the higher interactions with the river they are crossing, but that in most cases either are fenced or are not designed in order to foster this interactions.

1. Crossing over the Albarregas, Bolívar Avenue taken by author (2015), 2. El Acuario Link over the Albarregas River taken by author (2015), 3. Cruz Verde Link over the Albarregas River taken by author (2015), 4. Crossing over the Pedregosa River, taken by author (2015), 5. Campo Elìas Viaduct taken by author (2015), 6. Fenced Bridge in Mérida taken by author (2015).

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CHAPTER CONCLUSION TOWA R D S A T R A N S V E R S A L U R B A N I T Y

After understanding the dual perspective of the city, it can be said that because of being a predominantly longitudinal city, the confluence of different fragments or entities is higher in the transversal direction, therefore the potential for urbanity increases in the transversal axes, being the bridge the point of maximum confluence, as it establishes relations also with the green infrastructure. This is not something imposed, as the transversality has been constructed historically in the city as it was reviewed in the analysis.

To rethink the infrastructure in its transversal potential of structuring of the city, is an occasion not to work separately on each homogeneous area, but to work on the differences, enhancing the diversity of the city, which is said to be one of the factors for fostering urbanity.

This is a possibility for improving the current conditions for urbanity of the existing connections, in order to improve the urban space, as well as it is an occasion for new urban bridges to be proposed that will generate new axes of maximum interaction, inside the city and with the nature.

Towards a Transversal Urbanity Source _done by author 0 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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D R I V E R S O F T R A N S F O R M AT I O N One thing that needs to be considered is that the city plays a major role of intermediation (GAULT, M, 1989; BOLAY, J.C., et alt., 2003), as it mediates the flows and dynamics between the nation and the local economies and between the city and the rural areas of its hinterland. This intermediation role is given to the city mainly because at national scale, the city is an important services and facilities provider, especially in the areas of higher education and health; as well as it is a relevant touristic attractor at national and international scale.

THE UNIVERSITY 5

ULA Complex

Sport Fields Facilities Other Universities

Botanical Garden (ULA) Area for Expansion 1

University Structure Source _done by author 0

Regarding the university, this has played an important role in shaping the city, as it is the other main economic activity besides tourism and its campus is spread all over the city generating multiple interactions with the other urban functions. The city of Mérida has consolidated as one of the biggest nodes for superior education and scientific and technological research, and regarding this role the main endogenous resource is the Andes University and its articulation with the city is key. This is an institution that has its main campus located in Mérida. 37 University facilities in total are spread in the city and are very well integrated to the urban tissue. It’s important to highlight that the Andes University was the first institution to provide a higher education offer to the Andes region and its surroundings. Although its origins go back to 1785, when the first Bishop of Mérida founded it as a religious studies institution, it was officially recognized as a university in 1810, which still represents very early days in comparison to the other important higher education institutions of the Andes Region. For many years, the function of providing higher education at a regional-and even national scale- was something that could only be done in Mérida and still nowadays, it is a preferred option for studying for many people as it is one of the best universities of the country. Today the only area available for expansion of the ULA is located in the central part of the city, in one of the existing clusters, and this could be an opportunity for the city to a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes 123 123 strengthen its role as a knowledgeMcity.

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D R I V E R S O F T R A N S F O R M AT I O N TOURISM

TO TABAY 7

Regarding tourism, this is also one of the main economic activities of the city. There are several touristic highlights, especially in the city center, but besides being an attractive city itself, MĂŠrida is a national and international attraction for visitors that want to explore the mountain range and enjoy the beautiful landscape of the surroundings. In that sense, because of its services and its consolidated urban structure, MĂŠrida is the gate to the endogenous touristic resources of the region, which are: The natural and productive landscapes of the Mountain Range The mountain related activities that are held in the National Parks (hiking, cable car)

The traditional architecture patrimony and the rich culture (festivals and museums)

There are two types of Touristic Routes, the public transportation routes, adapted to touristic highlights that only function during high touristic season and cover mainly the city and close surroundings, and the privately managed routes that function the whole year and have a broader reach. Both have as starting point the city center, worsening the congestion and centralized structure of the city.

Touristic Routes (operating in high season only) 1 2 3 4 5

H C M

Touristic Highlights Public Space Construction Hotel Commercial Center Museum Botanical Garden

2 TO SIERRA NEVADA

Bus Terminal Cable Car to the Mountains 1

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T H E N AT U R A L A N D P R O D U C T I V E L A N D S C A P E S O F T H E M O U N TA I N R A N G E 1. Quebrada Mucubajì by kmuller00 @ flickr, 2. Andes Landscape by Fernando Mota Largo @ Panoramio, 3. Mucubají Lagoon taken by author 2015, 4. Farming in the Venezuelan Andes by kmuller00 @ flickr, 5. View from the Trasandean Road by Espasa Arcadia @ skyscraper.com, 6. El Valle de Culata byMU dra.2015 senaide @ flickr, 7. Páramo by Jaime Pérez @ fotopaises.com 126 B. la Lamelo_E 126

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T H E M O U N TA I N - R E L AT E D A C T I V I T I E S I N T H E N AT I O N A L PA R K S 1. The Andes by MINTUR, 2. Pico Bolívar by e.rivera @ flickr, 3. Sierra Nevada by unknown @ cuspidesvenezuela.com, 4. Cable car from the city to the mountains by unknown @ skyscrapercity.com, 5. Exploring the Pico Bolívar by Jorge Castellanos @ flickr, 6. Pico Espejo by Humberto BoscánMU @ fotopaises.com. 128 B. Lamelo_E 2015 128

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T H E T R A D I T I O N A L A R C H I T E C T U R E PAT R I M O N Y A N D R I C H C U LT U R E 1. La Capilla de Piedra taken by author in 2015, 2.Jají by Fratk @ flickr, 3. Mérida’s Cathedral by eluniversal.com, 4. Apartaderos by MINTUR, 5. Los Nevados by telefericodemerida.travel, 6.Traditional Game by venelogia.com, 7. Tabay by kmuller00 @ flickr, 8. Pico El ÁguilaB.byLamelo_E Federico Jimenez @ flickr 130 MU 2015 130

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CHAPTER CONCLUSION M É R I D A I N T E R M E D I AT E C I T Y

A daily visit (A few hours for a service) 4

A short-term stay (1 week tourist) 3

A medium-term stay (5 - 7 years student)

A long-term stay (inhabitant for the majority of life)

The role of intermediation of the city generates a diversified population that has different lengths of stay in the city -daily visit, short-term, medium-term and long-term stay) and that has different needs. This is positive for the city as it conforms different strong pillars for economic development –tourism, knowledge, services and the city itself- as well as it creates a dense and diversified network of actors that work together to enhance the endogenous resources of the city. The different inhabitants coincide in some points of the city, like public spaces and commercial areas, that become points of maximum social interaction, at the same time some clusters of specific inhabitants are formed, specially in the university clusters or in clusters of facilities that have a regional reach. Nevertheless, it is important to recall that as a state capital, Mérida receives between 30 and 40 thousand people every day (Pérez, 2015), that go in and out the city using the same road infrastructure that is used for local movement. A significant part of these movements are being done in private cars, which worsens the traffic congestion in the city, and even if they use public transportation, this service should contemplate these added flows that are product of the intermediation role Mérida plays. But besides improving the public transportation or generating a better access to the city, it is important to question:

HOW CAN INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORT MERIDA´S I N T E R M E D I AT I O N R O L E ? 1

Points of interaction between Inhabitants and lengths of stay Source _done by author

As a fourth hypothesis it is set that the mediation and inter-exchange spaces -one of the conditions for urbanityshould be fostered in the design of infrastructures as they are key in Mérida’s intermediation role.

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HYPOTHESES

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

PROBLEM STATEMENTS

CHAPTER SUMMARY

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The Space of Infrastructure

Urban Discontinuity

As the city that has suffered from the problems of separation between the elements that constitute the urban space, which has translated into a degradation of the urban relations and interactions and demands infrastructures to be re-thought in the future planning of the city so they are designed as powerful elements that foster urbanity.

Because of the pronounced slopes and height differences between the urban areas, MĂŠrida is physically separated in stripes and suffers from urban discontinuity. Several bridges have been constructed in order to generate continuity and resolve the mobility issues, nevertheless, there are still many areas that because of the existence of infrastructure â&#x20AC;&#x201C;airport- or because of the lack of connections still suffer from this discontinuity.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO IMPROVE THE CONDITIONS FOR URBANITY IN THE STREETS OF THE EXISTING TISSUE?

HOW CAN INFRASTRUCTURE G E N E R AT E C O N T I N U I T Y IN THE CITY?

Hypothesis 01 The quality urban space could be improved by fostering the interaction and articulation between the constituting elements of the street: the roadway, the sidewalk and the thick border so they are designed as powerful elements that foster urbanity.

Hypothesis 02 To create more transversal connections between the stripes would generate urban continuity, although it should have as a premise the continuity of urbanity as well. Research Sub-Questions: what to connect?, why to connect?

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HOW CAN INFRASTRUCTURE FOSTER THE INTERACTIONS B E T W E E N C I T Y A N D N AT U R E ?

Hypothesis 03 The urban space of the street, and specially of the bridges can be an opportunity to generate relations with the Albarregas Park and to rehabilitate the areas where urbanization has caused negative impacts.

DRIVERS OF TRANSFORMATION

Specially with the Albarregas Metropolitan Park that crosses the city longitudinally and that should be a structuring axis for Mérida, nevertheless, most of the buildings of its riverfront deny its existence and don’t stablish any kind of interaction, the public spaces associated to it suffer from lack of maintenance and have become insecure areas and informal settlements have proliferated and consolidated in the river basin.

DRIVERS OF TRANSFORMATION

Poor relation to the Green Infrastructure

Mérida Intermediate City As the city performs an intermediation role as a strong touristic and university city that attracts people at regional and national scale and that generates a diversified population with diverse needs and interests that coincide in the points of maximum social interaction in the city.

HOW CAN INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORT MERIDA´S I N T E R M E D I AT I O N R O L E ?

Hypothesis 04 mediation and inter-exchange spaces -one of the conditions for urbanityshould be fostered in the design of infrastructures as they are key in Mérida’s intermediation role.

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CROSSED LINES Vision for MĂŠrida Spatial Strategy

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In a city that has transformed its river into a backyard…

Mérida’s Riverfront to the Albarregas River Source_taken by author, 2015

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...where the urban discontinuity affects the daily dynamics of its inhabitants...

Aerial View of the city Source_Ingeniero Maracaibo @ skyscrapercity.com

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...and where the degradation of the urban space has affected negatively the quantity and quality of the urban interactions…

Mérida’s Urban Space Degradation Source_Espasa Arcadia

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...but whit two strong economic drivers that show great potential for the growth and prosperity of the city...

Aerial view from the cable car Source_Bjorn Holland

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ULA Campus Source_RDF

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To rethink the infrastructures is an opportunity to set the base for MĂŠrida to consolidate as a touristic and knowledge city, reconstructing at the same time the relations between city, people and territory...

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...proposing a new urban reality where proximity in urban relations, vibrancy of the urban space and sustainable interactions with the environment can be possible

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S PAT I A L S T R AT E G Y CROSSED LINES

To achieve this vision, a spatial strategy of Crossing the lines of Infrastructure and Nature is set, as a way to

address the problems that were found during the diagnosis of Urban Discontinuity, Poor relation to Green Infrastructure and the degradation of the Space of Infrastructure, and at the same time, with the aim of achieving the conditions that will foster urbanity in the city. The strategy has as a premise to rethink the infrastructure, both gray and green, as it is an occasion to achieve a symbiosis between city and nature, and it is an opportunity for establishing a new paradigm for the contemporary city where infrastructure and cities are thought together in the search for more urban situations.

The starting point will be to intensify the transversal connections, what will demand a further redefinition of the longitudinal infrastructure and in that sense, it will create new points of interaction in the city. In that sense, there are 3 main actions that constitute the strategy:

INTENSIFY THE TRANSVERSAL + REDEFINE THE LONGITUDINAL + CROSS LINES

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S PAT I A L S T R AT E G Y CROSSED LINES

INTENSIFY THE TRANSVERSAL 6

By proposing new infrastructure, more transversal connections that will generate urban continuity, prioritizing slow mobility and public transportation modes. 4

More than that, they will generate new axes of intensified urbanity, where the different fragments of the city will encounter and interact. With this, it is intended to enhance diversity and the encounter of the differences of the city.

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REDEFINE THE LONGITUDINAL 6

By consolidating the existing axes with new program that will foster urbanity, promoting and improving the public transportation networks and re-establishing the relations of the city with nature by redefining the Albarregas River Park and finally, by structuring the redeveloping of the airport and of the university expansion area. With this actions, it is intended to improve the qualities of the urban space.

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S PAT I A L S T R AT E G Y CROSSED LINES

CROSS THE LINES 6

To generate points of maximum interaction in the city, that could function as nodes or as new landmarks inside the urban structure. It is recognized the importance of the bridge as the urban piece that generates the maximum interaction between the urban space and nature. By crossing the lines it is intended to generate mediation and inter-exhange spaces, among different areas and between urban and nature.

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T E S T I N G T H E S T R AT E G Y

For testing the strategy, the area chosen corresponds to the central area of the city. This is the area that presents the most severe case of urban discontinuity as it is crossed by three rivers and the airport. This discontinuity affects the dynamics at local scale, also due to the fact that although being a dense area, there are only two transversal connections over the Albarregas River, at both sides of the airport. Regarding the relation with nature, the urban borders donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t present much interaction and recreational uses associated to the River Park are not exploited. But this area is also seen as the space of opportunity as it is the area more vulnerable to future transformations in central position in the city, considering the imminent possibility of redeveloping the airport and the existence of available land for the university expansion, considering the potential of the strong clusters of services and university facilities and the various points of encounter between inhabitants that exist in the area. More than a project of connectivity, this is an opportunity for structuring this transformation thinking from the infrastructure, enhancing the transversality of the city and aiming for retrieving the urbanity that is inherent to urban space.

Space of Opportunity Source _done by author Image_Google Earth, 2013 M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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PROBLEM STATEMENTS

THE CENTRAL AREA: THE SPACE OF OPPORTUNIT Y - REASONS

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Most Severe case of Discontinuity

Discontinuity affects the street network integration at the local scale

Less Transversal Connections in a Densely Urbanized Area

Recreational Uses associated to the River Park not exploited - Very Poor Relation

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OPPORTUNITIES 5km

Opportunity to improve the urban space on the 3 Homogeneous Areas

Opportunity to structure the development of the airport and the expansion of the university

Strong Clusters of Services and University Facilities and various points of encounter between inhabitants

Mixture between Residential and Non-Residential Uses

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3 TESTING EXPERIMENTS

To test the strategy in the area chosen, three interventions will be developed, each responding to one of the main actions of the strategy: 3 ways of crossing as an example of intensifying the transversal, the river park as one of the longitudinal elements that will be redefined, and finally a crossing between nature and infrastructure as an example of the third main action. They will be displayed separately, nevertheless they are closely related as they affect and complement each other, acting as articulators of the dynamics of the city, each at a different scale. Besides being examples, these projects are also strategic as they will be triggers in the transformation of the central area, going towards the concept of knowledge and touristic city. Testing Experiments Source _done by author

INTENSIFY THE TRANSVERSAL

T1 3 WAYS OF CROSSING

With these interventions the purpose is not to impose a new urban structure but to recognize the potential in what is existing while fostering the model of transversal intensified urbanity, of slow mobility and of close relation with nature. CROSS THE LINES REDEFINE THE LONGITUDINAL

T2 THE RIVER PARK

T3 THE CROSSING

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INTENSIFY THE TRANSVERSAL

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T1 3 WAYS OF CROSSING Relevance The first intervention affects one of the existing transversal connections at the west side of the airport. This was historically a path that connected the city with its agricultural land, but in time, with the growth of the city and the construction of the viaduct over the Albarregas and the new road connection with the Chama Urbanization it became one of the main transversal axes of the city, diminishing the importance of the original historical path.

Sucre Viaduct Source _Espasa Arcadia @ skyscrapercity.com

Historical Evolution of the axis Source _done by author

1930 1966

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T1 3 WAYS OF CROSSING Relevance In the Metropolitan Scale, this transversal axis acquires relevance due to its connectivity role, as it crosses the city in its whole transversal dimension, and also as it provides the only road connection to the Chama urbanization.

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In the local scale, it provides the connection between different entities, such as the two of rivers that break the continuity of the city but that are at the same time great pieces for its functioning, the airport that will become the new residential area, the biggest informal settlement at Campo de Oro and the Campo de Oro ULA University Complex that could be expanded to a Knowledge Campus.

Relevance at Metropolitan Scale Source _done by author 1

Relevance at Local Scale Source _done by author 0

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Andrés Bello Av. _ Alfredo Paul @ Panoramio

Gas Station Pie del Llano _ aporrea.com

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Elevated Pedestrian Crossing over Las Américas Av. _ Luis Pa

Corner between Andrés

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achecho @ Panoramio

The urban space associated to this axis is mainly of car-based characteristics, as attention was given mainly to guarantee a fast road connection between the different parts of the city but with poor attention to the street as a public space.

s Bello Av. and the Sucre Viaduct _ Alfredo Paul @ Panoramio

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Sucre Viaduct _ Espasa Arcadia @ skyscrapercity.com

Suche Viaduct _ Espasa Arcadia @ skyscrapercity.com

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Sucre Viaduct _ truko22 @ Panoramio

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This lack of quality of the urban space is also evident in the Sucre Viaduct that crosses over the Albarregas River performing decently its connective role but with little to offer for the pedestrian and with no interaction with the River Metropolitan Park.

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When airplanes still arrived to MĂŠrida _ Leoxgame @ Panoramio

Informal settlements and the Airport as barrier _ Espasa Arcadia @ skyscrapercity.com

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The Space around the airport Luis Vidal @

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This is also the area that is affected by the presence of the airport that is no longer in use and that acts as a barrier between very dense urban areas that contain large informal settlements and facility clusters.

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Supermarket, AmĂŠricas Av. _ Alfredo Paul @ Panoramio

Sports Field surrounded by informal settlements _Espasa Arcadia @ skyscrapercity.com

Entrance to the Santa Rosa informal market _ Luis Varela @ Panoramio

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Campo de Oro Sports Complex _ Espasa Arcadia @ skyscrapercity.com

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La Culata Mountain foothill _ Noblinto @ panoramio

Nevertheless, there is also potential for urbanity recognized in the adjacencies as there are relevant commercial spaces, both formal and informal of local and metropolitan reach, as well as a consolidated sport fieldsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; complex and quality green spaces.

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3 Ways of Crossing Isometric View

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T1 3 WAYS OF CROSSING As it was reviewed in the pictures, the current structure of the crossing is mainly car-based. It uses secondary roads for metropolitan flow which causes great congestion, has poor quality for pedestrians movement and the bike as a mode of transportation is not even contemplated. Also in the adjacencies there are important points of the city that are poorly connected between each other. As a test of the first action “Intensify the Transversal”, this intervention consists in changing the current carbased structure of the connection by proposing more transversal connections, prioritizing slow and public mobility, multiplying the modes of transportation and contemplating the street space as a shared surface. This will be achieved by recovering the historical path and transforming it into a slow mobility corridor, and by proposing “The Public Lane”, a new straight connection for public transportation, bicycles and pedestrians that crosses the whole city transversally. By proposing 3 different ways of crossing the valley the aim is to generate different spatial situations that will enrich the urban experience and give the inhabitant different options for moving around the city.

T1B the public lane

T1A the historical path

Existing Crossing Structure

Proposed Crossing Structure

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Sucre Viaduct

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T1 3 WAYS OF CROSSING Complementarity These 3 ways of crossing will work complementarily, not only in terms of the flows of mobility they will carry but also they will be spatially complementary as they will provide with different ways of experiencing the crossing of the valley and the interaction with the Albarregas river park. T1A The Recovered Historical Path Longitudinal Section of the Crossing

T1B T1A

T1B The Public Lane Longitudinal Section of the Bridge T1A

T1B

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T1 3 WAYS OF CROSSING Crossed Programs The intervention also promotes to cross the different programs of the city: the urban residential and commercial dynamics crossed with the natural dynamics of the river parks the mountains and the sport complex. Regarding the urban program, it is proposed the consolidation of commercial nodes and intensification of commerce in the main streets, as well as the construction of the new airport residential area. For the natural program it is proposed the recognition and consolidation of the River and Mountain parks -The Albarregas as the main recreational natural backbone of the city but also envisioning the possibility of creating the Chama River Park- and also, it is proposed the transformation of the interstitial open space of the former agricultural land along the smaller rivers to become Productive Gardens for the urban areas that surround them. Moreover, it is proposed the interaction with the new ULA Knowledge Campus that is suggested in the expansion area of the university.

Urban - Commercial & Residential - Program

Natural - Recreation & Leisure - Program

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T1B The Public Lane

Existing Situation Longitudinal Section

The Public Lane: Axis of Intensified Urbanity Longitudinal Section

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T1 3 WAYS OF CROSSING Axes of Intensified Urbanity The new crossings will create axes of intensified urbanity, where it is proposed the intensification of the programs so the interactions between inhabitants with different interests can increase. For example the informal market space could also host cultural performances or the inter-modal station could integrate commercial and leisure activities. This will activate the urban space at different times. The space of the street will be also designed to hold different interactions, in strategic sections they will function as shared surfaces that will adapt to the varied dynamics of the city.

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Existing: Infrastructure as a barrier Proposed: The Street as Space for Interactions

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T1 3 WAYS OF CROSSING Improved Urban Space Moreover, the intervention aims to improve the urban space by adding quality to the areas destined for mobility, and also by generating continuity in the city and fostering the interactions with nature. This is a premise of special importance in the design of the new crossing infrastructure and of the new urban developments.

Existing: Sucre Viaduct Proposed: New Connection in the Public Lane

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Replicability of the Strategy This strategy is something that could be replicable in the rest of the city, taking as a premise the generation of urban continuity, the interaction with nature and the good quality in the urban space but responding to the specific situations they affront and acting strategically towards the main vision.

For example, the existing connection at the other side of the airport, the Miranda Viaduct, could also be duplicated for having 2 ways of crossing and in that way, reducing the congestion and improving the space for the pedestrian. Also in the central area, two new axes could be proposed to integrate very different urban and natural situations that are held there, to structure the core of the new development area and the ULA Knowledge Campus and to create a new cable car connection to the Chama Urbanization.

Other Possible Transversal Connections in the Central Area Source _done by author

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T1 3 WAYS OF CROSSING Impacts & Effects These transversal connections will have an impact on the longitudinal elements, such as the mobility and public transportation networks that should be redefined to accommodate to the changes in the transversal structure, as well as on the natural longitudinal elements such as the surrounding national parks, the proposed productive gardens and the Albarregas River Park, which will be developed as a second case study intervention for being the potential main backbone of recreational public spaces in the city.

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REDEFINE THE LONGITUDINAL

T2 THE RIVER PARK

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T2 THE RIVER PARK Relevance 5km

The Albarregas Metropolitan Park is of great relevance in the Metropolitan scale, due to its potential role as a structuring backbone of the recreational and natural spaces of the city, acquiring importance as a recreational space of proximity, due to the advantage of its longitudinal structure that crosses the whole urban area. Being crossed by all the transversal axes, this is one of the main elements that should be re-thought of the green infrastructure.

In the local scale, the park adds quality to the urban space because of the close presence of dense vegetation, as well as it has great potential for urbanity due to the great diversity of land uses that occupy its riverfront.

Relevance at Metropolitan Scale Source _done by author 1

Relevance at Local Scale Source _done by author 0

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Albarregas River Park View from Sucre Viaduct _ Javier GarcĂa

Entrance through stadiums _ B.Lamelo

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Entrance through stadiums _ B.Lamelo

Los Escritores Park _ Clodi @ flickr

Abandoned Public Space in the Open Air Musem _ B.Lame

elo, 2011

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Facilities Cluster in the Riverfront _ google earth 2013

But besides having these advantages of massive vegetation and some recreational parks and facilities clusters in its riverfront, the access to the park is not well defined and the majority of recreational spaces associated to it are abandoned or poorly maintained.

Abandoned Pedestrian Path_ B.Lamelo

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T2 THE RIVER PARK

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Existing structure

The existing structure of the River Park in the central area presents a clear problem of poor interaction between nature and city, mainly due to the existence of large facilities clusters that occupy the riverfront and that act as barriers between the river park and the rest of the urban area, and also because the riverfront was constructed without having as a premise the interaction with the green and has transformed it into its backyard. The riverfront is also occupied in a big portion by parking spaces and some commercial areas that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take advantage of this open space.

Barriers 1

Gates to the Park in bad condition Recreational Spaces Commercial Spaces Parking Connections over the Park Existing Structure of the Park in the chosen area Source _done by author

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T2 THE RIVER PARK Proposed Structure & Interventions

Following the second main action of the strategy of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Redefining the Longitudinalâ&#x20AC;?, it is proposed to redefine the Albarregas River Metropolitan Park, both in its riverfront and in the structure inside the park, in order to transform its current spatial structure that generates urban discontinuity into a regenerated structure, where the river park and the infrastructure that connects to it act as spaces for the interaction of the inhabitants. This redefinition will be achieved through the proposal of 4 actions: Consolidating the Gates Building on the Edge Creating Recreation on the Park

Reaching other green structures

Proposed Structure for the Park in the chosen area Source _done by author 0

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Consolidating the gates With this action it is intended to recover and consolidate the existing gates that give access to the park by improving the quality of the urban space and intensifying its use by adding diversity of functions. It is also proposed to generate new gates in the points where new transversal connections are being proposed. These gates with be the points of maximum interactions, mainly at the ending of the bridges, connecting at the same time the park with the public transportation network.

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T2 THE RIVER PARK

Building on the edge As for this strategy, the intention is to create a new re-generated riverfront by building on the edge and around the barriers that are caused by facilitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; clusters, also with the possibility to include underground parking facilities, so the existing parking in the riverfront can be moved for new recreational uses to be proposed. In the long run, this will be the base structure for the possible re-cycling of these buildings into other uses that could be more integrated to the park.

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Recreation on the Park The aim of this action is to take advantage of the recreational potential of the river basin, making it accessible for anyone and well connected to the city. This will be achieved through the consolidation of the path network for both pedestrians and bicycles, as well as with the proposal of small scale constructions to hold the services and facilities that will support the river park.

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T2 THE RIVER PARK

Reaching other green structures Besides connecting with the immediacies, it is also proposed as an action to reach other green structures, in order to foster a network of open and recreational spaces in the city. This includes other metropolitan parks like the productive gardens, parks on a neighborhood scale, sportsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; complexes, among others.

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T2 THE RIVER PARK Impacts and Effects The River Park redefined as the Backbone for recreation and leisure will provide the inhabitants with a healthier type of living, where the green gets closer to the urban and allowing a more sustainable encounter with nature in a regenerated riverfront.

Moreover, the redefinition of the River Park and the intensification of the transversal infrastructure will start a process of dialogue between the urban and natural entities, where the defined borders are less strict and lines are more intensively crossed, multiplying the interactions. One of these crossings of multiple interactions will be the third test of the strategy, as a way to act on an even more local scale.

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T2 THE RIVER PARK

Replicability of the Strategy 6

But regarding the replicability of the strategy of Redefining the Longitudinal, this operation of transforming the River Park in an space for the integration of all citizens could be replicable to the urbanized area of the Chama River, as this urbanization grew without having considerations with the surrounding environment and presents the same problems of poor relation with the river. In that way, the lack of recreational activities and facilities that this area of the city suffers from could be covered with the possible activation of the Chama River Park.

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T2 THE RIVER PARK Replicability of the Strategy

The strategy should be also applied to the transportation systems and mobility, considering that with the new transversal axes they could be redefined and simplified to increase their efficiency. In that sense, one of the main longitudinal elements that should be redefined and that will be of great relevance for strengthening the role of MĂŠrida as a touristic city is the connection to the El Vigia Airport. For this intervention it is proposed the physical improvement of the connection that is constantly blocked because of flooding and landslides and the implementation of a direct public bus route and two terminals, one at the airport and one in Ejido, the city next to MĂŠrida, where the tram network starts and where it will be possible to change to local modes of transportation. M a s te r Th e s i s _ Cro ssed L i nes

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T3 THE CROSSING Proposed Structure & Interventions The result of applying the first two main actions, intensifying the transversal and redefining the longitudinal gives as a result a network of diversified urban space situations. 500

This is the case of the crossing between the River Park and the three ways of crossing where both actions merge and function as one only entity of diverse relations.

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Intermodal Station

Existing Educational Facilities

Communal Center

Access through Local Street

River Park Information Center

Art School & Cultural Center

Future Potential Attractors Covered Square for Intermodal Exchange Commercial Areas that interact with the River Park 216

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T3 THE CROSSING The Gates For the gates it is proposed to intensify the program with the addition of uses that will make the gates active at different times, taking into consideration the existing tissue and activities that were already in the surroundings. 500

These will be the main shared surfaces, as they are the points of maximum crossing between pedestrian, bicycles and motored flows. In that sense the gates are suited for the shared use but always giving priority to slow and public modes of transportation.

Existing Riverfront Park Tram Line Tram Stop 250

Designated Bus Lane Bike Path

The Gates Source _done by author

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Communal Center

Open air Classrooms

Cafe

Multipurpuse Rooms WC River Park Information Center

Cultural Facility Productive Gardens Shop & Restaurant

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Bike Repair

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T3 THE CROSSING The Recreation in the Park

Covered Picnic Area & WC

The recreational uses that are added to the park intent not to disrupt its natural condition, rather to set the infrastructure for making it possible for inhabitants to use the park actively. 500

250

The recreational program proposed is combined with support services and the redevelopment of some plots of the riverfront that used to be parking lots into local productive gardens that will work as local gates for the surrounding urban area.

Recreational Spaces Bike Path

The Recreation in the Park Source _done by author

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Commercial Uses Kiosks Viewing Deck Underground Parking

Future Potential Attractors Covered Square for Intermodal Exchange

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T3 THE CROSSING Building on the Edge Finally, by building on the edge and around the barriers, it is intended to trigger the transformation of the riverfront into a structure for interactions with nature.

500

In the short term, the intention of this intervention is to create a new riverfront border in the edge, with commercial and cultural uses and pedestrian pathways as balconies to nature, with the possibility of constructing parking facilities under to free the parking space in other areas of the riverfront. In the long term, with the possibility of re-cycling the buildings that today act as barriers into new uses-some of these buildings are of high quality and of historical value, these areas will stop being barriers and will become part of an active riverfront that recognizes the territory where it is constructed.

Art School & Cultural Center

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Building on the edge Source _done by author

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FINAL REFLECTIONS Planning Instruments for the local scale

For making this strategy possible, it is necessary to introduce a planning instrument that could break with the existing administrative parroquial structure that ignores completely the transversal condition of the city and is one of the reasons why the transversal relations are so disarticulated from the longitudinal development. The Special Plans could be the planning instrument to be able to make adaptations when a new transversal connection is constructed. This is a planning instrument that already exists in the national planning system -there is already one for the Albarregas River Park-, and that allows to establish a special polygon of actuation for developments that would demand special intervention. They would be a way to plan city and infrastructure together, following the general strategy and at the same time respecting and enhancing the specificities of each sector. It is also a way of strengthening local identity and to encourage local participation in the new projects. For the division proposed it was taken as a base the current neighborhood administrative divisions, as their smaller scale allowed to make groups of combined neighborhoods for the special plansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; polygons.

Existing Parroquial Administrative DIvision Source _done by author, based on GISEP 1

Possible Division for Special Plans Source _done by author, based on GISEP

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Source _ClodĂ @ flickr

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FINAL REFLECTIONS The Knowledge-Touristic City

It is also important to consolidate local productive systems, which are small local networks that gather and work So even if the main strategies are not specifically together, with interdependency as its base. Many activities touristic or knowledge-related projects, more than that they can be linked in a local productive system, so it is a way of will be able to structure possible developments on these encouraging and maintaining the diversity of the city. areas -some were even suggested, like the ULA Knowledge Campus- at the same time that they will improve the overall Finally, it is important that social and institutional quality of the city and its urban space, what will translate into networks establish the linkage with higher structures, having a more attractive city for tourists, future students, assuring that different actors are going towards the same investors and citizens in general. end. Interventions like having a dynamic and regenerated riverfront, new pedestrian connections linking to new points About Infrastructure and Urbanity of intensified interaction between activities, an intermodal station or an active recreational river park are some of the Lastly, it can be said that this research started as things that will be attractive for all types of inhabitants in an excuse to explore the subject of infrastructures and the the city. power they have of affecting urban space and its relation with the concept of urbanity.

About the Role of Actors, Local Systems and Networks

In the way of studying the case study, the potential of re-thinking infrastructures for regenerating urban space Moreover, in is important to recognize that there are was shown, and proved to be a way of regenerating the city certain elements that need to act together in order to boost and its relations with nature, as well as a tool for steering this Knowledge-Touristic City. the transformation into a specific vision that would give prosperity and evolution to the city. Having two major endogenous resources such as the natural landscape and the university, it is important to More than designing a Master Plan for MĂŠrida, achieve a high density of actors that are compromised and this was an opportunity for proposing a new paradigm involved in the planning process, so their needs and interests for the contemporary city that is embedded in its territory can be understood, their scale of action and how they may and should relate to it while at the same time offering its interact with each other. inhabitants the most urban and vivid situations.

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