Playing with Anomalies Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotรก River Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Colombia University Advanced Architecture Studio & Urban Planning Seminar Fall 2017 Taught by: Giancarlo Mazzanti Carlos Medellin Marcela Tovar-Restrepo w. Ayesha Ghosh
Playing with Anomalies
Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation Giancarlo Mazzanti, Carlos Medellín, Marcela Tovar-Restrepo, Ayesha Ghosh Randy Armas Andrea Chiney Arianna Deane Yanling Deng Fall 2017
Minjae Kim Saadia Saleem Lone Angelina Putri Ke Shi
Mengying Tang Camille Esquivel Tatiana Kopelman Patrick Li
Melinda Martinus Eric Pietraszkiewicz Wesley Rhodes Luis Ugás
Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
Acknowledgements We would like to recognize and extend a special thank-you to those who made this project possible. Our projects and learning experiences have benefitted inmensely from the support, time, and enthusiasm that you have kindly shared with us. We hope this report reflects the importance and our gratitude for your contributions.
To: Edilsa Rojas Sánchez Wilson Cárdenas Cusba Julián Bejarano Gómez Adeola Enigbokan Gloria Catalina Patricia Rodrigo Guttiérrez Andrea Roa Sergio Montero Sandra Rivero Mónica Sánchez
University of Los Andes: Daniel H. Nadal Christiaan Job Nieman Diego Mauricio Rubio Álvaro Andrés Gómez David Cadavid Erika Alvarez Stefano Morini Maria Trombatore Melissa Lattke Débora Falleiros David Andrés Feliciano Lissette Lorena Muñoz Leidy Lorena Rodríguez Eva María Amate Dana Delgado Mauricio Alejandro Rodríguez Camilo Sánchez Claudia Lorena Bernal Daniela Parada Diana Catherine Quintero
a sincere thank you!
Contents Introduction.................................................................... 7 Participants.........................................................................10 Context...........................................................................13 Geographical Context......................................................15 Institutional Context.........................................................19 Social Context....................................................................20 Actor Network Map.........................................................21 Studio Methodology..................................................... 23 Field Trip...................................................................... 29 Day 1 September 24, 2017...............................................30 Day 2 September 25, 2017 ..............................................31 Day 3 September 26, 2017 ..............................................32 Day 4 September 27, 2017 ..............................................34 Day 5 September 28, 2017 ..............................................36 Studio Proposals........................................................... 39 Expo-Sitio..........................................................................43 Paseando Ollas...................................................................57 El Comelรณn........................................................................73 Bridge the River.................................................................85 La Ruta de la Diversidad..................................................96 Conclusion................................................................... 107 Bibliography................................................................ 110 Interviews.................................................................... 112 List of acronyms.......................................................... 112
Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotรก River
Introduction
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Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotรก River
Introduction
Playing with Anomalies - Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Río Bogotá was a joint advanced architectural studio and urban planning seminar at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation in New York City. The studio was led by Professor Marcela TovarRestrepo (Anthropologist and Urban Planning professor), and Giancarlo Mazzanti and Carlos Medellin (Adjunct Assistant Professor) of El Equipo Mazzanti, internationally renowned architecture office also based in Bogotá.
This document further outlines our site of Lisboa in Bogotá, our primary research techniques and methodology, fieldwork, data collected and the resulting five proposals from the studio.
• Learning to read the city from a critical point of view by recognizing the variety of actors, forces and agendas involved in the production of urban space, both from a local perspective and a global one. • Develop a clear position within the public sphere where architecture can articulate both the city´s needs and the individual wishes—a position that strengthens urban appropriation and increases the understanding of communal and individual civic life. • Understand the main problems that a contemporary Latin-American city faces by analyzing the sociopolitical relations at stake and the effects these have on the everyday life of citizens. •Rethink the connection between concepts such as play, ludic and anomaly with the role of public infrastructure and communal spaces in the construction of today’s world. Introduction
Río Bogotá, or the Bogotá river, is highly polluted, a fact which has been a central topic of discussion amongst Bogotá’s academia and politics. Competing interests involved in the planning tools have further exacerbated the need to address Río Bogotá and the surrounding region. Through investigating and exploring new imaginaries, student teams comprising of both architecture and urban planning students aimed to address the city’s largest environmental issue. At the beginning of the semester, students and faculty had the opportunity to visit the city of Bogotá and a smaller community named Lisboa that is situated next to the river. The studio worked closely with local university, Universidad de los Andes’ School of Architecture and Design, which taught a class in parallel to connect with residents to understand firsthand the intricacies and conditions of what the community faces.
The studio’s objectives are the following:
• Explore the design of architectural programs in conflict by facing dynamics, which usually repel or oppose, leading architecture to be a space that can propitiate new human relation. To examine the communal space as an empowering environment that promotes dialogue and learning, not only among the users of the academia, but also between neighbors by experiencing this architecture.
The studio itself is not technical in that it aimed to clean the river directly. Instead, the studio aimed to create holistic proposals and recommendations that sensitively addresses social and cultural conditions that have contributed to the polluted state of the river. From proposing a new recycling program taught through a folk tale, to analyzing the disconnect and fragmentation of institutions with various jurisdictions and agendas for addressing the river, each student team has a unique proposal that aims to trigger new paradigms for the Lisboa community.
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PEOPLE | LEADERSHIP
Participants
Columbia University FACULTY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
PEOPLE | LEADERSHIP MARCELA TOVAR-RESTREPO, PhD PEOPLE | LEADERSHIP Marcela is lecturer at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at
Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
MARCELA TOVAR-RESTREPO, PhD, is lecturer at the Graduate School of Architec Columbia University. She obtained her PhD in Anthropology at the New School for Social COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY University. She obtained her PhD in Anthropology at the New School for Social Rese Research (N.Y.) and her Master on Urban Development Planning at University College of Planning at University College of London. She conducts research on diversity, gend COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY London. She conducts research on diversity, gender and development in Latin America.
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she has served as Director (a) of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at In the U.S.A. she has served as Director(a) of the Latin American and Latino Studies Lang College–New School (Urban Studies Program). In Latin America, she has taug Program at Queens College–CUNY (2008-2011) and taught at Lang College–New School Chile for more than ten years. Besides teaching, Dr. Tovar-Restrepo has served as in (Urban Studies Program). In Latin America,PhD, she has taught and as policy-maker inof Architec MARCELA TOVAR-RESTREPO, is lecturer atworked the UN Graduate School gender rights into policy-making processes at different instances like the Comm Colombia and Chile for more than ten years. Besides teaching, Dr. Tovar-Restrepo has served University. She obtained her PhD in Anthropology at the New School for Social Rese UNDEF, IPUTOVAR-RESTREPO, and the Permanent Forum Indigenous SheSchool has also served a MARCELA PhD, isfor lecturer at theIssues. Graduate of Architec as international consultant mainstreaming cultural and gender rights into policy-making Planning at University College of London. She conducts research on diversity, gend cooperation agencies (GTZ, AECID), governments, social movements and NGOs in University. She obtained herlike PhD inCommission Anthropology at the New School for Social Rese processes at different UN instances the of Sustainable Development she has served Director (a) of the Latin American and Latino Studies(CSD) Program at environment andas human rights and conflict. Planning at University College of London. She conducts research on diversity, gend - DESA, IPU and the Permanent forProgram). Indigenous In Issues. has also served Lang UNDEF, College–New School (Urban Forum Studies LatinShe America, she has taug she has served as Director (a) of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at as technical researcher for International cooperation agencies (GTZ, AECID), Chile foradvisor more and than ten years. Besides teaching, Dr. Tovar-Restrepo has served as in Lang College–New School (Urban Studies Program). In Latin America, she has taug governments, socialinto movements and NGOs in areas such gender and diversity, gender rights policy-making processes at as different UNethnic instances like the Comm Chile for more than ten years. Besides teaching, Dr. Tovar-Restrepo has served as in UNDEF, IPU and the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues. She has also served a environment and human rights and conflict. gender rights into policy-making processes at different UN instances like the Comm cooperation agencies (GTZ, AECID), governments, socialthe movements and NGOs in GIANCARLO MAZZANTI is an architect graduated from UNDEF, IPU and the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues.Javeriana She has University, also servedBo a environment and human rights andand conflict. in Architecture History and theory, Industrial Design from the University of Flore cooperation agencies (GTZ, AECID), governments, social movements and NGOs in winner of the and XX Colombian Architecture Biennial in the category of public space in environment human rights and conflict. GIANCARLO MAZZANTI of Best Architectonic Work in 2008 (Lisbon, Portugal). Winner of the Panamerican Ar Giancarlo an2008 architect graduated from the Javeriana Bogotá - Colombia (1987) Designis in (Quito, Ecuador), the GlobalUniversity, Award for Sustainable Architecture (Par with a postgraduate degree in Architecture History and theory, and Industrial Design collection of the MoMA (New York), Museum Georges Pompidou (Paris) and CMOA GIANCARLO is an(1991). architect graduated from the Javeriana Bo from the University MAZZANTI of Florence. Italy He has been the distinguished winner of University, the in Architecture History and theory, and Industrial Design from the University of Flore XXGIANCARLO Colombian Architecture Biennial in architect the category of public space 2006, the Ibero-University, Bo MAZZANTI is an graduated frominthe Javeriana winnerBiennial of the in XXthe Colombian Architecture Biennial ininthe category of public space in American category of Best Architectonic Work 2008 (Lisbon, in Architecture History and theory, and Industrial Design from the Portugal). University of Flore of Best Architectonic Work in 2008 (Lisbon, of the Panamerican Ar Winner of the Panamerican Architecture Biennial inBiennial thePortugal). category ofWinner Architectonic winner of the XX Colombian Architecture in the category of Design public space in Design in 2008 (Quito, Ecuador), the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (Par in 2008 (Quito, Ecuador), the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (Paris, France ) in of Best Architectonic Work in 2008 (Lisbon, Portugal). Winner of the Panamerican Ar collection of thetheMoMA (New York), Museum Georges Pompidou (Paris) and CMOA 2010. His work is in permanent collection the MoMA (New York), Museum Georges CARLOS isEcuador), an architect, and researcher based in Bogotá, Co Design in MEDELLÍN 2008 (Quito, theofdesigner, Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (Par methods from place-making, participatory design, anthropology, Pompidou (Paris) CMOA collection of and the MoMA (Pittsburgh). (New York), Museum Georges Pompidou urban (Paris)and andarchitec CMOA research based on concepts coming from collective and/or personal experiences be These projects are usually produced with other architects, designers, educators, art developed in Chicago, New York, Mexico City, Tokyo, Moscow, Bogotá, Cartagena, CARLOS MEDELLÍNthe contact points between the urban and architecture landscape on understanding CARLOS MEDELLÍN is and anas architect, designer, and Colombia. researcher Carlos an architect, researcher based in Bogotá, Hisbased practiceinisBogotá, Co the iscityscape to designer, use them a design processes. methods from and place-making, participatory design, anthropology, urban and architec informed by theory methods place-making, participatory design, anthropology, CARLOS MEDELLÍN is anfrom architect, designer, and researcher based in Bogotá, Co research based on concepts coming from collective and/or personal be urban and architecture theory studies. participatory He conducts design projects and research urban basedexperiences on methods from place-making, design, anthropology, and architec These projects are usually produced with other architects, designers, educators, art concepts coming fromon collective and/or personal experiences between thepersonal built context and research based concepts coming from collective and/or experiences be developed in Chicago, New York, Mexico City, Tokyo, Moscow, Bogotá, Cartagena, theThese community affected. These projects are usually produced with other architects, designers, projects are usually produced with other architects, designers, educators, art on understanding theresearchers. contact points between urban and architecture landscape educators, artistsinand social HisMexico work hasCity, beenthe developed in Chicago, New Cartagena, developed Chicago, New York, Tokyo, Moscow, Bogotá, theMexico cityscape to useMoscow, them asBogotá, a design processes. and Barranquilla. Carlos York, City, Tokyo, Cartagena, on understanding the contact points betweenMedellin, the urban and architecture landscape hasthe a special focus on understanding the contact points between cityscape to use them as a design processes. the urban and architecture landscape and the human networks of relationships built within the cityscape to use them as a design processes.
Columbia University STUDENTS
Camille Esquivel Tatiana Kopelman Patrick Li Melinda Martinus Erik Pietraszkiewicz Wesley Rhodes Luis Ugรกs
Architecture
Randy Armas Andrea Chiney Arianna Deane Yanling Deng Minjae Kim Saadia Saleem Lone Angelina Putri Ke Shi Mengying Tang
Teaching Associate
Ayesha Ghosh
Introduction
Urban Planning
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Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotรก River
Context
Los Gavilanes
Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
Rio Bogota
Candelaria
Bogota Municipal Boundary Suba Locality Locality Boudaries Rivers Recycling storage and classi�ication facilities
Bogota, Colombia
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Map of Bogotá, showing key sites for this studio, including Sector Los Gavilanes, Candelaria, and the Bogotá River. (Source: Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales para el Distrito Capital , 2017: Web).
Geographical Context The Site The studio’s primary site in Bogotá was in the neighborhood of Lisboa, located in the locality of Suba, on the Northern side of the city, where Columbia and Los Andes University students gathered to carry out field work. However, the impact, and therefore, the proposed solutions for local interventions extend beyond Lisboa into a group of neighborhoods, collectively referred to as Sector Los Gavilanes (Rojas, 2017: Interview), which includes Santa Cecilia, Santa Rita, Villa Cindy, Berlin, Bilbao, and Lisboa neighborhoods (See map below). Sector Los Gavilanes is bordered to the north and west by Cota, a municipality in Cundinamarca, to the east by various neighborhoods in the Tibabuyes UPZ, and to the south by the Engativa locality. The Bogotá River also bounds the sector to the north and west, acting as a border between urban and rural Bogotá. Finally, the Juan Amarillo River runs along the south of the sector, which, together with the Bogotá River, encases most of the Sector Los Gavilanes with water.
UPZ: Unidad de Planeamiento Zonal ‘Zoning Planning Units’ are urban subdivisions in Bogotá. UPZs are smaller than localities such as Suba, but may include various neighborhoods, as is the case with the Tibabuyes UPZ.
Context
Parque de la bota
Cundinamarca
Ri
o
Bo
go
tá
Berlin Bilbao
Villa Cindy Plaza
Lisboa Sta. Cecilia
Humedal Tubabuyes
city center
Map of Sector Los Gavilanes, Comprised of Santa Cecilia, Santa Rita, Villa Cindy, Berlin, Bilbao, and Lisboa. (Source: Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales para el Distrito Capital , 2017: Web).
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Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
The area’s built environment consists mostly of selfconstructed dwellings (“autoconstruccion” in Spanish) that range from two to four stories in height (Site Photo 1). Narrow, single-lane streets are part of the essential public circulation. Although most of the area is paved and sidewalks exist, there are still many streets and lanes that remain as dirt paths (Site Photo 2). Essential utilities such as connection to the city electrical grid, sewage, and potable water are present. However, there is also a lack of green spaces, both for passive aesthetic purposes and for active uses, too.
While such infrastructure exists, it is also in dire need of repair. This problem exacerbates what is potentially the greatest issue facing the region: pollution. Solid waste, one of the greatest issues facing the river and its surroundings, is abundant in the streets, as well as in the Bogotá River, and it is one of the region’s primary challenges and priorities to focus on, as it affects the rest of the capital district (Secretaria de Gobierno de Bogotá 2013).
Sector Los Gavilanes’ street network and connection with the rest of Bogotá is enhanced through public transportation, mainly feeder buses, such as those from the Public Transport System (SITP) that take residents to central Suba and other city sectors.
Of particular importance to our field work was the Il Nido del Gufo Library & Cultural Center, located on Carrera 154 #135-22, Lisboa, Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia. This place acted as our studio’s headquarters on site, and the exterior grounds/plaza of the Beato Juan Bautista Scalabrini Parish (Site Photo 3), which served as our implementation site when carrying out active field studies.
Site Photo 1. Streetscape in Lisboa showing autoconstructed houses and ground floor retail.
Streetscape in Lisboa showing an unpaved road and lack of street/sidewalk definition.
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Context
Site Photo 3. Plaza of the Beato Juan Bautista Scalabrini Parish.
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Guaymaral wetland
Rio Bogota
Los Gavilanes
To r c a River Conej
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Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
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Florida Lagoon
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Tibanica We t l a n d
Saltire River
St. Maria del Lago
Map of Bogotá’s river system. (Source: Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales para el Distrito Capital , 2017: Web).
us
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et
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San Rafael Reservoir
The Bogotá River
Institutional Context
The Bogotá River runs for 380km in a generally Northeast to Southwest direction within the Cundinamarca department. The Bogotá River Basin lies across 45 municipalities and the Bogotá Capital District, affecting approximately 8,163,749 inhabitants (6,865,997 from the Capital District and 1,297,752 from the other municipalities combined) (Corporación Autónoma Regional De Cundinamarca 2014).
This workshop has been developed within a context of constant debates around the recovery of Bogotá River’s basin. In fact, our visit to Bogotá included attending to the forum “Río Bogotá: retos, apuestas de planeación y nuevos imaginarios” -hosted by Universidad de Los Andes. The forum included presentations by several national and local authorities, academic institutions, and citizens involved in environmental protection along Bogotá River. The discussed topics were developed within the framework of “Sentence 90479”, passed against the Government in 2014 by the Colombian Council of State, after decades of ignoring the river problems. The sentence includes measures, actions and responsibilities that should be taken by the national, regional and local authorities, as well as the private sectors and citizens in general.
The Bogotá River receives waters from fifteen other streams, most of which provide an additional negative contribution in the form of organic waste pollution. Closer to our site, the Río Bogotá receives waters from the Salitre Canal, the Juan Amarillo River, and the Arzobispo River, all of which are heavily contaminated, as well.
With so much inherent value in the area, the tackling of the Bogotá River’s contamination problem is one of utmost importance to the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Cundinamarca (Corporación Autónoma Regional De Cundinamarca, CAR), the regional environmental management authority. Revitalization efforts have also been engaged at a more local scale, and some of the outcomes of this studio pertain to such efforts.
This important act, in addition to the current revisions of the POT (Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial), has positioned Bogotá River issues as a very important chapter in Bogotá and Cundinamarca’s political agendas, what has led to the inclusion of several programs, projects and interventions into the city and regional budgets. Diverse, and sometimes conflicting, interests and visions regarding the intervention of the river, the allocation of reserved budgets for projects, the use of the cheap land located on the basin, the expansion of the city, the resettlement of communities living on its basin, in precarious conditions, and the contamination of the river, have made of Bogotá River one of the most controversial and politically divided topics. Furthermore, we must keep in mind that our analysis of the planning challenges facing Lisboa, and therefore, our proposed solutions, must be within the context of existing planning interventions at the city or regional scale. One such intervention at the city scale is the Proyecto del Plan de Desarrollo (Development Plan Project) para Bogotá 2016-2020, proposed by the Office of the Mayor of Bogotá. As a comprehensive plan, with measurable and quantifiable proposals, this document is expected to guide the city’s development progress for the next couple of years (Bogotá Como Vamos, 2017: Web). Another important plan is the Linear Park, currently under construction by CAR, and which was conceived due to the judicial sentence mentioned above. The park’s aim is to improve the conditions, mostly sanitary, of the Bogotá River, create a 68 kilometer pedestrian walkway, and encourage 19
Context
Contamination of the Bogotá River has been a major issue in the Sector Los Gavilanes, rendering the waters dangerous for consumption and hindering the potential to develop along the riverfront. This development potential is particularly significant when considering that the river basin accounts for 26 percent of the national economic activity, hosting agricultural production, as well as livestock farming, and industrial uses, mainly leather processing. (Corporación Autónoma Regional De Cundinamarca, 2014).
cyclism (Cruz, 2017: Web). At the moment, CAR’s work on the park involves widening some areas of river, construction of dykes along the river, the expansion of the Residual Water Treatment Plant of Salitre (Planta de Tratamiento de Aguas Residuales (PTAR) Salitre), and the purchasing of lands adjacent to the river to ensure that the park can be implemented as a ways of recovering public space in the city (Cruz, 2017: Web).
Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
Finally, at a larger-scale context, we take into consideration the role of multinational institutions such as the World Bank. In 2016, the World Bank approved the Colombia – Plan PAZcifico: Water Supply and Basic Sanitation
Infrastructure and Service Delivery Project. The aid entails a USD $126.7 million loan that “seeks to improve the quality of life for residents of the Pacific region by providing access to basic services: water, sanitation, and solid waste management, as well as strengthening institutional and operational efficiency of service providers in urban areas of this region” (The World Bank, 2016: Web). Therefore, as we work towards understanding the challenges posed by the Bogotá River, it is worth keeping in mind that external sources of funds are available to carry out our visions and proposals to improve Lisboa’s residents’ quality of life and built environment.
Social Context Population By 2009, Lisboa together with the other neighborhoods from Sector Los Gavilanes, had a population of 1,200 families. (Rojas, 2017: Pg.02) Description Lisboa is a populous informal settlement hosting vibrant commercial activity. While it is comprised mostly by selfconstructed houses and stores, it has been progressively integrated to Bogotá’s urban system and service networks. (Serrano,2012:Pg.02). Lisboa houses many immigrants and internally displaced persons (IDP) due to the internal war, that come from different parts of Colombia and Venezuela. Most of them have serious difficulties accessing education, housing and job markets. Several adaptation barriers and the lack of opportunities lead them to look for jobs in different informal sectors such as construction, recycling, flowers packaging, mechanical workshops and tire changing, and security. Some of the children of displaced families do not go to school or end up abandoning it very early. (Wilson Cárdenas. Interviewer: Marcela Tovar-Restrepo) “Owners do not want to rent to Afro Colombians. They were only left with the option near the riverside”. (Edilsa Rojas. Interviewer: Marcela Tovar-Restrepo) Positive Aspects Strong community cohesion is one of the major assets of Lisboa. Several community organization bodies such as the youth’s organization, the mothers’ organization, and the recyclers’ networks, make of Lisboa a very dynamic neighborhood. Also, the Church San Juan bautista Scalabrini, located in a centric place within Lisboa, develops many 20
activities for the residents and provide support for IDP, regarding food, dormitories, counseling and assistance. The Church is one of the most influential actors in Lisboa and together with Il Nido del Gufo, they promote several great educational and recreational initiatives for the children and provide spaces of quality for playing and learning. They have become very important for the development of children’s skills and social integration. “The most positive thing... Well, we have been here for years...my mother was one of the founders, she brought water, all of that. We saw our church grow, we saw our neighborhood grow...in all truth I have seen a lot of growth in the neighborhood. “ (Sandra Rivero -Mother’s organization. Interviewer: Sebastián Ugás) Negative Aspects Most of the residents we interviewed agree that the worst problems of Lisboa are contamination, crime and drug consumption in underage. There are several unpaved streets, garbage all along the riverside (Ronda del río) and in many of the neighborhood’s streets. Other frequently mentioned issue is the lack of public spaces and green areas of quality for recreation. “Crime is the most negative aspect of Lisboa, people go out of there houses and get back early because they are afraid” (David - Resident of Lisboa. Interviewer: Sebastián Ugás) “We don’t have nothing but a small and sad park” (Gloria - Resident of Lisboa. Interviewer: Sebastián Ugás)
Actor Network Map
Context Map of actors that the studio has identified as necessary or relevant for the study, analysis and implementation of solution proposals. (Source: Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales para el Distrito Capital , 2017: Web).
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Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotรก River
Studio Methodology
Studio Methodology Architects and Planners
Playing With Anomalies - Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River is a joint Advanced Architecture Studio and Urban Planning Seminar.
Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
The studio is as interested in the process of design as the result. As such, it seeks to identify existing synergies and complementary methodological approaches between the disciplines of architecture and urban planning in an applied problem-solving scenario. Through an interactive exchange between planning and architecture students, the studio aims to provide methodological tools to inform design process using the casestudy of the Río Bogotá. We explored research methodologies including: participatory games/toys, lectures, guest speakers, field trips, and site visits in addition to cognitive mapping and learning alliances. Additionally, this whole process was balancing the interdisciplinary task of combining a 9 credit hour architecture studio with a 3 credit hour urban planning seminar. These tools allowed us to understand different forms of knowledge, identities and social practices involved in placemaking processes around the Río Bogotá, enabling a more ludic and diverse participation in urban interventions. The studio and seminar aim to provide a useful understanding of architecture and planning challenges by using design as a research process. The objective is to provide feasible architectures and recommendations that intervene on the territory in a more comprehensive and holistic way. This Studio included a one week field trip to Bogotá, Colombia. Our academic partner in Colombia is Universidad de Los Andes (Architecture and Design school), where their students are working on the same topic. Students and instructors from both Universities worked closely throughout the field trip portion of the studio and were instrumental in the collection of data and design, construction, and implementation of the toys. Additional interaction occurred remotely throughout the course of the semester.
HOW CAN ARCHITECTURE, URBAN DESIGN, AND PLANNING AVOID BEING DISCIPLINES THAT PERPETUATE URBAN INEQUALITY, AND INSTEAD, BE FIELDS THAT WORK TOGETHER TO DRAW NEW IMAGINARIES AND EMPOWER CITIZENS TO EMBRACE MORE LOCAL AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN PANORAMAS?
Key Concepts All concepts defined by Equipo Mazzanti (Mazzanti, 2016). LEARNING: Curiosity towards the unknown is at the core of our learning experience. TO PLAY: Is defined by systems of operations and rules, but as a social phenomenon, play paradoxically has the ability to reshape cityscapes and to transform the self-regulated human relations. Therefore, the real value of the act of playing is found in its capacity to alter social contracts, and it becomes an educational tool that has the power to promote change. COUNTER-SPACE AND ANOMALIES: They are spaces that deny the traditional ideas of efficacy and usefulness; therefore allowing for more playful and different human relations. Reality in places like these can be seen as an adjacent one. These places are free and open to multiplicity, diversity and are fundamentally against the idea of a unique space defined by control, surveillance and efficiency. ARCHITECTURE IS ACTION: This studio focuses on what architecture produces. The studio is interested in architecture that induces actions. What results is an architecture that provokes various behaviors and promotes new uses and shapes.
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Methodology We are looking to produce more than just a well-defined building; we also want to generate knowledge and observations through it. The studio aims to achieve projects that reach advanced technical and architectural development, but also includes: •
An analytical component that wants to give a solid conceptual structure to the project, based on understanding the proposed strategy.
•
And a theoretical component that emphasizes the conceptual background of the projects, and supports the abstract and formal positions that each student reaches into their proposals.
•
Workshops where the designs are developed.
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Lectures given by guests and teachers nourishing the projects with knowledge, learning concepts, ideas and relevant examples.
Studio Core Principles The core of this studio is to challenge the status quo of the architect and architecture as creative entities by questioning their roles in today’s society. Going beyond recognizing the designer as a technician, we want to explore his/her value as an agent of change and transformation. As such, we studied concepts such as THE ACT OF PLAY, THE LUDIC AND THE ANOMALY as opportunities for understanding new ways of inhabiting and creating space. For this purpose it is essential to explore spaces and architectural programs that are abnormal, divergent, heterogenic and opposed to traditional views, exposing in this way, new mechanisms to perceive, relate and create architecture. The goal is to establish discourses aiming – fundamentally – to develop new events and interpersonal relations.
We define toys as mechanisms capable of triggering new behaviors, promote innovation and challenge knowledge. Their value does not reside on their physical and material properties but on the effects they produce. We seek to explore architectures that operate as toys, whose main purpose is to transform the social realm by generating new performances and events in the city. This research studio is a meeting place where concepts such as playing, ludic and anomaly are used as design processes. It is an invitation to expand the boundaries of studying architecture, moving away from just looking at good practices on construction, function or aesthetics, to focus on methodologies capable of exploring new forms of use and new types of space. The studio’s goal is to set up an exchange where students can learn to anticipate and predefine social behaviors within the public realm and through public infrastructure. By exploring buildings as communal and public entities deeply attached to its user’s daily life, we were able to expand the value of design beyond its material nature. We studied how architecture, when placed in specific urban contexts, is able to improve quality of life, empower people and help them to attain their dreams, ideals and desires. Under those conditions architecture becomes a living lab where social gatherings, festivities, friskiness and the unexpected can be explored and reclaim more rare and ludic configurations as catalysts of social interactions. We aimed to distance ourselves from modernity and its obsession with functionalism and productivity to investigate architectures capable of engaging with the public.
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Studio Methodology
The studio was organized as 2 sessions per week with seminar given once a week for 15 weeks. Sessions were divided into:
This research surpasses the classic functionalist concept of modern ideals, based on the concern of producing efficient architecture, getting closer to the experience of being spatially risky, dynamic and diverse.
Timeline Space co-production: Using the game as a common language, students will design toys to facilitate interviews with government and private institutions, to encourage dialogue with community actors, and to promote conversations with experts.
Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotรก River
We seek to produce a diagnosis that identifies the main opportunities; problems and needs facing the study sector and thus establish those fundamental issues for their socio-economic and environmental development.
Field Work 09/24 - 09/29
Columbia en Bogotรก
Building networks and trust: This workshop will focus on collecting qualitative data for the production of specific focal information in a defined area within the River Round. It is also an exercise between external actors (students) in an external element (the river and its community), with a specific approach (established public policies).
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Joint Architecture and Urban Planning Interaction This studio provided an ideal scenario in which to explore the ways in which the work and processes used by both architects and planners can serve as complementary or supplementary when working on complex issues within urban contexts. As an academic exercise the course helps to reduce the generally siloed nature of GSAPP which is also a reflection of the siloed nature of practitioners. This phenomenon is unfortunate because both planners and architects have much to gain from working together to tackle these complex social issues. 26
One major benefit of this collaboration is its ability to begin to dismantle stereotypes that create artificial barriers between planners and architects. These barriers, to a large degree, exist due to the lack of commonality in the languages used between both professions, even when describing, ostensibly, the same phenomena. Additionally, each profession tends to view problems, and by extension solutions, through the lens of the tools at their disposal. Architects are, at their core, designers and by extension problems tend to have design causes and,
Urban Strategies of improvement:
Architecture as Artifacts:
The specific tactical projects that we seek to develop must address issues of debate in the global urban environment: post-conflict, local economic development, preservation, mobility, inequity and climate change.
The aim is to design public artifacts as a more approachable strategy to generate impact and transfomation. We will produce architectural interventions that will relate to people, and that can have the capacity to affect the individual in their daily life; This is determined by the various uses that can be given to them, sports, cultural, educational, recreational, health, mixed or any other institutional use whose perspective implies encounter, production or learning as a primary objective.
Beyond thinking about building as objects, we want to conceive an urban strategy based on interconnected artifacts channeled through dynamic social relations that are established among the actors that make up the city.
This exercise is the opportunity to address the programs that materialize the ideals that an institution manages in the city looking for innovation, taking the individual as a central axis from the idea of contradiction and channeling the wishes of potential users or inhabitants.
Studio Methodology
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therefore, design solutions. Planners on the other hand tend to dwell more on the complex social and political causes and solutions to challenges, however, they often lack the ability to implement physical interventions relying on changes to legal frameworks as their primary tools. Neither approach alone is sufficient, but rather through collaboration the sum may become greater than the parts. The process wasn’t always smooth. These differing skillsets and approaches to problem solving created, at times, conflict within the project team. Extra time had to be spent for
each group to better explain their ideas and processes to one another. Additionally, the imbalance of credit hours for architects (9) and planners (3) created a time, power, and work imbalance which resulted in more of an architecture lead for the project. Despite these challenges, everyone valued the experience to learn from their colleagues from other programs within GSAPP and the project and interventions benefited greatly from having the perspective of both disciplines.
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Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotรก River
Field Trip
Field Trip
Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
The joint architecture and urban planning studio used a variety of research techniques to gather data both prior and in field. While preparing for the trip, the group of sixteen Columbia students conducted desk research. This entailed reviewing previous plans for Río Bogotá, gathering statistical data such as socioeconomic class, demographic, etc, as well as understanding the legal planning framework under which Lisboa and Río Bogotá are subject to. Parallel to the desk research, the Columbia students were divided into six teams consisting of at least one architect and one urban planner. Together the teams were asked to create a toy which would serve as a platform for interaction between the researchers (Columbia and Los Andes students) and the local population. The idea of using a toy, was coined by El Equipo Mazzanti and Fundacion Horizontal, under the notion of “creating a common design language, promote a creative and explorative attitude, and facilitate the players in envisioning and enacting what could be”. The final purpose of this was to shift from a user centered design method to that of co-design. This “aims to feed designers creativity with a set of creative techniques, to get inspiration and fresh ideas to be further developed by the design team”. Finally, prior to heading into the field, students were familiarized with various rapid ethnographic assessment techniques (Taplin, Scheld, Low 2002: p 80). These techniques are designed to highlight key cultural values, as well as the meanings associated to the values (Taplin, Scheld, Low 2002: p 80). These techniques are deployed through the involvement of multidisciplinary teams, with multiple researchers performing data collection (Taplin, Scheld, Low 2002: p 81). These techniques provide connections between social contexts and cultural meanings, voice the perspectives of a host of diverse groups such as LGBT, age, disabilities, religion, gender, etc. As the name refers, this is done rapidly in the attempt to fit “project scheduling commitments”, which can impose limitations on adequate representations of research subjects (Taplin, Scheld, Low 2002: p 80). However, these practices do assist in building rapport with the community as well as determining issues present within the people (Taplin, Scheld, Low 2002: p 80). From September 24 to 28 of 2017, the students conducted a field trip to the City of Bogotá to better understand the socio-environmental problems associated to the Río Bogotá, and the critical discussion with local experts. 30
Day 1 September 24, 2017 Students with Carlos Medellin, field guides from El Equipo Mazzanti, and Dr. Adeola Enigbokan had a chance to explore Downtown Bogotá. During this downtown tour they learned about the Bogotá urban structure; the public transportation, bike network, and economic-historic district of Bogotá.
Students visited local fruit vendor
Bogotá Historic Center
Bogotá Historic Center (2)
One of main arterial roads for with integrated bike path
Day 2 September 25, 2017 During this day the students visited El Equipo Mazzanti and Fundacion Horizontal offices and learned about various projects led by the studio. Student also attended Dr. Adeola Enigbokan’s lecture and had a rigorous discussion with students at Universidad de los Andes.
Discussion with Marcela Tovar-Restrepo at El Equipo Mazzanti
Columbia University and Universidad de los Andes discussion
Discussion led by Dr. Adeola Enigbokan
Students’ project discussion
Students presenting their project
Field Trip
Carlos Medellin presenting projects at El Equipo Mazzanti
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Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
Day 3 September 26, 2017 In the morning students had an immersive experience through a field visit to the polluted Río Bogotá and observed the environmental condition along the river. While performing this visit, students received a lecture from the C.A.R. representatives about the reasoning behind the river’s pollution and the current state of the river. Furthermore, he explained the planned interventions, as well as some of the challenges they have faced when dealing with the residents of the riversedge. This conversation provided the students with much technical specifics which would later provide valuable when designing their initiatives. Information was collected in the form of fieldwork diary, a practice in which ethnographic researchers register “systematic notes describing fieldwork situations” (Jansen, 2008 pg.504).
Site visit to a neighborhood adjacent to Bogotá River
In the afternoon students visited the Il Nido del Gufo, a local day care in Lisboa neighborhood to prepare their toys. Here the students attended a presentation by Edilsa Rojas, a part of the collective group “Interpretaciones Urbanas”. This presentation provided the students with additional contextual information as well as previously completed work with the residents. Edilsa shared key issues identified through the collective’s work, as well as proposals developed along with the residents. This initial visit to Lisboa neighborhood provided the Columbia students with the opportunity to use rapid ethnographic techniques. Participant observation, which entails “doing as people do”, which means to participate in the subjects activities, while still maintaining an adequate distance to gather data. The students were able to identify certain activities which characterize and shape the residents lives. For instance, while conducting a walking tour of the rivers edge, students observed how certain demographic groups preferred using outdoor space to engage in socializing, family activities etc. Furthermore, faculty Marcela Tovar engaged in a casual conversation with a local resident, who identified himself as a local community representative. Through this informal interaction, On this same trail students visited recyclers infrastructure such as selection shops, warehouses and other key spaces in the community.
A multi-family housing located near Bogotá River
Public housing located near Bogotá River
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The polluted Bogotรก River Field Trip
Public Plaza in Lisboa neighborhood
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Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
Day 4 September 27, 2017 For the fourth day, the six teams set up their toys in the church atrium for one full day. This allowed for interaction with many different kinds of population. Due to the nature of the “toy/game” there was an obvious attraction from younger residents. Groups of schoolchildren curiously watched teams assemble and then participate in the games. Parents and middle aged adults were also intrigued by the dynamics. While the toy/game facilitates an honest interaction between the students and these populations, it was difficult to engage with the elderly. Despite an initial curiosity, it was difficult to get them to play and eventually share information. The toy also helped distract the parents whose children were playing, allowing them to relax and have a more fluid conversation. This led to the use of rapid ethnographic technique as is descriptive observation and questions. Through dialogue the students observed behaviors and attitudes residents had towards certain topics such as the river, employment, leisure, and migration. Additionally, some toys required semi-structured interviews which aimed to provide the local residents desires and or needs regarding redevelopment of the river as well as Lisboa as a whole. Our data collection was limited by the time spent in the field. The toy was deployed for approximately four hours. Due to the dynamic of the set up, at times it was difficult to engage in an in depth exchange in the limited amount of time. Often enough participants were ushered to the next toy, without Students exploring Bogotá riverside completing the interviews or the full exchange of information. An additional constraint was that related to language barriers. Despite having support from the Los Andes students, at times it was overwhelming and challenging to capture all information.
An art space in local library, Il Nido del Gufo
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Toy installations in Lisboa neighborhood
Toy: Los colores del rio
Toy: Agua de Vida & Agua de EnsueĂąos
Toy: Mensajes Secretos
Toy: Perdidos en el rio
Toy: Photo Fantastico
Field Trip
Toy: Fuente desde otro mundo
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Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
Day 5 September 28, 2017 Next, the toys were transported to Plaza Lourdes in the central area of Bogotá. Within this urban context, further away from the river, interactions were much more difficult.. A major limitation in this park was the climatic condition which hindered the deployment. Tied to this was the time of deployment, which was during the work day. This timeframe skewed the sampled population to people who were available at that time, such as students, parents with young children and some workers on a lunch break. The nuance of this toy reflected the demographics of the respondents, as this was not as intriguing to the transient population. At this same time, students were able to tap into local knowledge facilitated through a local resident, Wilson. In an undirected conversation he shared experiences with youth groups of the area combating drug use, loittering and other undesired activities. Coupled with this, using Wilson’s help to build rapport, the students interviewed Julian a local youth who shared his personal account of life as a teenager in the neighborhood. The interviewers used common techniques when conducting an interview, which consist of flexible questions, adequate note taking,paying close attention to details which could lead to further questions.
Toy installation at Plaza Lourdes, Bogotá
Through these two interviews, as well as short conversations held with locals of Lisboa, the students were able to build case studies. Case studies are often in depth analysis, of a group of people who have common characteristics, for instance age, origin, ethnicity, religion. This research technique includes personal accounts, which in this case was reflected in Julian’s detailed testimony. His experience and the resulting case study served as an illustrative example of Lisboa’s youth. Finally, Columbia students interviewed a former resident of Lisboa. She shared her life history, a research technique which includes “personal collections of a lifetime of experiences from certain members of the community being studied. This helps shine light on the perception certain people have to changes. Gloria shared her experience as the region of Suba has evolved into a urban area. Through this interaction students were able to capture her perception of the Río Bogotá. “The river has always had a bad vibe”. (Gloria interviewed by Patrick). Furthermore, she gave details about what motivations and desires led her to leave Lisboa, identifying aspects which could be improved to keep population there. 36
Toy installation at Plaza Lourdes, Bogotá
Field Trip
Toy installation at Plaza Lourdes, Bogotรก
Toy installation at Plaza Lourdes, Bogotรก 37
Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotรก River
Studio Proposals
Studio Proposals
Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
The studio resulted in the proposal of five different initiatives:
1. Expo-Sitio
2. Paseando Ollas
3. El Comelón
4. Bridge the River
5. La Ruta de la Diversidad
The implementation of these initiatives revolves around the cooperation of a vast network of actors. The diagram below shows all of the actors, classified by type (Public, Private, Government, and Community). Similarly, A comprehensive project schedule is provided that includes the implementation timelines of all initiatives combined.
Actor Map
MINISTERIO DE SALUD Y PROTECTION SOCIAL
LOCAL CHURCH COMMUNITY KINDERGARTENS
YOUTH ASSOCIATION
CUNDINAMARCA GOVERNMENT
IL NIDO DEL GUFO LIBRARY
MINISTERIO DE COMERCIA, INDUSTRIA, Y TURISMO
MINISTERIO DE CULTURA
UA-ESP
OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
ALCALDIA DE SUBA
MOTHERS’ ASSOCIATION GRANITO DE PAZ
LOCAL GANGS CORPORACION AUTONOMA REGIONAL DE CUNDINAMARCA
COMMUNITY SDA SECRETARIA DISTRITAL AMBIENTAL
JAL JUNTA ADMINISTRADOR LOCAL
CAL COMISION AMBIENTAL LOCAL
JAC JUNTA DE ACCION COMUNAL
GOVERNMENT CORPORACION COLOMBIANA DE INVESTIGACION AGROPECUARIA CORPOICA
EAB-ESP
ORA ORGANIZATION OF RECYCLERS
BOGOTA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
ARAS ASOCIACION DE RECICLADORES DE SUBA
WORLD BANK
ARN ASOCIACION DE RECICLADORES NACIONAL
IDARTES
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LOS ANDES UNIVERSITY JAVERIANA UNIVERSITY
ARB ASOCIACION DE RECICLADORES BOGOTA
PUBLIC
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
CUNDINAMARCA TANNERIES CEMENT COMPANY EL EQUIPO MAZZANTI FUNDACION HORIZONTAL
INDUSTRIAL FLOWER FARMS
PRIVATE
Combined Proposal Schedule Expo-Sitio Paseando Ollas MONTHS
0
3
El Comelรณn Bridge the River La Ruta de la Diversidad 6
12
24
60
120
COMMUNITY MEETINGS COMMUNITY MEETINGS JARDIN VECINAL COMMITTEE COORDINATION AND MEETINGS DIVERSITY ROUTE PROGRAM CALL FOR INVOLVEMENT APPROVAL, FINANCING, MARKETING LEARNING ALLIANCE NEGOTIATIONS WITH ARB NEGOTIATIONS WITH MUNI. GOV RECYCLING MYTH TEAM BUILDING COORDINATOR COMMUNITY DESIGN CHARRETTES STATION CONSTRUCTION
Proposals
ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING CULTURAL PROGRAMS RIVER CLEAN UP KITCHEN CONSTRUCTION COMMUNITY WORKSHOP WORKSHOP TRAINING APPROACHING EXTERNAL ORGS. DEVELOPING PROPOSAL APPLYING GRANTS RIVER TOURS - PILOT PROGRAM PROGRAM MONITORING SECURE FINANCING TRIAL PERIOD - PHASE 1 ECO-MATERIAL PRODUCTION LOS COMELONES EVENT RESEARCH AND EVALUATION EVALUTAITON & MODIFICATION MAINTAINANCE BRIDGE & GARDEN CONSTRUCTION KITCHEN HUB CONSTRUCTION END OF PILOT PROGRAM PARADE EVENT DEVELOPE PROGRAMS MAINTAINANCE EXPANSION ELAVUATION & ADJUSTMENTS SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL
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Expo - Sitio
Expo-Sitio Randy Armas, Camille Esquivel, Minjae Kim, Melinda Martinus Statement of Purpose
Armas | Esquivel | Kim | Martinus
To narrate, or storytell, has always been a primal form of communication that has transcended generations as a powerful means to connect us to others (Rutledge, 2011). Our project aims to provide the community of Lisboa in Bogotá with a space in which such stories can be recorded, showcased and archived to create an opportunity to increase community visibility and establish a collective identity. Lisboa has long existed and began through its residents taking ownership of what spaces they needed. This individualist or auto-construccion resulted in little planning for spaces to be shared and experienced by the community as a whole. We are proposing a workshop space for film making and community theater as this platform. Il Nido del Gufo is an existing local library that is used by many families to support caretaking of the children in the community. Existing programs such as Julián Bejarano Gomez’s film workshop with children are already beginning to use the tool of storytelling to educate younger generations on important social themes such as identity, gender, and more. Expositio aims to amplify and give these programs (and future ones) greater agency to work in the community and express themselves creatively. Situated next to the Bogotá River, the project itself is comprised of a variety of spaces: film workshop spaces, community theater, bridge, and accessible public space. Through such interventions, the project is a continuous production and projection of a future, imagined by the community itself, to create a self-sustaining, resilient relationship with the river, the rest of the City of Bogotá), and themselves.
Il Nido del Gufo, the local library and day care service in Lisboa neighborhood. Source: Camille Esquivel 43
Background Planning Problems
“Yes, it is unsafe, you see a lot of drug problems. In reality one leaves a home and you can smell and you already know what it is... But at least we don’t take the children out to the park, because the park is a place where there are a lot of people smoking, then we don’t take them there.” Sandra describes the use of illicit drugs on the park along the river, which has created a hostile environment that they deem inappropriate and unsafe for children.
1. Lack of safe public spaces accessible for all Lisboa residents
2. Lack of cultural centers located near the Lisboa neighborhood
Sandra Rivero, a member of the Mother’s Group, describes that parts of the neighborhood are unsafe and in particular, alongside the river.
After our field trip to Bogotá, we wanted to locate all the cultural centers in Lisboa and Bogotá. We identified these as museums, libraries and theaters. Through this study, we found that the nearest cultural center was not within walking distance (40-minute walk) and located 3.2 kilometers away. As shown below, the cultural centers are primarily clustering in the downtown core of Bogotá.
Expo - Sitio
During our fieldwork, we collected data through the deployment of interactive toys to engage the community, field observations, and in-depth interviews with Sandra Rivero, member of the Mother’S Group (conducted by Luis Sebastian Ugas) and Julián Bejarano Gomez, instructor of movie production in Il Nido del Gufo (conducted by Randy Armas). These are the primary planning problems we aim to address in our project:
Cultural Centers around Lisboa Neighborhood. Source: Google map and City of Bogotá GIS Data, November 2017 44
3. Limited recorded history and negative perception of Lisboa community Julián Bejarano Gomez, who grew up and now works in the neighborhood, works with the Lisboa youth group at Il Nido del Gufo to teach film production to children in the community. In an interview, Julián describes that residents living near the Bogotá River or Lisboa neighborhood are perceived negatively for their living conditions and economic status within Bogotá.
However, he feels optimistic about the future of the neighborhood. Through his film production workshop which is supported by Instituto Distrital de las Artes (Institute of Art) and El Ministerio de Cultura (Ministry of Culture), he aims to use art to engage with the public and people of Lisboa to challenge these stigmas. “So that is the reason why I went back to the place [Lisboa] and started working with people who were the locals, the first settlers of the place. Then, I started working with young audiences to promote an idea, a new representation that is not known much from this territory: a place that has a lot of opportunities and nurtures creativities.” Julián describes the living conditions of Lisboa to be improving through investments in public infrastructure and community engagement opportunities at institutions like Il Nido del Gufo. However, this progress has not been and is not being recorded in order to pass on cultural identity to younger generations. “... after twenty years I finally see the transformation of the neighborhood from more or less a farm, a rural hacienda was closest to visualize Lisboa. There were no roads, light, water service nor sewer. When I first came to Lisboa, the neighborhood had roughly about
4. Childcare falls under the responsibility of the Mother’s Group and heavily relies on volunteer commitment . The Mother’s Group was formed as a response to the community’s need for additional childcare as many families were unable to take care of their children after school due to both parents often working. Thus creating free supervised childcare provided by a group of women. Though a positive program in the community, this is an additional responsibility for the women in the Mother’s Group and limits their time to pursue income-generating endeavours, thus perpetuating their traditional gender role as caretakers. Existing Assets We are focusing on the following three existing assets for our proposal: (1) strong community groups at Il Nido del Gufo, (2) support from larger institutions, and (3) the tenacious ownership of the neighborhood through autoconstrucción. a) Strong community groups operating at Il Nido del Gufo Through our field work, interviews and interactions with the community, we have identified strong community groups that operate out of Il Nido del Gufo, a local library at the heart of the neighborhood. The Mother’s Group, Youth Group and Kindergarten have been prominent actors and leaders in the community, and each operate out of this space which has existed since 2003. The building itself became a reality thanks to the generous donation of an Italian philanthropist. 1) The Mother’s Group We visited Il Nido del Gufo on September 26th, 2017 and were given a tour by Patricia Mesa, the library’s coordinator. Mesa described that Il Nido del Gufo began through the mothers of Lisboa observing a high crime rate and increasingly unsafe environment for their children. Thus, causing a few to initiate a daycare service. Initially, children were cared for in someone’s home but eventually were acknowledged by the city of Bogotá and a kindergarten was built. 45
Armas | Esquivel | Kim | Martinus
“...information that existed on the territory was highly stigmatized since the media or the imagination of various people who do not live in the area said this place was bad, very poor, and precarious in conditions. This is not entirely true nor entirely false. Then I went back to this neighborhood because this place will start to work with the people of the territory and reevaluate its representations.”
six to seven houses, no more. I witnessed how the neighborhood was impoverish. It is always my concern that someday this history was not told. So, that is the reason why I went back and started to work with the first settlers of Lisboa to document the history of the neighborhood.”
According to the interview with Sandra Rivero, the Mother’s Group arranges a library visit for seventeen day care services in Lisboa each month.
Expo - Sitio
“Each month we visit the library with the children, because we are seventeen places (let’s say just in my organization). There we have a laboratory, where children can create imaginaries and certain things…”
Additionally, the Mother’s Group provides and ensures children have access to nutritious food. Operationally, the Mother’s Group relies on volunteers with some support from the government who provides small honorariums for their work.
Mother’s Group organizing day care service Source: Angelina Andri Putri
2. The Youth Group The youth group in Il Nido del Gufo is led by Julián Bejarano Gomez and has been active in documenting the history of the neighborhood through the medium of film. Their work is currently being supported financially by Instituto Distrital de las Artes (Institute of Art) and El Ministerio de Cultura (Ministry of Culture). Julián Bejarano Gomez is a young adult who grew up in this neighborhood and after pursuing a postsecondary education in art and filmmaking, returned to the community to provide filmmaking skills. The films themselves often explore larger social themes in an attempt to educate the children and audience about ongoing social and economic structures that the community faces. 3. The Children Most of the children living in the Lisboa neighborhood attend a formal primary or secondary school. Aside from this, many are active in the activities provided in Il Nido del Gufo. As stated by Sandra Rivero, the children 46
Movie production led by Julián Bejarano Gomez Source: Il Nido del Gufo’s youtube page
are driven and take their own initiative to learn beyond their classroom: “They like it a lot and they look happy when they are in the library. They like reading books. They are learning to read images, there is no need for them to read, but they are already learning to read images. I take pictures... I have a whatsapp group with the parents.”
b) Formal institutions that support Il Nido del Gufo Secondly, the library has been supported by the following government institutions: Instituto Distrital de las Artes (Institute of Art) and El Ministerio de Cultura (Ministry of Culture). In past, there are some private institutions that have supported Il Nido del Gufo too such as Miuto de Dios, MUTE TAD, Taller de Arquitectura, Iglesia Católica Scalabriniana. This financial support proves that Il Nido del Gufo and its programs has been recognized as legitimate and worthy of outside investment. c) Community ownership from autoconstrucción
“Well we have been here for years. My mother was one of the residents, she brought water to the neighborhood... We have seen our church grows, we have seen our neighborhood grows. We have seen a lot of growth in the neighborhood. At this moment the River of Bogotá looks contaminated, but we have a water treatment plant, we take some of the water and clean it. Maybe one day we can have a clean water from the river. That would be ideal.” Armas | Esquivel | Kim | Martinus
Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas (2013) describes the autoconstrucción concept as the, “building technique that is led by specific needs of a family and by the lack of funds to pay for constructing an entire house at once. People build their own homes slowly and sporadically, as they can, with limited money, with the collaboration of all family members and the solidarity of neighbors, relatives, and friends.”
The residents of Lisboa neighborhood have a long history in building their community ownership through autoconstrucción. Without support from formal institutions, they have the ability to build a cooperative collaboration within their neighborhood, as mentioned by Sandra Rivero:
Formal institutions that support Il Nido del Gufo Source: various websites
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Planning Framework In identifying and analyzing the urban problems, we used three planning approaches. First, the Pro-Poor Asset Based Methodology (Moser, 2010) is used to introduce existing assets found in the neighborhood of Lisboa, which are strong community groups operating at Il Nido del Gufo, formal institutions that support Il Nido del Gufo, and community ownership from autoconstrucción.
Expo - Sitio
Second, the Participatory Action Research (Fals Borda, 1987) is adapted to build the existing programs in Il Nido del Gufo. There are three important groups within Il Nido del Gufo; the mother’s group, the youth, and the children. Our proposal seeks to develop a learning laboratory for the members of Il Nido del Gufo to teach, research, and learn about their own groups. In the end, we expect groups in Il Nido del Gufo to develop their own visions and show-case their group through various events.
p.1.) describes PAR as an “experiential methodology implies the acquisition of serious and reliable knowledge upon which to construct power, or countervailing power, for the poor, oppressed and exploited groups and social classes – the grassroots – and for their authentic organizations and movement.” Through this, we hope to create a cyclical model of how communities acquire information about their community, and ideally design how they will improve their quality of life.
Third, the Gender Need and Planning is integrated in our planning method to acknowledge the mother’s group issue in the neighborhood. At this moment, the daycare service in the neighborhood still becomes the responsibility of mother’s group with their voluntary initiative and small honorarium for their works. With this proposal, we propose to build additional child care services and encourage all of the existing communities in the neighborhood to participate in it to relieve the mother’s services and responsibilities.
PAR Methodology
Pro-Poor Asset Based Methodology
Gender Needs and Planning
Caroline Moser’s Pro-Poor Asset Based methodology (2010) provides us a framework that allows us to operationalize the identification of existing assets in a community and in turn, strengthen said assets. Through this, we can better understand how the community has adapted to various social and environmental conditions for vulnerable communities like Lisboa. According to Moser (2010), if the existing assets are preserved, the communities can form their own strategies (bottom-up approach) to improve their own communities’ life quality.
Caroline Moser (1993, p.88.) describes gender planning as “the emancipation of women from their subordination, and their achievement of equality, equity and empowerment.” The Western-defined household has systematically created traditional gender roles that revolve around men as heads of households, and women as support and primary caretakers for the children in the assumed nuclear family setting. A woman however is triple committed; the reproductive role of bearing children and caring for them, the productive role of providing secondary income, and community manager which assumes women at home have “free time” to provide missing resources to the community at large (Moser, 1993).
Participatory Action Research (PAR) We also propose the implementation of a Participatory Action Research (PAR) model (Fals Borda, 1987) as a framework for existing groups to strengthen their respective programs. Participatory Action Research (PAR) is an education method that allows community members to imagine, design, and conduct research. Fals Borda (1991, 48
We believe PAR is complementary to Moser’s Pro-Poor Asset Based methodology as existing assets in the community are its robust community groups.
All these roles are present for the women in Lisboa, especially those in the Women’s group who provide a crucial service to the community for free. Using employment and framework in Moser’s definition of gender needs, we can begin to address the real issue of equity of the woman’s role comparatively
to the men in the community. Primarily by looking at the practical gender need of relieving these women of their role as caretakers for not only their own children but the community’s with small amount of honorarium, we can use this as an entry point to address strategic gender needs like opportunities to be a community leader or be properly compensated for their time.
Project Proposal
In this way, we believe that narration and storytelling are powerful design and educational tools to imagine and to curate the future of an individual or a community of individuals. Our proposal seeks to provide the people of Lisboa with spaces in the form of a film workshop and a community theater, in which we hope to trigger the community to document its identity, empower its members, increase their community visibility and establish a collective vision for their future. Our proposal physically manifests in the form of an inhabitable and tectonic bridge (a bridge that connects two landscapes). It links both sides of the Bogotá river; Bogotá City (at the Lisboa location) and the province of Cundinamarca. It contains, when a bridge, a public level that encourages the passer-by to ‘go through’ but also to inhabit the bridge more permanently as one would a desirable public space – this is presented in the form of stationary pockets of recreational areas. On the floors above, Expositio contains more specific but equally accessible programs. The lower level will be designated for education areas, such as reading room, community space, reception, and flexible classroom. The program is aligned with our beliefs and visions in how we combine artistic production and distribution. Inside we have the organs of theater and filmmaking; a film set, movable parts that increase the size of performance spaces
or convert study areas into performance stages. We have located an archive that documents the history of Lisboa through the medium and also a production studio. The majority of the bridge’s interior is a collection of a variety of spaces that change smoothly and gradually, which allows for the appropriation of the artifact. The second level is a continuous flexible space that welcomes programs such as daycare centers, libraries, community rooms, public stages, etc. As one keeps going up the bridge the program becomes more film and theater oriented until one reaches the top level which another form of public space high enough to reflect and look out to Lisboa and one’s innermost aspirations. The amalgamation of the project’s program is the formation of a film festival. The film festival gets expressed by the deployment of a screen – on the North Side of the bridge – of big enough magnitude as to be seen from a considerable distance. Expositio provides a platform in which the individual relates back to the collective, thus creating a collective vision for the neighborhood and its future. We do this through the engagement of local organizations and initiatives – the youth groups, the mother’s association, the library ‘Il Nido del Gufo’ and its film program primarily – and the provision of programs that consolidate collective identity and history; archive, libraries, film workshop and public space. We aim to make the neighborhood visible by the creation of an event of city wide magnitude that showcases the films produced but also other films within the region, city or even the country. Furthermore, through the production of films, we hope to activate a collective consciousness about the most pressing present issues – the river, safety and urban anonymity – as the first step to actively produce change.
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Armas | Esquivel | Kim | Martinus
Our proposal is named Expositio, which is derived from the latin word narration. In addition it becomes a contemporary compound of ‘expo’ and ‘sitio’. The former refers to ‘exposition’, both the explanation of an idea and a large public exhibition exposing goods and more ideas. The latter becomes ‘site’ when translated from the spanish word ‘sitio’, which relates our spatial idea to a context, a city, an anthropological method to understand both the geospecific location and its contents.
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Expo - Sitio
250'-1" 25'-2"
191'-4"
33'-6" 44'-1"
50'-1"
Armas | Esquivel | Kim | Martinus 51
Artistic Consumption and Production 1 2 3 4
archive fabrication shop storage film set
Educational Areas 1 2 3 4
reading room community space reception flexible classroom
Circulation Public Space
3
Expo - Sitio
2 3
4
1 4
1
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2
1
Fig.1
This is the East facing side, showing the structural elements and the major kinetic parts. A horizontal ladder structure which is anchored to multiple pulley system supports the fabric shell. This fabric shell has structural membrane which allows it to fold in an organized manner, yet fold out to a flat surface for movie projection.
Fig.2
Here the West facing side is shown within context. The drawing shows the fabric shell folded out to its maximum volume for projection. There are two other mechanisms that can be unfolded which are the projector and the retractable hammock.
1
Fabric shell shown in its folded position. (Refer to 1-a to see the shell fully stretched vertically
6
2
Horizontal ladder frame supporting the fabric shell
7
Pop-up work space can move along the wall for flexible space usage
3
Small private viewing room for the movie archives are attached to the ladder frame so when the shell expands they disappear
8
Retractable hammock can slide out along the arced rail for leasure and can be folded back under the structure
4
Pulley wheels at column tops for controlling the ladder frame
9
Projector is on a swing arm which allows it to be folded into the wall and secured
5
Counterweight for the pulley system
10
Underbridge provides a public walkway along with various play structures for interacting with water
Filming pod is on a rail to allow it to laterally slide
4 3 5
2
N
1-a 10
Armas | Esquivel | Kim | Martinus
6
5
9
8
7
Fig.1
N
Fig.2
Intended Outcomes Safe and accessible public space Additional childcare services to relieve Mother’s Group services and responsibilities Stronger community identity and positive perception of the Lisboa community by outsiders Space to showcase and learn about larger social and environmental issues, thus leading to more collective action to address said issues Recorded and archived history of the neighborhood Job creation and improved economic status 53
Expo - Sitio
Actors
54
Project Schedule MONTHS
0
3
6
12
24
60
120
Armas | Esquivel | Kim | Martinus
COMMUNITY MEETINGS COMMUNITY MEETINGS JARDIN VECINAL COMMITTEE COORDINATION AND MEETINGS DIVERSITY ROUTE PROGRAM CALL FOR INVOLVEMENT APPROVAL, FINANCING, MARKETING LEARNING ALLIANCE NEGOTIATIONS WITH ARB NEGOTIATIONS WITH MUNI. GOV RECYCLING MYTH TEAM BUILDING COORDINATOR COMMUNITY DESIGN CHARRETTES STATION CONSTRUCTION ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING CULTURAL PROGRAMS RIVER CLEAN UP KITCHEN CONSTRUCTION COMMUNITY WORKSHOP WORKSHOP TRAINING APPROACHING EXTERNAL ORGS. DEVELOPING PROPOSAL APPLYING GRANTS RIVER TOURS - PILOT PROGRAM PROGRAM MONITORING SECURE FINANCING TRIAL PERIOD - PHASE 1 ECO-MATERIAL PRODUCTION LOS COMELONES EVENT RESEARCH AND EVALUATION EVALUTAITON & MODIFICATION MAINTAINANCE BRIDGE & GARDEN CONSTRUCTION KITCHEN HUB CONSTRUCTION END OF PILOT PROGRAM PARADE EVENT DEVELOPE PROGRAMS MAINTAINANCE EXPANSION ELAVUATION & ADJUSTMENTS SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL 55
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Paseando Ollas
Paseando Ollas COOK | CREATE | CONNECT Patrick Li, Coco Ke Shi Statement of Purpose Paseando Ollas explores the ways in which excluded people and spaces can be identified and integrated by local residents through cultural practices such as food. The proposal aims to help excluded groups settle into the Lisboa community, thereby gaining the ability to utilize resources and contribute to the spaces in which they live in. Food is about sharing, communality, and hospitality. It is an international language that is not spoken, but rather tasted and felt. As such, Paseando Ollas seeks to deliver opportunities for social integration and empowerment that can have a concrete and positive impact on people’s lives.
community: the Lisboa community includes all the residents and visitors in the area that contribute to the local social fabric. This proposal pays particular attention to certain populations within the Lisboa community, such as the afro-colombian, Venezuelan, Chocoan, women, children, recycler, and gang populations.
Background Barriers, Divides, and Exclusion Li | Shi
The definition of our urban problem was conceived from data collected through three different techniques: Toys and Interviews.
1) Toys
One of the first exercises we carried out in this studio was the production of toys that could be used to communicate information and subsequently, gather data from their users. Under the instruction of Giancarlo Mazzanti and Carlos Medellin, who have successfully implemented such toys for research purposes, we produced a toy called Secret Messages (Mensajes Secretos). At the core of our idea was to create something that used a universal language and was inviting to foster conversations with local residents in Lisboa and Bogotá. More specifically, we chose to use Emojis as our common language that could be shared with people of all ages and backgrounds. As we asked people to select Emojis, we would use such choices as ques to enter conversations regarding specific urban issues or problems regarding their hometown’s living conditions. The second step of the toy was to provide the participants with a scratch card that contained a secret message. The messages were all questions asking people to discuss urban environment or planning issues.
Some questions included:
What do you think about swimming in the River Bogotá? Que opinas sobre nadar en el Río Bogotá? What do you want to see inside river Bogotá? Qué te gustaría ver en el Río Bogotá? What is your favourite thing in the street of Lisboa? Cual es tu aspecto favorito de las calles de Lisboa? What do you do for fun in your neighbourhood? Que haces para divertirte en tu barrio? What is your favourite means of transport? Cual es tu vía de transporte favorito?
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The data we collected from participant responses tell a story about the living conditions in Lisboa and around the Bogotá River. However, they also talk about the desires and dreams that many residents have for a more lively, safe, and healthy urban environment. While we geared Secret Messages to people of all ages, the majority of respondents were children under 10 years of age and their grandparents accompanying them. And, or particular interest was the way in which people seemed to interact with the emojis once they had to place them on the sand pit. The acts of choosing an Emoji and placing them on the sand alluded at the residents’ urge to express themselves, to let their opinions run free, and to make a statement while breaking language barriers and social differences.
Secret Messages. Participants would select Emojis that they related with and placed them in the sand pit to discuss urban problems.
2) Interviews RIVERRIVER PERSPERCTIVE PERSPERCTIVE FOR THE FORFUTURE THE FUTURE
ACTIVITY ACTIVITY ANTICIPATIONS ANTICIPATIONS (TOP 4) (TOP 4)
As part of our field trip experience, and lead by Marcela Tovar-Restrepo, we were able to interview local Lisboa residents, including Edilsa Rojas, Julian Bejarano, and Gloria.
ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT ANTICIPATIONS ANTICIPATIONS (TOP 4) (TOP 4)
TRANSPORTATION TRANSPORTATION
Paseando Ollas
TRANSMILENIO TRANSMILENIO 10(57%) 10(57%)
SWIMMING SWIMMING
IMAGINARY IMAGINARY 27
27 MOSTLY CHILDREN 0-4 MOSTLY CHILDREN 0-4
BIKING BIKING
POSITIVE 14 POSITIVE
14 MOSTLY CHILDREN MOSTLY OLDER OLDER CHILDREN
RACINGRACING
BOATING BOATING NEGATIVE 8 NEGATIVE
8 MOSTLY MOSTLY ADULTSADULTS
TREES TREES
Edilsa Rojas, who is a member of the Colectivo Interpretaciones Urbanas, along with Wilson Cárdenas, has experience working with the local residents of Lisboa and leads the research and implementation of various urban interventions that seek to ameliorate urban inequalities. The existing proposals are intended to allow for residents to take their spaces back from undesirable subjects, such as gang members and drug users. Rojas’ work delves into a variety of planning themes, such as liminal strategies or gender equity and safety. Implementation strategies are also proposed, such as the Perifoneos, whereby young residents take to the streets with a megaphone to announce events, clean up efforts, or simply to create a presence and entice a safe street and active COCO COCO KE SHIKE SHI atmosphere. Finally, existing proposals from the Colectivo Interpretaciones Urbanas identifies the key actors that should be involved in the interventions for them to be effective, such as the Youth Organization for the Perifoneos or the CAR for the Lineal Park strategies along the Bogotá River. A summary of the proposals suggested by Rojas’ and Cárdenas’ team is shown below. FISH
FISH
PARK/GARDEN PARK/GARDEN
CLEANER CLEANER WATER WATER
BIKE
BIKE
5(29%)
5(29%)
WALK
WALK
3(14%)
3(14%)
SAFETY SAFETY IN THEIRINBARRIOS THEIR BARRIOS
SAFE
ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENTANTICIPATIONS ANTICIPATIONS(TOP (TOP4)4)
TRANSPORTATION TRANSPORTATION
SAFE 8(42%)
8(42%)
UNSAFE UNSAFE 10 (57%) 10 (57%)
TRANSMILENIO TRANSMILENIO10(57%) 10(57%)
TREES TREES
FISH FISH
PARK/GARDEN PARK/GARDEN
CLEANER WATER CLEANER WATER
BIKE BIKE
5(29%) 5(29%)
WALK WALK
3(14%) 3(14%)
SAFETY SAFETY ININ THEIR THEIR BARRIOS BARRIOS
SAFE SAFE
8(42%) 8(42%)
UNSAFE UNSAFE 1010 (57%) (57%)
Toy results, showing the most commonly selected Emojis. COCO COCOKEKESHISHI
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Rojas was also invaluable with regards to the first hand knowledge that she could share regarding the Lisboa neighborhood. For example, while we knew there was some tension between different ethnic populations in the area, Rojas asserted that “owners do not want to rent to Afros. They were only left with the option near the riversedge.” (Cárdenas, 2017: Interview)
As we mention the Youth Organization and key first hand, local knowledge, we must also acknowledge the contributions of Julian Bejarano, a young Lisboa resident with interests in media and communications. During an interview with Bejarano, we were treated to hear some of his personal accounts from his youth growing up in Lisboa. In a particularly memorable segment, he recounted how he was once bitten by a dog around a corner, and so, ever since that moment, he relates that area of the neighborhood with fear. Bejarano goes on further to discuss how this emotional connection between residents and the urban environment is not so rare, and in fact, he is working on a project he calls the Emotional Map. While we do not have Bejarano’s Emotional Map, we were drawn a mental map that showed the aspects of the neighborhood that he intentionally (or perhaps subconsciously, as well) deemed significant under an urban planning problem framework. For example, his map shows locations of different population groups, as well as key infrastructure elements, such as bridges (Bejarano, 2017: Interview).
Lastly, we were also able to interview Gloria, at the Universidad de Los Andes. Gloria used to be a Lisboa resident, but moved out of the neighborhood, with his husband, as soon as she was given the opportunity. Gloria recalls how she relied on a male friend every morning to walk her to her bus station (in exchange for a small fee), as she would be terrified to walk on the streets alone in the dark. Her panic towards the “red zone”, as she describes it, comes mostly from a story revolving the shooting of a resident who apparently owned money to some gang members. The resident was shot right next to the bus station that her husband frequented every day, so Gloria had been affected by this incident since then (Gloria, 2017: Interview).
Therefore, through our data collection techniques, we have identified Urban Exclusion as the urban problem that needs to be addressed in this proposal. More specifically, we see how problems with the Bogotá River have been triggered or exacerbated by urban exclusion, a phenomenon whereby people or spaces do not seem to fit in due to their lack of self identity and acceptance. We further break apart our observations in terms of Spatial and Social Exclusion, and later, we discuss the planning framework under which we study Urban Exclusion.
Mental Map drawn by Julian Bejarano. (Bejarano, 2017)
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Li | Shi
As can be seen from these interviews, urban environment and planning issues are not foreign to residents of Lisboa. The power of such data, however, lies in the personal attachment and effect that residents may have to their living environments. So, not only have we identified urban planning problems, but we have also gained a personal and up-close motivation to produce solution proposals that could help change the lives of Lisboa residents for the better.
Spatial Exclusion River Edge (30m proposed extension zone by la CAR)
A. 30M RIVERSIDE SPACE - INFORMAL OCCUPATION + CONSTRUCTION - PET WASTE
• Recyclers use the space to store materials at no cost, leading to water pollution. • Residents along the riverside are occupying the spaces for personal usage and for their own businesses, which provides additional garbage and construction waste. They are not willing to leave unless they see construction for public place-making coming along. • La CAR is proposing a linear park. B. BUILDING ROOF TOPS - INFORMAL CONSTRUCTION - CONSTRUCTION WASTE
COCO KE SHI
Residential Building Rooftops
Paseando Ollas
• Residents are informally building floors on top of floors, leaving R-bars for future additions and increasing the amount of construction waste in the streets.
Urban Voids
C. OPEN-AIR EMPTY SPACE - 700,000 PESOS/MONTH FOR RENT - MATERIAL STORAGE
COCO KE SHI
D. RIVER BOGOTA - NOT RECOGNIZED - WASTE DISPOSAL
COCO KE SHI
• Spaces that are of no use to the public. • Recyclers rent spaces at low cost for storage. This tends to have a negative effect on the urban image of the neighborhood.
The River • Apart from seldom usage of the river by children, most Lisboa residents do not even know that one can travel the river by boat. • Heavy amounts of organic and inorganic garbage dumping on the river cause strong smells that alienate people from the river. • Instead of going to the very contaminated river, people from around the city seek alternatives for recreation.
COCO KE SHI
Human Exclusion 60
HUMAN EXCLUSION
Recyclers
1. RECYCLERS - NOT FORMAL OCCUPATION - GENERATIONAL “JOB” - CHILDREN DON’T GO TO SCHOOL
• A generational “job” without formal education or a set career path. • Houses are used for material storage and parking.
x
• Children born into these households tend to not go to school. 2. GANGS - DRUG TRANSACTION + CONSUMPTION - YOUTH DON’T GET EDUCATED
Gangs
COCO KE SHI
• Often a result from the recycler lifestyle. • Youth lack proper education and so increase the consumption and transaction of drugs.
Afro-Colombians & Other Immigrants • Afro-Colombians are pushed out from local residences.
• There are large numbers of Venezuelan and Chocoan immigrants.
3. AFROS + OTHER IMMIGRANTS - AFROS ARE PUSHED OUT FROM LOCAL RES. - AFROS’ OWN BARS AND CULTURE - VENEZUELAN + CHOCOANO IMMIGRANTS - WOMEN + CHILDREN
Li | Shi
• Afro-Colombians are known for owning bars.
COCO KE SHI
• Large portion of immigrants are women and children.
Assets
While we have identified many negative aspects in the built environment of Lisboa, we keep an open mind and attempt to see these issues as the assets that provide opportunities for development and improvement in the built environment, as well as in socio-economic, cultural, and political conditions.
COCO KE SHI
For example, Urban voids and vacant lots are provide space for architectural interventions to activate spaces. The river, while heavily polluted at the moment, could be a very effective mode of transportation for people and materials, as well. As for people, recyclers, ex-gang members, afrocolombians, Venezuelans, Chocoans, and women and children could all provide the society they live in with unique skills, talents, and experiences that may make up a rich and diverse living atmosphere.
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Planning Framework The planning framework under which we analyze our observations and by which we direct our proposed interventions include 1) urban exclusion theory, 2) ground theory, and 3) urban acupuncture theory.
the creation of concepts and theories through methodic data gathering and analysis.
Paseando Ollas
1) Urban Exclusion
There is a vast amount of planning literature regarding urban exclusion, such as Kruijt D.’s “Divided Cities: Urban Informality, Exclusion and Violence” in 2008, or Musterd, S., and Ostendorf, W.’s “Urban Segregation and the Welfare State: Inequality and Exclusion in Western Cities” in 2013. For our proposal, we are concerned with the urban exclusion that results from intersectionality, specifically from demographic categories, such as by ethnicity, family ties, or profession. This tends to be the result of migrant populations relying on their self identities for survival. In other words, people stick with people who share similar backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences. The result of such practice is a population that is defined as the ‘other’ and excluded from the socio-economic and political society in place. Ultimately, such populations are considered socially excluded and their dependence on their original lifestyles becomes even higher, as integration with the local social context becomes increasingly difficult. Finally, there are negative consequences that may result from social exclusion, such as increased violence (Kruijt, 2008: pg.1).
2) Ground Theory
In his paper Re-conceptualizing the Latin American City from the Field, Sergio Montero suggests that we should be “letting the city speak” (Montero, 2017) when gathering data from it. This notion comes from the critique that researchers often know what they are looking for before they go out to gather data, and so their minds are set when looking for a particular answer. Then, if the answer is somewhat expected, the observation may be considered valid, otherwise, the observation would be considered a flaw or a departure from the norm. The norm, in this case, is Western theory (considered for the most part to be Northern Hemisphere, or First World theories). To avoid the issue of analyzing a site in Bogotá through Western ideologies, Montero suggests to construct concepts from the field by carrying out ethnographic studies, using ground theory, and applying design thinking. We focus, therefore, on ground theory and 62
3) Urban Acupuncture Theory
In a physical and human urban environment as complex as a city, It is often difficult to address all of the urban issues at the same time. Furthermore, the scale of such problems may be daunting for any proposed solution to be implemented with confidence. Urban acupuncture seeks to understand multiple issues in the built environment and considers them pressure points that cause stress on the urban system they are a part of. The goal, then, is to find the most appropriate points and moments to release energy. In our case, where we have identified multiple planning problems, we seek to understand such issues and propose a multi-pronged response, albeit small or transitional, to act as catalysts for further change in the future. The small scale of such interventions, almost grassroots in nature, allow for local residents to get involved, and in so doing, “allowing them to reclaim themselves and their space” (Landry, 2005: pg.2).
Project Proposal Urban Exclusion to Integration In order to tackle the conversion from urban exclusion to integration, we use food as our primary instrument for change. The power of food as a means to define identity and foster integration between different groups of people has been widely studied. Mustafa Koc and Jennifer Welsh, for example, argue that food is not only an essential nutrient for our being in this physical world, but it is also “central to our sense of identity. (Koc and Welsh: pg.46)” Khatia Mikadze writes along similar lines when discussing the power of food in refugee integration, stating that “food has become a way to help refugees across the world resettle and integrate into new communities — helping them not only to restart their lives in a foreign place, but to learn invaluable skills and find work” (Mikadze, 2017). So, in order to get some inspiration and precedents regarding social integration through food initiatives, we turn to the following examples:
Paseo de Olla .
Our proposal, then, explores the ways in which excluded people and spaces can be identified and integrated by local residents through the cultural practice of food. The fact that it is the local residents themselves who lead the integration process for those who need it is of utmost importance, as it makes the proposal for Lisboa and from Lisboa. The proposal entails a Kitchen Hub along the riverside edge. A framework that serves as the focus of the project hosts various mobile kitchens with different identities of their own. Each mobile kitchen responds to a specific population and need in the neighborhood. During the weekdays, the kitchens travel to their corresponding areas, interacting with their respective groups through the culinary arts. On the weekends, the mobile kitchens bring different local communities to the Central Hub along the riverside, inviting communal events with light and music to celebrate the importance of food and knowing your neighbor.
Hot Bread Kitchen (HBK)
Located in East Harlem, NYC, HBK is a non-profit kitchen that employs foreign-born women to help them successfully integrate into the United States. Among the many programs offered at HBK, the Bakers in Training Program provides paid on-the-job training to foreign-born low-income women and the Incubate Program offers start-up food businesses hands-on training for them to grow their food endeavors (Hot Bread Kitchen, 2017: Web).
Refugee Food Festival
A travelling event that entrusts restaurant kitchens to refugees leaders. The festival aims to change the public view of refugee status, to facilitate refugees with access to employment opportunities, and to introduce cuisines from different cultures. The Food Sweet Food Association, together with UN Refugee (UNHCR) are in charge of implementing the festival (Franchini, 2017: Web).
The League of Kitchens
A final example of food bringing different people together and making good use of people’s assets is the League of Kitchens in NYC. As an immersive culinary experience, the
Top. Paseo de Olla, with families gathering near a body of water. (Noticiero 90Minutos, 2017) Bottom. Hot Bread Kitchen’s training program. (Hot Bread Kitchen, 2017) 63
Li | Shi
Paseo de Olla is a Colombian tradition whereby people go to a mountain or anywhere close to a body of water, they cook family recipes, and share with each other.
program has immigrants teach intimate cooking skills in their own homes. Such personal experiences are meant to resonate with the notion that food is at the core of who we are and who we want to share our lives with (The League of Kitchens, 2017: Web).
early in the morning at 4am. The other 5 kitchens are as follow: KITCHEN - IMPORT 02 In general, there will be 6 different types of kitchens. One of them is designed as a waterbike that floats on the Bogotá River and serves as the Central Hub’s supplier of raw food. FoodWorks As an underutilized asset, the river can now be activated by cook / create / connect connecting Lisboa to the existing city markets (shown on the map). It is expected that supply shipments would take place
kitchen – IT Hours of Operation: 9am - 11am • Travels along the Riverside
Mobile vendors carrying food introduced by Chocoano and Venezuelan immigrants.
Central Hub
Villa Cindy, Lisboa
The Hub itself is a machine that consists of kinetic ramps, conveyors and lifts. It moves while transporting the mobile kitchens and distributing them during the day. when the mobile kitchens are sent to their respective neighborhoods, the Hub becomes an alternative space with infrastructure that supports outdoor fitness activities, WEEKDAYSchildren’s playtime, water activities, and more. The scaffolding structure also allows for expansion along the dyke, inviting more mobile kitchens to be created and introduced to the neighborhood. Monday - Friday 11am -3pm
• Pet kitchen carrying health-conscious food & pet care service. Also helps pet owners take care of their pets and the environment
01
KITCHEN - IT
kitchen – Import Pet store carrying heath-conscious food plus & pet care & training service. Riverside
Hours of Operation: 11am - 3pm Monday - Friday 9am -11:30am
02
Paseando Ollas
• Travels to Villa Cindy, Lisboa • Mobile vendors carrying food introduced by Chocoano(a)s and Venezuelan immigrants
01
03 04
05
kitchen – Local - APPRENTICE • KITCHEN Travels to Central Lisboa Culinary training studios offering cooking classes & hands-on trainings
• Hires low-income or unemployed women to cook traditional food for the neighborhood St. Cecilia
• Drinking with Afro-Colombians
• Indoor and roof bars stock authentic AfroColombian stouts and lagers 64
Monday - Friday 2pm -6pm
KITCHEN - LOCAL
Hours of Operation: 7pm - 12am
03
kitchen – Pint
WEEKENDS
• Culinary training studios offer cooking classes & hands-on training to prepare them for future careers
Lisboa
• St. Cecilia, where youth are less educated
Traditional food market offering cuisines by reemployed women.
Hours of Operation: 4pm - 8pm
KITCHEN - PINT
kitchen – Apprentice
Indoor and roof bars stocking authentic
COCO KE SHI
Monday - Friday 4pm -8pm
05
04
Hours of Operation: 2pm - 6pm
FoodWorks / create / connect FoodWorks cook / create / connect
KITCHEN - IT Pet store carrying heath-conscious food plus & pet care & training service. Riverside Monday - Friday 9am -11:30am
01
01
02 KITCHEN - IT Pet store carrying heath-conscious food plus & pet care & training service.
03
Riverside
Monday - Friday 9am -11:30am
05
Li | Shi
04
COCO KE SHI
KITCHEN - APPRENTICE Culinary training studios offering cooking classes & hands-on trainings St. Cecilia Monday - Friday 4pm -8pm
04 02 KITCHEN - APPRENTICE KITCHEN - IMPORT
Culinary training studios offering Mobile vendors carrying food introduced cooking classes & hands-on trainings by Chocoano and Venezuelan immigrants. St. Cecilia Villa Cindy, Lisboa Monday - Friday 4pm -8pm Monday - Friday 11am -3pm
nect
COCO KE SHI
65
FoodWorks cook / create / connect
03
KITCHEN - LOCAL Traditional food market offering cuisines by reemployed women. Lisboa Monday - Friday 2pm -6pm
02
01
KITCHEN - IMPORT Mobile vendors carrying food introduced by Chocoano and Venezuelan immigrants.
KITCHEN - IT
Villa Cindy, Lisboa Monday - Friday 11am -3pm
Pet store carrying heath-conscious food plus & pet care & training service. Riverside Monday - Friday 9am -11:30am
02 01 Paseando Ollas
03 COCO KE SHI
05
KITCHEN - PINT
KITCHEN - LOCAL Traditional food market offering cuisines by reemployed women.
04
Lisboa Monday - Friday 2pm -6pm
Indoor and roof bars stocking authentic Afro-Colombian stouts and lagers. 132D & 151 Streets
04
Monday - Friday 7pm -1am
KITCHEN - APPRENTICE Culinary training studios offering cooking classes & hands-on trainings St. Cecilia Monday - Friday 4pm -8pm
02 03 05
04
05
KITCHEN - PINT
Indoor and roof bars stocking authentic Afro-Colombian stouts and lagers. 132D & 151 Streets
COCO KE SHI
66
Monday - Friday 7pm -1am
05
03 05
05
KITCHEN - PINT
Indoor and roof bars stocking authentic Afro-Colombian stouts and lagers. 132D & 151 Streets Monday - Friday 7pm -1am
TO the next gastronomic stage... Li | Shi
COCO KE SHI
COCO KE SHI
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Implementation
The implementation of Paseando Ollas is broken into 3 main phases. The first is the implementation of the pilot program, followed by the expansion of kitchens and locations, and finally reaching a sustainable business model.
Phase 1
• The first phase of the proposal start with a call for involvement of local residents who want to take part in Paseando Ollas. This is expected to take 3 months. • At the same time, the project’s pre-development stage begins, involving the design and construction of 3 kitchens and obtaining the necessary approvals and funding. This stage will take 6 months. • A 3-month test run then follows.
Paseando Ollas
• If the kitchens are working well, design and construction of the next 3 kitchens, plus the Central Hub will take place. This is a construction-intensive stage that can take 9 months to complete. • Once construction is done, a second test run with all the kitchens will take place. This will last 6 months, making the project so far take 24 months. Phase 1 is, therefore, the project’s pilot period.
Paramount to the success of this phase, and the rest of the proposal, is securing the necessary funding to begin construction of the first 3 kitchens. From domestic sources, Bogotá Emprende is a joint collaboration between the Ministry of Economic Development and the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce. Going along their mission to aid entrepreneurs in creating new businesses, our proposal intends to be largely financed by this program. Considering the economic aspect of the project, we also expect some funding to be available from international sources, such as the World Bank, although this would require further coordination with the government as the World Bank is expected to liaise with us through them. The InterAmerican Development Bank also provides funding for projects in Latin America. Recently in 2016, they funded a highway project in Bogotá (Perimetral Oriental de Bogotá) with a $158 Million loan. While the scale of such a loan is 68
beyond the scale of our proposals, the studio could ask for a loan that supports the improvement of the Bogotá River and its neighboring communities. This way, some of the money for the river could, by extension, reach our proposal. Lastly, the food component of the proposal may be sufficient to apply for help from the World Food Programme, which, even if they may not be able to supply cash, they could support the project with equipment or resources for expansion.
Phase 2
From years 3 to 5, the project may expand in terms of additional kitchens, an expanded Central Hub, or moving to different neighborhoods. Ideally, the project would expand to other areas along the Bogotá River.
Phase 3
From years 5 to 10, the project is expected to have achieved a sustainable business model. This means that the Central Hub and the kitchens are all operated and maintained by local residents. There could even be an option for ownership of these kitchens, and if not individual ownership, then the creation of an entity that holds the Paseando Ollas properties could be created, and those involved in the project could have shares of this entity.
Intended Outcomes In order to fully integrate Paseando Ollas with the neighborhood of Lisboa, the project must create a culture of dedicated work and responsibility. Since this project builds upon the culture of autoconstruction and, it has the potential to expand and be assimilated by many people. While this may sound good in terms of expansion, it could also prove problematic as more volume may oversaturate the neighborhood and instead create unhealthy competition. The goal of the proposal is not to create a microcosm but the project should at least achieve some degree of self sustainability. After 10 years, the project may be deemed unnecessary and discarded to make way for new proposals, or conversely, the kitchens may become permanent fixtures in the neighborhood, having become a part of the neighborhood’s identity.
Similarly, and related to the immigrants, most of the people coming into the neighborhood consist of women. Kitchen - Local offers these women employment for them to start adjusting and settling down into the area. While a job is not the main requirement for a stable life, a steady income will certainly help these women go through their basic needs so that they can focus their energy on other endeavours.
Finally, as the kitchens roll out and move to reach the populations in need of integration, the Central Hub balances the interaction between actors by inviting people from around the neighborhood to come to the Bogotá River and enjoy a combination of food, music, the natural environments, and neighbors. In doing so, we envision Paseando Ollas helping to solve the urban issues identified in this proposal.
Adaptability The deployment of the first 6 kitchens constitute the original pilot period of the proposal, taking up 24 months to complete. After this, and assuming the kitchens were successful, the project may start to expand. Expansion does not need to be within Lisboa or the immediate surrounding neighborhoods, though. The adaptability of the Central Hub as a scaffolding-type structure and the mobility of the kitchens make for a smooth transition from one corner of Bogotá to another. It would be ideal, nonetheless, to focus on neighborhoods along the Bogotá River, as the long term vision for the project would be to also see the entirety of the riverside activated as a safe, healthy, and enjoyable urban space for all Bogotá residents to use.
Li | Shi
While we identified many problematic elements of the built environment, as well as populations in need, we also saw how existing proposals, lead by the Colectivo Interpretaciones Urbanas, already have plans for action. Paseando Ollas, then, focuses on the problems that Rojas and we agree are the most important to tackle first. In terms of Venezuelan and Chocoano(a) immigrants, kitchen - Import helps them exhibit their skills and home cuisines. By doing so, they begin to integrate with the neighborhood as the people around them are exposed to their cultures.
Kitchen - It comes in response to the stories that Julian Bejarano shared with us. His initiatives to educated the residents of Lisboa to take after their pets could be enhanced by our proposal to provide better care for the pets.
The other large ethnic population in the area, the afrocolombians, are catered to with kitchen - Pint. Since there are already various bars in Lisboa, our kitchen is intended to help them reach out to locales that cannot be accessed by a traditional bar. This kitchen is also essential to ensure that the streets are active day and night, but in a safe manner. In order to address gangs and problematic youth related to drug consumption, our proposal aims to improve the education levels of the youth population to allow them to make better decisions on their own. This is achieved through kitchen - Apprentice.
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Paseando Ollas
Actors
70
Project Schedule MONTHS
0
3
6
12
24
60
120
Li | Shi
COMMUNITY MEETINGS COMMUNITY MEETINGS JARDIN VECINAL COMMITTEE COORDINATION AND MEETINGS DIVERSITY ROUTE PROGRAM CALL FOR INVOLVEMENT APPROVAL, FINANCING, MARKETING LEARNING ALLIANCE NEGOTIATIONS WITH ARB NEGOTIATIONS WITH MUNI. GOV RECYCLING MYTH TEAM BUILDING COORDINATOR COMMUNITY DESIGN CHARRETTES STATION CONSTRUCTION ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING CULTURAL PROGRAMS RIVER CLEAN UP KITCHEN CONSTRUCTION COMMUNITY WORKSHOP WORKSHOP TRAINING APPROACHING EXTERNAL ORGS. DEVELOPING PROPOSAL APPLYING GRANTS RIVER TOURS - PILOT PROGRAM PROGRAM MONITORING SECURE FINANCING TRIAL PERIOD - PHASE 1 ECO-MATERIAL PRODUCTION LOS COMELONES EVENT RESEARCH AND EVALUATION EVALUTAITON & MODIFICATION MAINTAINANCE BRIDGE & GARDEN CONSTRUCTION KITCHEN HUB CONSTRUCTION END OF PILOT PROGRAM PARADE EVENT DEVELOPE PROGRAMS MAINTAINANCE EXPANSION ELAVUATION & ADJUSTMENTS SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL 71
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El Comelรณn
El Comelón NEW RECYCLING NARRATIVES Andrea Chiney, Arianna Deane, Eric Pietraszkiewicz Statement of Purpose This project reimagines the way the collection, storage, and processing of recyclable materials by recicladores in Tibabuyes locality of Bogotá by creating a complementary recycling system that builds off existing knowledge, infrastructures (physical and social), and local proposals. This project seeks to offer opportunities for skill-building and material innovation and to provide spaces and protocols for more efficient processes to take place.
Background
After a two-day rapid assessment in Lisboa, research, and collaborative design, we have identified considerable room
for improvement in terms of the economic, social, and environmental sustainability for the recycling community. Currently a myriad of factors contribute to sub-optimal economic and environmental conditions at a local level as well as for similar communities within Bogotá. These factors include:
Chiney | Deane | Pietraszkiewicz
The planning problems addressed in this proposal were identified by community members, as stated in the field work, “Interpretaciones Urbanas,” conducted by Edlisa Rojas Sanchez and Wilson Cárdenes Cusba, as well as by academic teams from Los Andes University and Columbia GSAPP. The problems identified here have become chronic in nature and affect most residents, especially those engaged in activities of recycling and those living near recycling facilities and the Rió Bogotá.
Underutilize and unsafe public spaces along the Rió Bogotá There are multiple public spaces along the river—the “linear park” that occupies most of the 30 meter buffer adjacent to the river, as well as small “pocket parks” between the linear park and the neighborhoods—that are underutilized by members of the community for recreation. The linear park has been proposed by La CAR (Corporación Autónoma Regional de Cundinamarca) and occupies 30 meters on one or both sides of the river, which is the land La CAR has jurisdiction over. This is primary due to the fact that they have been deemed unsafe because of the presence of illicit activities, primarily drug use, or are neglected and littered with debris. The underutilization of these spaces further compounds these problems. Insufficient waste management, regarding public spaces along the Rió Bogotá Debris from current recycling processes, primarily sorting and storage of recyclable materials, regularly occupies public spaces along the river to the extent that many of these spaces can no longer be utilized for recreation.
Spillover from recycling processes in public spaces adjacent to the river in Lisboa.
Environmental degradation of the Rió Bogotá from recycling activities In addition to being heavily polluted from upstream industry and agriculture, the Río Bogotá is regularly contaminated by debris produced from the 73
sorting and storage of recycling material in Lisboa. This material has three primary sources: trash produced by recycling families and other residents of the area, undesirable recyclable materials that are not profitable enough when deposited, and recyclable materials that are desirable but overflow do to inadequate storage and sorting facilities. Trash fires are regularly started along the banks of the river, which contaminate the Río Bogotá with additional types of pollutants. Insecurity of employment for recicladores in Lisboa (and Bogotá) Currently, about 50 percent of recicladores in Bogotá are associated with ARB, Asociación Recicladores de Bogotá, and thus authorized to conduct recycling processes
and paid by municipal government. As pseudo-employees of the municipality, there has historically been friction between the municipal government and the recicladores of Bogotá. On multiple occasions the mayor has expressed his discontent over individual recyclers and desire to implement formal waste collection mechanisms (Comunicado Urgente de ARB, 2017: 1-5). Faced with such threats, the position of recicladores in Tibabuyes, and Bogotá more broadly, as authorized to generate their livelihood from recycling in the future is uncertain. Bolstering employment security for recicladores will contribute towards social and economic stability in Tibabuyes and similar communities throughout Bogotá.
Border Line Jarrillon / Dyke_20m CAR expansion line_30m Parque de la bota
El Comelón
Recycler’s Route Recycling storage and classi�ication facilities Open Air recycling storage “Parques de Bolsillo” Pocket Parks Potential Pocket Parks Il Nido del Gufo
Kid’s library and Daycare
Bogotá
Ri
o
Bo
go
tá
Berlin
Bilbao Villa Cindy
Co nd in am ar ca
Plaza
Lisboa
Sta. Cecilia
Humedal Tubabuyes
Current recycling processes in Los Gavilanes (Source: “Interpretaciones Urbanas” by Edilsa Rojas). 74
Existing Assets Recycling knowledge and infrastructure Los Gavilanes is home to one of the largest concentration of recicladores in all of Bogotá. Many recyclers within this area have been processing materials for decades and a complex network of recycling infrastructure has developed. Currently the recycling system in Los Gavilanes is decentralized; sorting and storage of materials occurs at a myriad of locations throughout the locality, as well as in domestic spaces. That being said, an informal specialization of the recycling process has occurred in which individuals living in Santa Cecilia, Villa Cindy, and Lisboa sort, store, and market recyclable materials, respectively. This history means that residents of Tibabuyes have a deep knowledge of how the recycling industry works, and how recycling should be handled and processed and that the physical and human infrastructure required for recycling processing is largely already in play.
Autoconstrucción As the case with many low income communities in Colombia, the residents of Tibabuyes have, by and large, had to construct the domestic, commercial, and leisure spaces in the community. Autoconstrucción, or self-construction, as an established practice in the area has resulted the proliferation of fabrication, construction, and managerial expertise for many community members. These skillsets have contributed to a self-determined and abled population in Tibabuyes. Robust recycling organizations Given the large presence of recicladores in Bogotá, a robust set of recycling organizations has been established in order to organize and collectively represent the needs of this population. The Asociación de Recicladores Bogotá (ARB) is a union like organization that serves to safeguard the economic and political best interest of recyclers at a municipal level. Likewise, more localized organizations like the Asociación de Recuperadores Ambientales de Suba (ARAS) organizes and represents recyclers from the Suba district of Bogotá. These recycling organizations provide an organized body for our
Local proposals Several planning proposals for the Tibabuyes area have been created in the recent past. These proposals are grounded in extensive research and present a wealth of knowledge about the conditions of the spaces and communities of the locality. The studies identified in this proposal are as follows: the Proyecto Urbano Propuesta Integral de Territorio Suba-Tibabuyes conducted by Psic. Edilsa Rojas Sanchez and Wilson Cárdenas Cusba, and Propuesta Socio-Espacial conducted by Psic. Edilsa Rojas Sanchez. The latter study provides the results of a considerable amount of field work on recicladores in Tibabuyes and proposes many ideas that resonate with this proposal. These include: • The classification of storage facilities in Tibabuyes • Coordination between these storage facilities • The establishment of more “transformative industries” in which recyclable materials are used to produced highvalue finished materials and products. • Increased membership in recycling “unions” like ARB
Planning Framework This initiative followed Caroline Moser’s Pro-poor Asset Based methodology framework. This methodology is rooted in the bolstering of the existing assets of a poor and/ or vulnerable population and follows a relatively simple, but power logic (Moser 2011) (Moser and Stein 2011). Vulnerabilities faced by many living in Lisboa include economic insecurity, degraded environmental conditions, and poverty. These vulnerabilities are exacerbated by environmental disasters, made worse by climate change. In the case of Lisboa, the flooding of the Río Bogotá has historically posed significant problems for the community. Recently a dyke (jarillón) along both sides of the Río Bogotá has dramatically reduced the number flood incidents that occur in Lisboa, especially in areas directly adjacent to the river. Put into practice, the Pro-poor Asset Based methodology is characterized by the assessment of the existing assets of the population in question and the uses of these as the foundation for a planning proposal. The principal outcome of this proposal then serves strengthens the original assets. This methodology creates a cycle that fortifies marginalized community groups through means that appropriate and effective for the context. For this reason, this proposal is rooted in the Pro-poor Asset Based methodology.
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Chiney | Deane | Pietraszkiewicz
Youths Much of the recycling industry in Lisboa is structured around the family unit. It is not uncommon for most members of the family to contribute to the various recycling processes. In Suba (the district in which Tibabuyes is located), approximately 1 in 5 recyclers is under the age of 10 and 2 in 5 are younger than 20. Given these figures, you recyclers present a entrepreneurial and enthusiastic, who are willing to learn new techniques and adapt their recycling methodology to be more time and cost efficient and environmentally friendly.
proposal to integrate with and a means of interfacing with large amounts of recicladores in Bogotá.
El Comelón
Project Proposal This proposal is comprised of four parts: a recycling myth, los comelones, the material workshop, and the parade. Each component addresses a specific subset of the identified planning projects and together the parts form a comprehensive and robust proposal to improve the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of the Tibabuyes recycling community. The components of this initiative is intended to produce a pilot project that is localized to the Lisboa neighborhood of Tibabuyes.
more material (approximately 500 cubic feet) than a zorro, a donkey-drawn or motorized wooden cart, typically used by recicladores in Tibabuyes. Increased carrying capacity allows a comelon to cover significantly more (800 percent) territory than traditional collection. Each comelón is designed to collect one of several recyclable types—plastic, glass, paper/ cardboard or metal—and is to be constructed primarily out of the material which it collects. This allows users to know which recyclable type to deposit within any given comelon.
Recycling Myth
Currently, the collection of recycling is conduction, in many case by family units. In order to maintain this social and structural strategy intact, one or several families will be encouraged to own and operate a comelon.
The recycling myth is conceived of as a pedagogical tool that seeks to instill a sense of responsibility towards recycling at the levels of the individual, household, and community. The myth builds on the tradition of regional folklore, both pre and post Colombian, which has a long history of creationary tales of legendary creatures. It uses the trope of the creation myth to locate the imagined ancestral home of the comelones and the workshop within Tibabuyes in order to instill a sense of ownership and commitment towards these components of the project. A character with unique physical characteristics and temperaments is created in order to facilitate a personal relationship between community members, especially children, and these anthropomorphized entities. The myth also teaches individuals how to recycle material within their home before discarding it. Recycling Myth - Implementation The narrative of the myth shall be refined with key community members who have an understanding of children’s literature and Colombian cultural practices. Once the myth has been finalized it will be distributed to local libraries, including Il Nido, local kindergartens, and elementary schools within Tibabuyes with the intention of primarily targeting children. In addition, a local campaign to bring the myth into popular knowledge for non-children will be launched. This campaign will follow the model of a public service announcement and use digital and printed media as well as banners or other publicly visible media. The campaign should participation from members of the Alcaldía de Suba if possible. Los Comelones The primary subjects of the myth, the comelones are devices used to collect recyclable materials. They are constructed to expand as they fill and are designed to carry up to ten times 76
Los Comelones - Implementation Comelones will be produced within the workshop that they will eventually service by the recicladores that will operate them as well as community members with fabrication and/ or construction knowledge. Comelones will be built around a standardized base consisting of a small motorized vehicle and are meant to be customized to the liking of the owner(s). It is critical that the construction of the comelon occurs in this manner so that recicladores can build a sense of ownership and affection towards their unique comelon. Material Workshop The material workshop is conceived of as a space for material innovation that emphasizes education and skill acquisition. It will provide opportunities for recicladores to use the materials they collect in order to produce goods that have increased value and are desirable within the context of Tibabuyes and Bogotá. The material workshop will concentrate on the production of new materials for housing construction and finishing as well as material for the retrofitting and beautification of existing public spaces within the community. The workshop is situated adjacent to existing public The workshop is situated adjacent to existing public spaces - one of the pocket parks and the linear park. The workshop will served to reinvigorate these spaces by creating community facilities for a wide range of people. Programs offered/ hosted by the workshop outside of the production of material by the workshop cooperative include: •
Educational workshops for kids - engagement with workshop
Chiney | Deane | Pietraszkiewicz
Material Workshop
•
Practice grounds for local dance and performance groups. This will facilitate the participation of these groups in city-wide events like carnival.
•
Spaces for play, recreation, and relaxation
•
A portion of the workshop has been designed to be flexible enough to allow for user determination in terms of activities that take place.
Material Workshop - Implementation Ownership model - Ownership of the workshop will be based on a cooperative model in which members own and operate the business. Because the current system of recycling is deeply rooted in familial networks where nuclear families collect, sort, store, and deposit recyclable materials as a unit,
families will be encouraged to form workshop cooperatives. Non-traditional families will be encouraged to join. In addition, members of the community who wish to join the cooperative as an individual instead of a nuclear family will not be discouraged from doing so. This includes Internally Displaced Peoples and other single youths. Facility Operation The workshop will contain machinery for the storage and processing of a given recyclable material into a finished, marketable product. In the case of the pilot workshop, given the constraints of lot area size and machinery capacity the machinery is limited to handling materials produced from plastic recyclables. Material specialization will help the workshops produce better products and function more 77
efficiently. Once the system matures, localities will host multiple workshops dedicated to a different type of recyclable material.
The workshop is designed to accommodate recyclable materials from both the comelones as well as recyclers who collect materials using other means (most notably the collection method). Individuals tend The workshop will process material in multipletraditional stageszoro each manned by one orwho multiple The workshop will process material in multiple stages each to store materials within their domestic space will be able to individuals. Theor stations and theThe minimum number of operators required per station for the pilot manned by one multiple individuals. stations and the sell their materials to any workshop at a rate comparable to minimum anumber of operators required per station for the workshop re listed below. ARB warehouse compensation or better. These individuals pilot workshop are listed below: can also turn in recyclables and receive processed materials
STATION
FUNCTION
CAPACITY
OPERATORS REQUIRED
RECEIVING STATION
EMPTIES COMELON BAGS
1500 ft^3
2
QUALITY CONTROL
SORTS COLOR AND NON-RECYCLABLE MATERIALS
3mph - 1 comelon/hr
8
STORAGE + FACILITIES
El Comelón
SHREDDERS WASHERS PALETTE DISPENSER OVEN + EXTRUDER
BATHROOMS, LOCKERS AND STORAGE SHREDS PLASTIC WASH + SORT BY DENSITY STORES AND DISPENSES PALETTES BY TYPE + COLOR
0 212 SQF 3 x 66sqft, 160lbs /hr of plastic 645 ft3 , 3 Types Plastic (#1,#2,#4) 585 ft3 , 3 t
150 ft3 x OVEN 120 std BRICKS x OVEN HOUSES 3 OVENS + 1 EXTRUDER
3 1 2 6
STAGE STORAGE
HOUSES POWER TOOLS AND WORK STATIONS
810sqft (Work Area) 1400sqft (Stepped Area)
VERTICAL CIRCULATION + STRUCTURAL SUPPORT
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SUBTOTAL
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TOTAL (2 SHIFTS)
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25
TheThe workshop will follow the Toyota Production System (TPS) in which individuals as a team to (eg. shredded plastic in the case of the pilot workshop). workshop will follow the Toyota Production System No workshop shall prevent individuals operation who do not own or produce the final product and must know perform every production (Time, (TPS) in which individuals as a team to produce the final how to operate a comelon from depositing materials. product and must know how to perform production 1983). This is accomplished by every rotating positions every two days. Close ties between team operation (Time, 1983). This is accomplished by rotating Education is a core component of the members and between the team and team manager are crucial toprogrammatic the TPS system. positions every two days. Close ties between team members workshop. Mandatory worker training will introduce and between the team and team manager are crucial to the individuals interesting in working in the space to the AgeTPS restrictions following the Colombian Resolution 4448 and Code of Childhood and system. equipment and processes. The workshop will also provide Adolescence will be enforced in the workshop in order to prevent underage youths from working additional educational resources for those who wish to Age restrictions following the Colombian Resolution 4448 explore material innovation and production efficiency within the fofacility. and Code Childhood and Adolescence will be enforced through a series of workshops and open studio time. Material in the workshop in order to prevent underage youths from innovation and environmental awareness classes will also be within the facility. Theworking workshop is designed to accommodate recyclable materials from both the comelones as 78 as recyclers who collect materials using other means (most notably the traditional zoro well collection method). Individuals who tend to store materials within their domestic space will be
offered periodically. “Co-operatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their co-operatives. They inform the general public - particularly young people and opinion leaders - about the nature and benefits of co-operation.” (International Cooperative Alliance 2017).
Parade
As a pilot project, the elements of this proposal are designed to be easily scalable to other areas in Tibabuyes and eventually to the entire city of Bogotá. Each workshop and associated comelones will service a given area and operate semi-independently. In this way, the number of workshops can vary with little disruption to the operation of any given workshop. As the project scales and new workshops and comelones are brought online, the system as a whole will become more robust, offering extended and more specialized services and methods of production. It is suggested that secondary sites for new workshops be located in areas of Bogotá with high concentrations of recyclers; these localities include Ciudad Bolivar and Kennedy in the south and west parts of the city, respectively.
An important social component of project is to destigmatize the current status of recicladores in Bogotá. The comelón parade serves as a means of celebrating the tradition of material recycling in the city and the people who engage in this system so vital to municipal waste management. The parade will also provide an opportunity for comelon owners to share ideas, collaborate, and to enjoy their creations. It also provides a space for residents of Bogotá to interface with recicladores and comelones, thus facilitating cultural awareness and understanding from Bogotános that are unaware of recycling practices. In addition, the comelón parade provides an opportunity for workshop members to sell and distribute the products that they have made. Using the activity and cultural weight of the parade as an event, workshop members can gain exposure for new materials, which can facilitate the creation of market demand for these products. Integration into existing systems Currently many recyclers in Tibabuyes and elsewhere in Bogotá store materials within their domestic space. The workshop will provide an alternative to these individuals 79
Chiney | Deane | Pietraszkiewicz
Management model - Cooperatives are democratic in nature; members actively participate in the management of the organization and reach conclusions regarding operation through voting. Each member has equal voting rights. As a cooperative, the workshop will abide by these management regulations. In addition, a committee will be created to provide managerial and decision making support to the pilot workshop. This committee will be composed of a representatives from ARB, the educational branch of municipal government, and the Alcaldia de Suba. These individuals will be able to provide resources from key sectors of government and serve as a channel through which the cooperative can communicate collectively with ARB and the municipal government.
or families by offering to purchase their loads. This allows recyclers to maintain ownership of their material from collection to deposition and compensation as they have done in the old system. The current recycling structure is based largely on familial units. In keeping with the mode of organization, the workshop will be comprise of a group of family units, as well as non familial members (see ownership model section).
Intended Outcomes Higher rates of childhood education Currently, recycling in Tibabuyes is by and large conducted as family operation in which children as young as 6-7 years of age participate daily in the collection, sorting, or storage of material. For these children, contributing to family recycling efforts has forced them to forgo days at school or for some children/ youths not attend entirely. This proposal seeks to reverse this process by increasing the efficiency of the recycling process, especially that of collection processes, thus allowing children who are no longer necessary to production to attend school. In addition, age restrictions for employment at the workshop will keep prevent parents from employing their children.
Improved Economic Security UPGRADING PUBLIC SPACES
MATERIAL INNOVATION
El Comelรณn
EDUCATION AND SKILL-BUILDING LOS COMELONES
RECYCLING MYTH
COMMUNITY WORKSOP
SORTED RECYCLING ARB WAREHOUSE
JOB SECURITY
INDUSTRIAL MATERIALS MANUFACTURING
PRIVATE WAREHOUSE LOCAL MATERIALS MANUFACTURING DESIRABLE RECYCLING RESIDENCES OF BOGOTA
WASTE
SORTING FACILITY RIO BOGOTA
UNDESIRABLE RECYCLING PUBLIC SPACE IN LISBOA
System Diagrams - Current and Proposed
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LANDFILL
Public Space Together, the Comelon collection system and the material workshop provide a coordinated and centralized system for processing recyclable materials. Current uncoordinated and less organized recycling processes that occur adjacent to or within public spaces along the Río Bogotá in Tibabuyes will be 1) encouraged and 2) incentivized by opportunity for increased income to utilize the facilities provided through this proposal. Because the workshop is situated next to two park spaces along the river, it seeks to beautify and invigorate these spaces through increased pedestrian flow and economic activity, new hardscape materials, and the creation of public programing. Domestic Space Chiney | Deane | Pietraszkiewicz
In addition, this method will improve the condition of the domestic storage or recyclable materials currently being practiced by many recycling families in Tibabuyes through accommodating this extra material within the workshop. Freeing families from storing and sorting recyclables within their domestic space will allow them to enjoy a safer and more hospitable environment and to increase their capacity to process material. Coordination between recycling facilities in Tibabuyes The workshops are conceived of as nodes in this proposed recycling system. As such, they will serve to centralize the collection, processing, and distribution of recyclable materials within Tibabuyes and, in the future, other communities that host them. This will strengthen the network of the individual recicladores in Tibabuyes by providing an efficient space for processing as well as an outlet for communication, sharing, and innovation. A cleaner Rió Bogotá Unwanted and spillover material from the current system of recycling in Tibabuyes pollutes the Río Bogotá. By creating a formalized and efficient space for sorting, storage, and fabrication, less material will end up outside of that system as litter and currently undesirable recyclables will be used for the production of eco-material, thus giving them value.
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El Comelรณn
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Project Schedule MONTHS
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3
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24
60
120
Chiney | Deane | Pietraszkiewicz
COMMUNITY MEETINGS COMMUNITY MEETINGS JARDIN VECINAL COMMITTEE COORDINATION AND MEETINGS DIVERSITY ROUTE PROGRAM CALL FOR INVOLVEMENT APPROVAL, FINANCING, MARKETING LEARNING ALLIANCE NEGOTIATIONS WITH ARB NEGOTIATIONS WITH MUNI. GOV RECYCLING MYTH TEAM BUILDING COORDINATOR COMMUNITY DESIGN CHARRETTES STATION CONSTRUCTION ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING CULTURAL PROGRAMS RIVER CLEAN UP KITCHEN CONSTRUCTION COMMUNITY WORKSHOP WORKSHOP TRAINING APPROACHING EXTERNAL ORGS. DEVELOPING PROPOSAL APPLYING GRANTS RIVER TOURS - PILOT PROGRAM PROGRAM MONITORING SECURE FINANCING TRIAL PERIOD - PHASE 1 ECO-MATERIAL PRODUCTION LOS COMELONES EVENT RESEARCH AND EVALUATION EVALUTAITON & MODIFICATION MAINTAINANCE BRIDGE & GARDEN CONSTRUCTION KITCHEN HUB CONSTRUCTION END OF PILOT PROGRAM PARADE EVENT DEVELOPE PROGRAMS MAINTAINANCE EXPANSION ELAVUATION & ADJUSTMENTS SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL 83
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Bridge the River
Bridge the River NEW COMMUNITY, NEW LANDSCAPE, NEW CONNECTION Tatiana Kopelman Martin, Wesley Rhodes, Saadia Shahid Saleem Lone, Mengying Tang Statement of Purpose
Background This proposal is in response to planning problems identified during field research by academic teams from Columbia GSAPP in conjunction with Los Andes University. The research is a combination of interviews, observations, interaction through toys, and archival research. Especially helpful was the work of Edilsa Rojas Sanchez and Wilson Cárdenes Cusba, in their field work , “Interpretaciones Urbanas.” One of the primary tools used for research within Lisboa during the site visit by the Columbia GSAPP academic team was the use of toys. The primary toy used by the team members responsible for this proposal was called “Foto Fantastico”. The toy collected information in two main ways. The first was through a photo that was taken of the participants with a desired imaginary landscape that they had composed. This gave the researchers information about who the participant was and what types of objects they might desire for a future imagined landscape along the river. Secondly, while the photos (polaroids) were developing it gave the researchers an opportunity to engage the participants in a deeper more meaningful conversation about their desired landscape, their impressions of the Río Bogotá, and the challenges they face in their everyday lives. While the use of the toy was an innovative and useful way to engage with the local residents of Lisboa, it is the opinion of most of the researchers involved that more time should
have been devoted to other types of research. Ultimately, interviews, rapid ethnographic methodologies, transect walks, and other forms of research yielded more meaningful information given the time constraints of the site visit. Despite these limitations the researchers were able to identify a number of planning challenges faced by local residents which includes: Underutilized and unsafe public spaces along the Río Bogotá - There are multiple public spaces along the river—the “linear park” that occupies most of the 30 meter buffer adjacent to the river, as well as small “pocket parks” between the linear park and the neighborhoods—that are underutilized by members of the community for recreation. This is primarily due to the fact that they have been deemed unsafe because of the presence of illicit activities or are neglected and littered with debris. The underutilization of these spaces further compounds these problems. Environmental degradation of the Río Bogotá - In addition to being heavily polluted from upstream industry and agriculture, the Río Bogotá receives an unacceptable level of untreated wastewater from the inadequate wastewater treatment facility located directly downstream from the community of Lisboa Inadequate accessibility to economic opportunities across the Río Bogotá - Many residents rely on employment 85
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This project reimagines the way residents interact with the Río Bogotá and their natural environment by focusing on an intervention that decreases both physical and mental barriers between urban and rural. This is accomplished through the construction of a physical bridge to improve the articulation of residents on both sides of the river as well as the creation of ancillary garden zones irrigated with filtered water from the river with a variety of programmatic elements that encourage interaction among citizens, with each other, and with nature. This project seeks to offer opportunities for skillbuilding, connecting with people and nature, decreased food insecurity, increased economic prosperity, and creating a more resilient Lisboa.
Bridge the River
opportunities, largely on farms (such as rose farms), yet a direct route across the river is not accessible to these workers. This places an excessive transportation burden on these workers and creates artificial and unnecessary physical and psychological barriers between the urban (Suba) and rural (Cundinamarca) areas on either side of the river.
improving conditions with limited reliance on outside or government action. Moser demonstrates through case studies that informal communities are capable of capitalizing upon existing assets within the community to achieve resilience and enhance these assets without reliance on government action (Moser and Stein, 2011). An asset is identified as a:
Food accessibility and security - Lisboa is comprised of predominantly low-income populations, with certain residents especially vulnerable to food insecurity such as singlemothers, Afro-Colombians (Afros), elderly, and children. This insecurity is a combination of a food supply chain that requires residents to purchase food from other parts of the city to bring back to the community for consumption or resale, as well as a lack of disposable income to easily provide quality nutrition.
“…stock of financial, human, natural or social resources that can be acquired, developed, improved and transferred across generations. It generates flows or consumption, as well as additional stock” (Moser and Stein, 2011 p. 465).
Opportunities (Assets) In addition to the challenges present, the area is also rich in existing assets that help to make it such a vibrant and promising community. The process of developing an intervention to help address the mobility and food challenges involved understanding and utilizing these existing assets as tools to help implement an on-site intervention that could, in turn, help to strengthen these same existing assets resulting in a more resilient Lisboa. This approach is based on Caroline Moser’s Pro-Poor Asset Based methodology framework (Moser, 2011). This methodology recognizes the necessity for, particularly marginalized or informal, communities to find methods of 86
Using this approach we identified the following community assets as particularly helpful to the implementation and success of the intervention: Knowledge of Agriculture held by agricultural workers can be utilized to help construct, use, and maintain the garden elements of the intervention Large Industrial Farms The proposal aims to achieve increased cooperation between agricultural workers and large industrial farm employers. We envision these farms as aiding in the construction of the intervention by donating the use of equipment that can be used during construction. Women’s Association The women’s association is a very important asset of the community. Many women in Lisboa are responsible for domestic duties within their households, which includes the procurement (whether purchased or cultivated) and preparation of food for the family. Lack of food provision and access to food sources is especially
challenging for vulnerable populations, such as single-mothers or those women with low household incomes. Despite these challenges, we hope to utilize the unique role that women play in accessing and securing food and nutritional sustenance and use this knowledge and skillset in the construction, use, and maintenance of the food garden aspects of the intervention. Youth Association The presence of a strong youth program provides a framework that allows for a wide variety of collaboration and programmatic activities between universities and youth in relation to the vaRĂous gardens and zones of the bridge. The intervention also provides much needed safe open space and productive and healthy activities for youth to engage with. This could potentially lead to decreased illicit activity among youth such as violence and drug use.
Afro-Colombians Los Gavilanes is home to AfroColombians, many or whom are conflict related internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the coastal areas of Colombia. These Afro-Colombians have a unique relationship to food in the community because many of them send food to family members that still reside in these coastal areas. Given this specific demographics unique relationship to food and family they may be especially eager to participate in the cultivation of food as part of the intervention.
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Recyclers The presence of recyclers in Los Gavilanes is also a very important asset. Examples exist of informal communities recycling trash and turning it into materials for garden spaces and food production. The presence of an extensive recycling network within the community can provide the intervention with materials and innovative methodologies for the recycling of materials in the use of the construction of the bridge and gardens.
Planning Framework
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After examining the available data collected and observed it became apparent that issues of mobility, rural-urban linkages, and food security were major challenges present in Los Gavilanes. The lens through which we viewed and linked these challenges was through that of resilience. These issues are fundamentally challenges that threaten the resilience of, especially vulnerable populations, that tend to be located in informal areas of cities. The Rockefeller Foundation’s, 100 Resilient Cities defines urban resilience as “the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience” (100 Resilient Cities), where chronic stresses include issues of mobility, job access, and food security. Furthermore, the long supply chains that provide cities with food are easily severed by natural disasters that, thanks to climate change, are becoming more frequent (ICLEI, 2011). Additionally, these challenges make the area more vulnerable to the ever increasing impacts of climate change as such chronic stresses weaken an area’s ability to bounce back from acute shocks, such as flooding or environmental contamination which occurs along the river. Thus, this intervention relies primarily on three different methodologies as a way to interpret all of the available data and to ultimately identify potential solutions which results in our specific intervention proposal. Caroline Moser Pro Poor Asset Based Methodology Framework (Moser and Stein, 2011) (Moser, 2011). Moser proposes a detailed methodology as well as implementation case studies that show that interventions that are co-created, participatory, and based on enhancing existing assets within communities can lead to more resilient conditions for residents of informal settlements. We have used Moser’s framework to identify existing community assets and design an intervention proposal that utilizes and enhances these assets. Moser outlines numerous techniques for implementation which outline principles for a participatory and co-created process. These are largely adopted from the work of Chambers, and include, among others: “handing over the stick”, which means learning from local people and that researchers facilitate but local people do it, sharing and ownership of knowledge exists between all organizations and participants, using primarily visual 88
rather than written tools, and a shift from simply extracting information to empowering participants (Moser and Stein, 2011, p. 465). Our approach and recommendation for implementation attempt to utilize these principles. Michael Cohen Outputs vs. Outcomes (Cohen, 2016). In order to assess the efficacy of the intervention and as a mechanism for further monitoring and evaluation of the project Michael Cohen’s outputs and outcomes methodology is used. Cohen argues that the success of projects should not be measured based upon whether they successfully implement the proposed intervention (output), but rather based upon whether or not the ultimate goals of the intervention are achieved (outcomes). For example, if the proposed intervention is to build a school to enhance the education opportunities and increase employment of a community, the school would be the output, whereas, increased education and employment would be the desired outcomes. In this scenaRío the success of a project would not be measured by the output, that is the successful building and implementation of the school, but rather based upon the outcomes, that is, whether or not educational attainment and employment were increased. In this way we have outlined our intervention to clearly state what the outputs are and what the desired outcomes should be. The monitoring and evaluation of the project should therefore focus on these outcomes. Gender and Climate Change (Reckien et al., 2017). Finally, because our work is at the intersection of climate resilience and food security which has a highly domestic component affecting women in Los Gavilanes we wanted to explore planning frameworks that connect gender with climate change. Reckien’s article clearly articulates womens increased vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, particularly in middle and low income countries. “Contextual equity concerns in cities regarding gender mainly relate to strongly diverging roles of women and men in different cultures. Women from LIC [Low Income Countries] and MIC [Middle Income Countries] living in poverty are typically more vulnerable to climate change impacts than men because of the discrimination they face with respect to wealth and capital goods; health; access to technologies, education, services and information; and opportunities to generate financial and productive assets” (Reckien et al., 2017).
Project Proposal The proposal is a three-part intervention consisting of a movable bridge connecting Lisboa with Cundinamarca, stationary water tanks located on the natural mound levy’s which exist on either side of the river, and programmatic initiatives which include food gardens. The bridge is a mechanism which takes advantage of the water source to generate new relationships with the river and connect the urban (Suba) and rural (Cundinamarca) sides of the river enhancing urban-rural linkages. How:
The Micro-Environments Include: •
Sound garden: Water pipes which create sound by dripping though different heights and speeds.
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The Flower Garden: Flowers cultivated from the filtered water engaging the sense of smell of the users of the bridge.
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Touch pool: A shallow fish pond supporting river life.
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Taste Garden: Growing hydroponic vegetables which can be eaten from the filtered water.
The bridge has a mechanism of curtains on rails. These curtains allow for the transformation of the space into a more compact social space for programmatic elements such as gardening classes or other education or social initiatives. The water from the filtration cloud irrigates the landscape on either side of the river along the mound levy’s as it maneuvers along the river. This allows the people of Lisboa and those who come to the river to experience the physical changes in the landscape by reusing and cleaning the water from the “dirty” river. The second aspect of the project is the semination of
The mechanism of this semination works as follows: Water tanks will be placed along the river bank to collect rainwater which will then be dispersed to communal, as well as personal, gardens. The personal cultivating gardens are located between the water tanks along the river bank and communal gardens are located at each water tank. In these micro gardens, the community members can learn to grow new vegetables, fruits and flowers which might not be possible without these institutional collaborations and presence of a controlled environment. These grown products can be of personal consumption, as well as commercial value. The water filtered and stored in the cloud can add to the cultivable gardens when required, for example, in dry spells when the rain water may be insufficient . Through these multiple activities and experiences along the edge of the river, a new relationship with the Río Bogotá can be imagined . It also highlights the potential value of the river as a resource for the community. This intervention is a replicable scheme which can serve as a prototype for replication along other parts of the river. The river becomes not only a crossing point for the people, it can become a stopping point for those who come to see and experience the moving artifact and the changes it helps create and maintain. Programmatic Approach Jardin Vecinal Committee The proposal considers the creation of a neighborhood group made up of residents of the mother’s association, the local youth group, the recyclers, as well as other organized residents name “jardin vecinal”. This group will oversee the decision-making process regarding the bridge as well as the accompanying spaces. Despite not receiving a direct monetary benefit, members of this group will be empowered through the cultivation of food sources, enabling them to shift the 89
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The design process includes condensing the collection of water into a filtration cloud which then dispenses water to create micro experiences aboard the bridge.These experiences are small mechanisms to associate positive effects through the use of the filtered water. Additionally, the bridge provides a plethora of programmatic flexibility. It can be converted into a classroom to educate about keeping the river clean and how that in turn produces a better environment.
cultivable landscapes around the river. The goal of this intervention is two-fold, first, it will allow the people of Lisboa the opportunity to produce their own edibles, enhancing food security. Second, it will allow a more communal interaction among the diverse groups found on both sides of the river.
destiny of their disposable income. Furthermore, the project seeks to empower through the possibility of appropriating space for the use most needed. Learning Alliances
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The project includes the creation of a learning alliance with “Granitos de Paz”. Learning alliances are used to generate knowledge and foster innovation, generate and develop specific outcomes. Additionally, it helps identify future targeted areas for collaboration as well as a inform policy decisions (Lundy, Gottret and Ashby, 2005). Granitos de Paz works with families to help maximize the use of home gardens by providing food security and income generation, while decreasing malnourishment, improving the environment and commercializing organic products. To date they have converted over 11,200 square meters from garbage sites into productive orchards, using 40 tons of plastic to provide infrastructure for the Orchard. They have helped over 3,600 people, providing 120% increases in family incomes through the commercialization of the self grown products (Granitos de Paz Program). Public Private Partnerships To better address operation and management processes, the proposal includes a public private partnership with one of the local universities invested in sustainable food production, ecological agriculture, or similar. The project believes the selected department will use the communal spaces for practical aspects within the curriculum. Additionally, students and faculty will work with the residents who chose to use the individual spaces to grow a variety of products, particularly crops that are not common to the area, yet would be viable due to the natural conditions. Furthermore, the proposal considers the need to create recreational spaces beneath the water tanks. These spaces will be programmed to accommodate a variety of users, from young children to the elderly. To ensure the spaces do not fall to despair, the proposed PPP will oversee the maintenance of these spaces, ensuring overall integrity of the site. Implementation • Formation of Jardin Vecinal Committee • Creation of Learning Alliance with Granitos de Paz 90
• Community Design Charrettes • Securing Finance • Communal Construction of Bridge and Gardens • Ongoing Programmatic Activities • Ongoing Maintenance • Ongoing Collaborations with Universities • Built-in Review of Programs and Adjustments To carry out the proposed project, a large variety of stakeholder will be required to work together. For this, the implementation of this project is envisioned in nine phases: Formation of Jardin Vecinal Committee As mentioned above, the decision making process will be done through the committee of jardin vecinal. This will group members of the mothers association, youth group as well as the recyclers. Creation of Learning Alliance with Granitos de Paz Bringing together the members of the Jardin Vecina Committee along with the participating universities, a learning alliance will be established. Community Design Charettes These community design charettes will bring together all involved stakeholders. This includes members of the jardin vecinal committee, local authorities of Suba, CAR, Universities, the Bogotá government. The objective is to collaboratively work to develop and define the final design of the intervention Securing Finance To cover construction and implementation costs, CAR, the local Bogotá government, Cundinamarca government, the Jardin Vecinal Committee will need to work together with the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce to gather sufficient funding to kickstart this project. Communal Construction of Bridge and Gardens This proposal includes capitalizing on the technical skills found amongst different members of Lisboa. From
construction knowledge to farming experience, this proposal will benefit from the existing social capital. Furthermore, it will aim to partner with Industrial Farms in Cundinamarca. Ongoing Programmatic Activities As explained above, a public private partnership will be formed between the Jardin Vecinal Committee and the local universities. This partnership will administer programmatic activities, including collaborating with specific groups who would like to use the space for events and activities.
Ongoing Collaborations with Universities Collaborations between universities and the jardin vecinal committee will bring in these stakeholders, and can be subject to updates or any necessary changes. Built-in Review of Programs and Adjustments. The jardin vecinal committee will work with Lisboa authorities and CAR to meet future needs.
Ongoing Maintenance
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Maintenance will be a responsibility of the local university who will work with Bogotรก/ Suba local authorities, CAR and Cundinamarca in terms of financing and other future capital needs.
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Intended Outcomes Connectivity
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Through the project we are aiming to address the residents connectivity needs. By observing their travel dynamics and further informed by conversations held with residents, we identified a lack of easy access to jobs and social urban amenities such as the future arena, the adjacent shopping center and the post office . Many of the resident’s current job opportunities are crossing municipal lines, in Cundinamarca. This includes a need to transfer public transportation systems, which entails longer commutes and increased family expenditures to cover these journeys. Furthermore, residents of Lisboa expressed discontent with the limited availability of public spaces, and areas of recreation located within the community. The people of Lisboa, mentioned not being interested in visiting/ meandering in Lisboa and often visit la Gaitana. The bridge will breach these gaps by connecting at convenient crossing points, providing the much needed connections to assets located beyond the neighborhood.. Recreational Spaces As mentioned above the need for recreational space is a primary concern among vaRíous sectors of the population, ranging from concerned mother’s to young adults. Particularly, mothers of young children suggested the desire for safe, friendly, well-lit space where their small children could play. Responding to this, the proposal envisions new opportunities for recreation found in the communal gardens beneath the water tanks. Coupled with providing additional recreational spaces through the placement of swings, slides, and other furnishings, the proposal seeks to attract Lisboa’s teenagers and young adults by providing an alternative activity to loitering, substance use or vandalism.
families the opportunity to grow their own food, expenditure on subsistence decreases and families can shift their monetary resources to other areas such as education, housing, health etc. “Households that engage in [urban] farming may have access to comparatively cheaper food and to a wider variety of particularly nutritious foods”( Koscica, 2013, PG:.4). This availability of nutritious fresh foods can also provide in a long term substantial health benefits, which ultimately benefit family income, decreasing expenditures related to illness, malnourishment, etc. Tied to this, the project aims to increase Lisboa’s resilience to shifts in the economy as well as natural disasters due to climate change. Previous experiences around the world have shown compromised food sources after natural disasters hit national productive areas. To avoid this, the residents of Lisboa will be able to “strengthen their community based adaptive management by diversifying urban food sources” (van Veenhuizen, Dubbeling & de Zeeuw 2011, PG: 4). Moreover, the creation of this elaborate bridge with its accompanying structures can serve as to serve agro-tourism, which includes tourists participating in farming or local activities such as crop care, animal raising, cleaning. This provides alternatives forms of income (van Veenhuizen, Dubbeling & de Zeeuw 2011, PG: 8). This project envisions money be placed in a revolving fund for operation and maintenance of the communal gardens.Coupled with this, in times of economic downturn, the residents of Lisboa will have opportunities for alternative income (van Veenhuizen, Dubbeling & de Zeeuw 2011, PG: 2), as well as cover their basic needs through urban agriculture. The envisioned outcomes regarding economic diversity are as follows:
The envisioned outcomes regarding public space are as follows:
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Cover food needs with little expenditure
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Provide additional safe recreational spaces for young children and mothers.
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Increase disposable income and diversify its expenditure
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Provide alternative activities to youth of Lisboa.
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Increase health through self-grown natural food.
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“Free” existing playgrounds from vandals, reinstating previous primary users such as small children.
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Diversify income
Economic diversity This proposal provides both community, and individual opportunities to cultivate crops. By granting women and 92
Accessibility Through the use of the public private partnership between the university and Lisboa, the proposal addresses the lack of relationship between the region and the city identified in the 2016 POT diagnosis. This exchange will create interaction
between formal and informal aspects/ institutions of the city. It will also help increase civic engagement as it will help increase awareness and appreciation towards formal mechanisms and institutions. Furthermore, the project aimss to bring people from outside Lisboa to the neighborhood, and create greater cohesion between city and outskirts. This is envisioned to break negative stereotypes of Lisboa. Ultimately, this proposal in the long term aims to decrease social and physical fragmentation and diminish the mentioned rural-urban divide. Adaptation
Furthermore, the creation of the learning alliance provides additional opportunity to learn from programs on the ground in Colombia that have been effective and adapt the proposal accordingly. Though fully implementable as is, the proposal is intended to be changed and in effect co-designed by the community through these built in avenues for project adaptation. Thus, co-creation and adaptation are part of the design itself.
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The intervention proposal is designed to a level that is fully implementable as is without changes to the design by the community. However, there is a recognition that
those involved on the ground have a better sense of needs and desires than do students in New York. Therefore, community input, evaluation, and alteration are all built into the implementation of proposal. The very first step for implementation is the creation of the community group that will oversee the implementation and conduct extensive outreach and feedback from the community, this is the creation of the Jardin Vecinal Committee.
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Actors
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Project Schedule MONTHS
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COMMUNITY MEETINGS COMMUNITY MEETINGS JARDIN VECINAL COMMITTEE COORDINATION AND MEETINGS DIVERSITY ROUTE PROGRAM CALL FOR INVOLVEMENT APPROVAL, FINANCING, MARKETING LEARNING ALLIANCE NEGOTIATIONS WITH ARB NEGOTIATIONS WITH MUNI. GOV RECYCLING MYTH TEAM BUILDING COORDINATOR COMMUNITY DESIGN CHARRETTES STATION CONSTRUCTION ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING CULTURAL PROGRAMS RIVER CLEAN UP KITCHEN CONSTRUCTION COMMUNITY WORKSHOP WORKSHOP TRAINING APPROACHING EXTERNAL ORGS. DEVELOPING PROPOSAL APPLYING GRANTS RIVER TOURS - PILOT PROGRAM PROGRAM MONITORING SECURE FINANCING TRIAL PERIOD - PHASE 1 ECO-MATERIAL PRODUCTION LOS COMELONES EVENT RESEARCH AND EVALUATION EVALUTAITON & MODIFICATION MAINTAINANCE BRIDGE & GARDEN CONSTRUCTION KITCHEN HUB CONSTRUCTION END OF PILOT PROGRAM PARADE EVENT DEVELOPE PROGRAMS MAINTAINANCE EXPANSION ELAVUATION & ADJUSTMENTS SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL 95
La Ruta de la Diversidad Planning on Internal Displacement in Lisboa
La Ruta de la Diversidad
Yanling Deng, Angelina Andriani Putri, Luis Sebastián Ugás
Statement of Purpose
Background
This project aims to draw the attention of Bogotáns, in general, and Lisboans, in particular, to two difficult and unattended issues in Lisboa: the adaptation difficulties of Internal Displaced Persons (IDP) and the importance of the recovery of Bogotá River. Six light structures built along the riverside will trace a route -La Ruta de La Diversidadwhich will have a double function related to both problems. First, hosting services to support IDP in the initial stages of their adaptation process and second, serving as an on-site learning platform regarding the environment, displacement and cultural diversity. While these problems require bigger scale policies and interventions, La Ruta de la Diversidad will be a first step to -locally- make them more visible and trigger debate, ideas, research and proposals from residents, authorities, and academic institutions.
Internal Displacement
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Internal displacement is one of the most challenging problems affecting the world’s population. According to UNHCR, as of 2016, 65.3 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide, due to conflict and persecution (UNHCR, 2016: Pg. 02). In Colombia, one of the most affected countries, the number of IDP due to conflict and violence was 7,246,000 -almost 15% of its population171,000 of which were identified as new displacements. (IDMC, 2016). The conflict in Colombia produced, during many years, great displacement of population from rural areas, small cities and towns to big cities across the country, especially the capital, Bogotá. Upon arrival, displaced populations have typically resided in peripheral and poor areas of these urban centers. Suba, the locality within which Lisboa is located, has the
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fourth largest number of IDP in Colombia. (Vidal, Atehortúa and Salcedo, 2011: Pg.07). Lisboa hosts many Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) coming from rural areas in the Colombian regions of Pacífico and Atlántico and from Venezuela. Many of them came to Bogotá in families and groups, and typically they have suffered discrimination from local residents, who quite often blame them for the increased crime rates in the area. They live clustered near Bogotá River, around Villa Cindy and Santa Rita. There are other groups of IDP coming from Cundinamarca and Boyacá, which share similar cultural traits with local residents, and thus have more easily integrated to Lisboa’s territory. (Telephonic Interview with Julián Bejarano. Interviewer: Sebastián Ugás)
IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) are
persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border.” (UNHCR, 1988:Pg.01)
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Tentative map of IDP locations in Lisboa (Based on a telephonic interview with Julián Bejarano). Interviewer and author of the map: Sebastián Ugás
Adaptation Barriers for IDP in Lisboa
Organizations involved in displacement issues in Lisboa
From our conversation with Julián Bejarano, we have identified several barriers that may be preventing IDP adaptation and integration with the local residents. According to Julián, many of them have difficulties for finding jobs and housing, for accessing information and assistance from public institutions, and many children do not go to school or abandon it at early stages. (Telephonic interview with Julián Bejarano. Interviewer: Sebastián Ugás). Some of the causes of these difficulties may be extrinsic and very difficult to revert; such as racism, discrimination and distrust. In other cases, the causes may be intrinsic; they miss their culture and traditions, they are used to live and even go to school in open spaces, they have different skills, mostly related to rural work, which makes it difficult for them to integrate in the economic life of Lisboa. (Telephonic interview with Julián Bejarano. Interviewer: Sebastián Ugás).
The Catholic Church -Iglesia San Juan Bautista Scalabrini- has a fundamental role in assisting and protecting displaced persons in their adaptation process to their new living conditions, independently of their religion. It provides newcomers with food, dormitory and counseling, it organizes recreational and educational activities, both indoor and outdoor. Church has become one of the most influential actors in the neighborhood; its leadership and organization capabilities are noteworthy and could become great assets for the implementation of our proposal.
“The things they know, their skills are not useful anymore, they feel as they were stanrting from scratch” - Julián Bejarano Telephonic Interview with Julián Bejarano (Interviewer: Sebastián Ugás)
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Unidad Para Las Víctimas (Unit for the Victims) is the institution in charge of assisting and repairing the damages that the conflict left in people around the country. (Victims Unit Review, 2017). It has an office in La Gaitana, Suba, not so far from Lisboa. Junta de Acción Comunal (JAC) – Barrios Lisboa is a CBO comprised by Lisboans working together for addressing their needs and promoting their inclusion in institutional decisions. They give legal advice to IDP, which is very important, since many of them do not have identification documents and have problems filling paperwork when looking for jobs or housing. (Telephonic Interview with Julián Bejarano. Interviewer: Sebastián Ugás).
Existing proposals There are two existing proposals for Lisboa, which -although not focused on displacement- present compatible objectives between each other, from which we propose to build our program. The first is CAR’s proposal, related with the recovery of Bogotá River. One of its main premises is to promote citizens’ appropriation of the riverside, through the construction of a lineal park along the river, which will
Bogotá River Recovery (CAR)
include recreational public spaces. The second one is the Socio-Spatial Proposal for Lisboa’s Territory, by Colectivo Interpretacions Urbanas. They are focused in connecting resident’s needs, desires and local proposals with institutional big-scale projects and policies. Both proposals, one institutional and the other one coming from a CBO, draw an appropriate context for our project’s goals.
Socio-Spatial Proposal for Lisboa (Colectivo Interpretaciones Urbanas)
La Ruta de la Diversidad (GSAPP - Columbia University)
1. Hydraulic Capacity (Reduce sedimentary charge)
1. Integrate community proposals to the institutional proposals
2. Water Quality (Environmental restoration)
2. Articulate resident’s plans with POT
1. Create a Learning Alliance between residents, authorities and academic institutions
3. Appropiation (City-River relationship)
3. Revitalize La Ronda del Rio, thinking in community participation
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2. Expose environmental and social diversity issues, with the aim to trigger debate and concerted proposals 3. Promote IDP integration in Lisboa’s social and economic life
Planning Framework Internal displacement, as a major global problem, has been widely studied by the United Nations (UN). Through different agencies such as the OCHA, IDMC and UNHCR, the UN has established standards and guidelines to identify and address IDP most severe issues, which we use as a framework for understanding displacement in Lisboa. United Nations 30 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (Deng, 2004). The thirty principles document, identifies needs, struggles, limitations and vulnerabilities that IDP have to go through during the different stages of displacement processes, and provide guidance for assistance and protection of IDP and defines responsibilities for all relevant actors. We consider the last three principles (28, 29 and 30) as the most relevant to our study, since they are related to resettlement and
reintegration. These principles state that IDP shall be able to resettle voluntarily in other parts of their countries, to participate in the planning and management of their resettlement and reintegration, and to access public services (Deng, 2004. Pg:14-15). Additionally, it exhorts competent authorities to facilitate the reintegration of IDP, to protect them from discrimination, to provide or assist them in obtaining appropriate compensation, and to facilitate for international humanitarian organizations to assist in their return or resettlement and reintegration. These are all major problems that need to be addressed from different institutional levels. As we discussed before, some of them are being addressed by the Colombian National Government through institutions such as Unidad Para Las Víctimas. Whereas our proposal focuses on the local scale, we deem these guiding principles as a good reference for framing our strategies. 99
La Ruta de la Diversidad
Project Proposal Our proposal consists on creating a Learning Alliance among residents, authorities and academic institutions to expose environmental and cultural differences issues, with the aim to trigger debate, and concerted proposals regarding cultural differences and environmental issues, while promoting IDP integration in Lisboa’s social and economic life. “Learning Alliance methodology is a series of connected multi-stakeholder networks (researchers, policy makers, service provider and service users) at different institutional levels (international, local), involved in innovation in the health service area and its scaling up in time (widespread and Sustainability) and space (coverage)” (Carlos MorenoLeguizamon, Tovar-Restrepo, Irazábal and Locke, 2015: Pg. 07). Adapting this methodology to our proposal will allows us to identify the interests, needs and desires of the different stakeholders and integrate them in participatory research, discussion and concerted proposals that can address the problems presented in Lisboa, with transparency in decisionmaking and without leaving aside any of the actors involved. In order to achieve our objectives, the proposed Learning Alliance will be materialized in a program named: La Ruta de la Diversida (Diversity Route), which will include the construction of six light structures along the riverside. These structures or riverside stations, will have a double function: hosting services to support IDP in the initial stages of their adaptation process -including the services already given by the Church, JAC and Unidad para las Víctimas- and serving as on-site learning platforms for exposing, communicating and discussing different topics, such as displacement and cultural diversity, environmental issues and the recovery of Bogotá River. These topics will be exposed through river tours which will be organized by different institutions and organizations such as CAR, Ministry of Culture, Universidad de Los Andes, etc. IDP will receive training on those subjects, so they can later share their knowledge -as river guides- with other residents and visitants. The idea is that these activities can become first job opportunities for newcomers. While, tours through Bogotá River are currently offered by CAR, this only happens sporadically. La Ruta de la Diversidad is intended to make of these tours an educational, cultural and recreational experience for students and families from Bogotá and its surroundings. Each of the riverside stations will resemble the ambience of some of IDP´s hometowns, where cultural exhibitions, food fairs and performances will be exposed, in order to give the visitant a great variety of experiences, while allowing the responsible institutions to promote tolerance and environmental awareness. 100
Learning Alliance Contributions to Multicultural Planning 1. Promoting the involvement of new planning stakeholders and the institutionalization of learning alliance outcomes 2. Ensuring capacity-building strategies 3. Emphasizing documentation and disseminationas innovative practices 4. Strengthening the network capacity of a community (Carlos Moreno-Leguizamon, Tovar-Restrepo, Irazabal and Locke, 2015: Pg.01)
A first river tour pilot program will be implemented for six months, and will include walks through the Diversity Route, boat rides, visits to the water treatment plant PTAR Salitre and cultural and recreational activities. During this period, a team comprised of one representative of each stakeholder will be monitoring the process and outcomes. At the end of the pilot program a series of evaluation meetings will take place in order to decide the continuity of the program and, if that were the case, the adjustments, updates and modifications to the programs and activities and the definition of the maintenance periods of the riverside stations’ structures. Previous stages of this process will include: Initial coordination meetings between all of the actors involved to express their interests and establish responsibilities. These meeting will occur weekly during the first three months. The Church will have a main role as coordinator. River clean-up activities. This process will occur periodically during the entire program. We expect this activity to serve different purposes, such as engaging IDP with the care and maintenance of their public spaces and at the same time could mean a first income source for newcomers. Additionally, we believe that taking care of the river from the beginning of the process, will have an impact on residents’
dignity and their relationship with their surroundings. Detailed design of the Diversity Route Program. This stage will involve host communities, IDP, local authorities and academic institutions, which will help with technical details, research and organization.
Construction of the six riverside stations. During this stage the different responsible institutions will be giving training to IDP with regard to environmental issues, displacement and cultural diversity.
Site Location
Deng | Putri | Ugรกs 101
Riverside Stations
La Ruta de la Diversidad
Theater
Cafe
102
Playground
Performance Stage
Museum
Education Center
Deng | Putri | Ugás
Implementation
Intended Outcomes
Corporación Autónoma Regional de Cundinamarca (CAR) has an Office of Environmental Culture and Citizens Services, with a specific budget assigned for environmental education, citizens involvement and citizens assistance services (Consejo Directivo - CAR, 2016. Pg:04). Its function is to guide and support the different stakeholders of CAR’s jurisdiction in the elaboration of initiatives within the framework of environmental culture (Consejo Directivo CAR, 2014. Pg:22-23). La Ruta de La Diversidad is aligned with most of this Office’s functions, interests and policies, especially in matters of citizen appropriation and care of the river. Therefore, we believe CAR is a key actor for the implementation of this project, which could adopt and fund, as part of their environmental education and citizens involvement programs. This will allow the interaction between residents and authorities for more efficient actions and long-lasting outcomes in the future.
We are aware that the scale and scope of our proposal does not allow for solving problems of such magnitude as displacement and Bogotá River’s contamination, but we understand it as a way to identify and create places for communicating and discussing those problems, while allowing the community members to appropriate, enjoy and take care of them. We believe that bigger solutions will come later; meanwhile, these interventions could certainly serve as a way to collect more information to inform future proposals. Our proposal is based mostly on information taken from the residents, during our two-day visit to Lisboa. As an academic exercise this information has allowed us to identify some problems and needs of internal displaced persons. However, in order for our proposal to achieve its intended goals, it will be necessary to include the involved actors in as many stages of the project as possible -from the creative process and programs and activities design, through assessment and validation processes. This will strengthen, add legitimacy and maximize the impact of any intervention within the community. 103
La Ruta de la Diversidad
Actors
104
Project Schedule MONTHS
0
3
6
12
24
60
120
Deng | Putri | Ugรกs
COMMUNITY MEETINGS COMMUNITY MEETINGS JARDIN VECINAL COMMITTEE COORDINATION AND MEETINGS DIVERSITY ROUTE PROGRAM CALL FOR INVOLVEMENT APPROVAL, FINANCING, MARKETING LEARNING ALLIANCE NEGOTIATIONS WITH ARB NEGOTIATIONS WITH MUNI. GOV RECYCLING MYTH TEAM BUILDING COORDINATOR COMMUNITY DESIGN CHARRETTES STATION CONSTRUCTION ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING CULTURAL PROGRAMS RIVER CLEAN UP KITCHEN CONSTRUCTION COMMUNITY WORKSHOP WORKSHOP TRAINING APPROACHING EXTERNAL ORGS. DEVELOPING PROPOSAL APPLYING GRANTS RIVER TOURS - PILOT PROGRAM PROGRAM MONITORING SECURE FINANCING TRIAL PERIOD - PHASE 1 ECO-MATERIAL PRODUCTION LOS COMELONES EVENT RESEARCH AND EVALUATION EVALUTAITON & MODIFICATION MAINTAINANCE BRIDGE & GARDEN CONSTRUCTION KITCHEN HUB CONSTRUCTION END OF PILOT PROGRAM PARADE EVENT DEVELOPE PROGRAMS MAINTAINANCE EXPANSION ELAVUATION & ADJUSTMENTS SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL 105
Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotรก River
Conclusion
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Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotรก River
Conclusion
In conclusion this joint architecture and urban planning found many challenges yet many lessons learned from this joint effort. The overall opportunity to collaborate between professions was a unique opportunity to face real world obstacles. Both Architects and Planners were able to better understand each other’s thought process and development phase. One main challenge was faced in the different methods used to approach a problem in each profession, which is coupled with the accelerated timeline which compromised through data collection and analysis. Furthermore, the architecture studio is a nine credit course, while urban planners were registered in a three credit seminar. This credit disparity made expectations and levels of commitment hard to level out.
Conclusion
This studio identified the Bogotá river as a main component of a highly controversial topic going on in Bogotá. The project seeked to contribute in some scale to the conversation revolving the river. While the teams did not approach the technical specificity of how to clean the water body, they did aim to mend the relationship the residents of Suba, particularly Lisboa had with the river. Finally, the studio resolved in the proposal of five interventions as well as programmatic initiatives. Using a variety of research techniques, the students were able to gather data, and relying on methodologies, such as asset base analysis, were able to analyze the information. This gave way to proposing a bridge and accompanying urban farms to deal with food security, interactive recycle receptacles to assist the current routine of the region’s recyclers, a mobile kitchen which provides income opportunities as well as education to women of Lisboa, o a film workshop which closes the education gap and finally, a gallery to help address issues of displaced peoples. These proposals have been crafted to include the diverse groups found in Lisboa such as the mothers association, the recyclers, the youth groups, as well as institutions such as the Il Nido del Gulfo, local universities, the Suba, Bogotá and Cundinamarca authorities. The proposals acknowledge the diverse stakeholders and the need for cooperative work to obtain the best results.
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Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotá River
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Bibliography
Montero, S. (2017). Between Data and Theories: Reconceptualizaing the Latin American City from the Field. Bogotá: CIDER, Universidad de Los Andes.
Interviews
List of acronyms
1. Juliรกn Bejarano (telephonic interview) Interviewer: Sebastiรกn Ugรกs Date: October 23rd, 2017
IDMC - Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
Playing with Anomalies. Co-Producing New Imaginaries: Bogotรก River
2. Wilson Cรกrdenas Interviewer: Marcela Tovar-Restrepo Date: September 28th, 2017 3.
Edilsa Rojas Interviewer: Marcela Tovar-Restrepo Date: September 28th, 2017
4.
Sandra Rivero - Motherโ s organization Interviewer: Sebastiรกn Ugรกs Date: September 28th, 2017
5.
David - Resident of Lisboa Interviewer: Sebastiรกn Ugรกs Date: September 28th, 2017
6.
Gloria - Resident of Lisboa Interviewer: Sebastiรกn Ugรกs Date: Septmeber 28th, 2017
7.
Gloria - Former resident of Lisboa Interviewers: Eric Pietraszkiewicz and Patrick Li Date: September 29th
112
OCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs UN - United Nations UNHCR - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Bibliography
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