Made in América
Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito.
Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
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Abstract
This study investigates the clustering of small-scale urban manufacturing businesses in the América neighborhood in Quito, Ecuador. Located in the northwestern boundary of the historic center of the city, this area developed in the first half of the twentieth Century and has operated as a zone of transition between the colonial and the modern city ever since (Rivas). Even though it was traditionally residential, the neighborhood has seen a continuous increase of commercial activity over the last few decades. Among businesses such as bakeries, shoemaker shops and tailors, hundreds of small printing houses operate in this area, and locals argue that most of the city’s printing industry is located within a few blocks. By mapping production-oriented businesses and other uses along eight blocks surrounding the neighborhood’s main square, as well as analyzing the larger urban context in which this neighborhood is located, this study aims to understand some of the reasons behind the clustering of small-scale manufacturers in this area. Unstructured interviews to the owners and workers of several of the production-oriented businesses were conducted as a means to gain insight to the history of the people and businesses
Quito - 1888 2
that operate in this neighborhood, where 52 printing houses, among other production-oriented businesses such as shoemakers, tailors and bakeries were mapped along eight blocks.
Process
In order to identify areas with a high concentration of production-oriented businesses, we asked interviewees what neighborhood they would describe as the one with the largest number smallscale manufacturers. Even though we recognize the limited sample of this method, the purpose of this most manufacturers in Quito, but rather analyze one of the many areas where such clustering happened, and this strategy provided an easy and reliable way to identify potential areas of study. After visiting some of the sites that were mentioned more frequently, we decided to take a closer look at two areas: La Floresta/Vicentina and San Juan. We mapped the location of production-oriented businesses in both neighborhoods and interviewed some of the owners and workers in order to gain some insight of their history and that of their businesses. La Floresta/Vicentina had a significant amount of bakeries, tailors, shoemakers, uphol-
Quito - 1932
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
sterers, glass workers and carpenters. In addition, a number of small hardware/construction supply stores and car repair shops were located along the main streets, which have a lot of automobile traffic. The interior streets are quiet and primarily residential. The size and type of spaces and buildings where production activities took place varied significantly, from repurposed single-family detached homes, to six-story reinforced concrete buildings. San Juan has traditionally been known as the neighborhood where artists and craftspeople live and work. Even though we first approached this neighborhood expecting to find large numbers of traditional manufacturers such as woodworkers, tailors and dressmakers, shoemakers and upholsterers, they were either scarce or production occurred in backof-the-house spaces, with little or no engagement of the public realm. However, the América neighborhood, just northeast of San Juan and closer to the city’s central plain, caught our attention with a large amount of printing houses. Other businesses in the area include bakeries, shoemakers, tailors, appliance repair shops and corner stores. Most ground floor spaces that are not printing houses, particularly around the neighborhood square, sell materials for the printing industry such as ink, paper, or machinery.
Quito - 1964
After revisiting both neighborhoods to interview more people and develop more detailed maps, we decided to focus on the América neighborhood. In comparison to La Floresta/Vicentina, América has a much higher concentration of production-oriented businesses. The overall neighborhood density is also higher, with a more consistent and compact occupation of the land. The America neighborhood’s pattern is of a much finer grain, with smaller blocks and lots throughout. Even though La Floresta /Vicentina had a significant amount of maker-businesses, they were spread out over a larger area. On the other hand, the América neighborhood showed a really evident clustering of production-oriented businesses in the printing industry, complemented by more traditional manufacturers such as tailors, dressmakers, bakers and woodworkers. We mapped eight blocks surrounding Benito Juárez, the neighborhood square, focusing primarily on Rio de Janeiro and Venezuela streets, which showed the highest concentration of printing houses and other maker-businesses. In addition, we interviewed owners and employees of several businesses and photographed the interior of their workshops. Then, research continued in Eugene, OR, under the guidance of Professor Howard Davis, and focused on
Quito - 1975
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
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how this neighborhood fits into the larger context of the city, its history and urban structure.
Quito
The city of Quito is located 9,350 feet above sea level on the Ecuadorian Andes. With a population of 2.239.191 people (INEC), the most consolidated urban footprint of the city covers an area of approximately 120 square miles, extending longitudinally in a geographical depression directly adjacent to the Pichincha volcano, a few miles south of the Equator (Correa). After thousands of years of both temporary and permanent aboriginal settlements in the area, the city became the northern capital of the Inca Empire in the sixteenth Century, and was founded in 1534 by the Spanish Empire just north of Yavirac, the hill that sits in what is now the center of the city (Ortiz). After its designation as capital city of Ecuador in 1822, Quito experienced little growth, expanding towards the north of the gridded historical center. It was not until the twentieth Century, however, that the city’s population and area increased dramatically as a result of continuous immigration waves from the interior of the country, which led to the urbanization of land formerly used for agriculture (Ortiz). As the most affluent moved to the north of
Public Transportation
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the city during the twentieth Century, an increasing number of rural immigrants began inhabiting the old city, which remained as the administrative and commercial core of Quito. At the same time, the south of the city attracted an increasing population of industrial workers with the establishment of an industrial park in the 1940s (Ortiz). This tripartite scheme was formalized by the first regulating plan of Quito, developed by the young Uruguayan architect Guilllermo Jones Odriozola. Even though it wasn’t implemented in its entirety, the 1944 plan aimed to divide the city into three main areas, corresponding to dwelling, work, and leisure, which would be connected by longitudinal arterial routes (Ortiz). Following this and other regulating plans developed throughout the second half of the twentieth century, the consolidated urban Quito is organized along a series of longitudinal axes occasionally connected by east-west corridors. Most of the city’s commercial activity is located along these primary roads, which also feature the three main transportation spines of the city, composed of three BRT corridors: Ecovía on Av. Seis de Diciembre, Trolebús on Av. Diez de Agosto, and Metrobús on Av. América.
Street Network
Focus Area
Highways
Ecovía Av. 6 de Diciembre Trolebus Av. 10 de Agosto Metrobus Av. América
Arterial Street Collector Street Local Street
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
The América Neighborhood
a. Location and Context
The América neighborhood is located just northwest of the Quito’s old city. Developed before the Odriozola plan, the area is one of the zones of transition between the historic quarter and the modern city built after the 1940s (Rivas). The América neighborhood is well served by transportation and is located in close proximity to a number of public institutions of city-wide and regional relevance. Stations for the three main BRT corridors in the city are located within walking distance of the neighborhood church. Universidad Central, the country’s second largest public university with over fifty thousand students (CIFRAS), is located ten blocks from Benito Juárez, the neighborhood’s main square. Schools in the area include Colegios Mejía and Simón Bolívar, two of the largest public educational institutions in Quito. Other significant facilities include the Carlos Andrade Marín Public Hospital, the province administration building, and the headquarters of the National Institute of Social Security (IESS), all located within less than six blocks of the neighborhood square. e na rqu Pa Caroli La
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Similarly, landmarks such as the Basílica and the Center of Contemporary Art are a few blocks from the América neighborhood. Alameda, one of the city´s largest urban parks with 33 acres and in direct adjacency to Casa de la Cultura, Quito’s main cultural complex, is located 6 blocks east of the América neighborhood square. Quito’s financial district, surrounding La Carolina Park, is two miles north of the América neighborhood. Despite this set of proximities and its direct adjacency to Av. América, one of the main northsouth spines of the city, the part of the América neighborhood studied does not seem to be part of the main touristic or administrative circuits of the city. Distanced from more active areas of the city such as Av. Diez de Agosto by a few blocks, the almost peripheral nature of this neighborhood may be attributed to the site’s topography. Encroaching onto the hillside of the Pichincha volcano, the América neighborhood is separated from the central plain of the city –where most of the activity takes place- by a steep slope that makes it harder to access. From Zambrano to Nicaragua Streets, two north-southrunning streets eight blocks or 2300ft apart from each other, the altitude increases by 176ft (13% slope).
Proximity Map - América Neighborhood Focus Area
6 Casa de la Cultura Quito
Benito Juarez Park
7 América Market
1 Francisco F. Cordero School
8 Centro de Arte Contemporáneo
2 Carlos Andrade Marín Hospital
9 Mejía School
3 Univesidad Central
10 Matovelle School
4 Simón Bolivar School
11 Basílica del Voto Nacional
5 IESS Headquarters
12 Historic Downtown Area
2 1
P El arq Ej ue id o
5
4 7
6 to
Julio Mat ovell e
8
e li qu bo Pa l Ar E
9
10 e
G G abri M arc el ore ía no
12
u rq la Pa a A L
a
ed
m
13
Parque Itchimbia
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
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b. Urban Structure
The neighborhood is organized around the Benito Juárez square, in front of which sits the parochial church, Perpetuo Socorro. The predominant block structure has a gridded pattern of 260x280 ft, with the longest side running parallel to the eastern boundaries of the neighborhood, Avenues América and Diez de Agosto, two of the main circulation spines in the city. The name of the América neighborhood stems from its streets, named after countries and cities in the continent. Venezuela, the eastern edge of the neighborhood square, is the main north-south street, as it connects this area with the core of the historic center. However, the Mejía School, the América Market and the Center of Contemporary Art –formerly military hospital, and the Basílica alter the grain of this street, causing it to have little activity despite the heavy traffic. Rio de Janeiro and Bogotá are the main east-west streets with local bus routes running through them. Both streets adjoin the neighborhood square, and Rio de Janeiro concentrates a good amount of the neighborhood’s commercial activity. Smaller north-south streets that are quieter and concentrate rather local traffic and activities are Uruguay, Méx-
ico, Estados Unidos, Canadá and Panamá, among others. The urban grain of the area is remarkably finer than that of more recent areas of the city. The neighborhoodn has rather small lots, most of them around 2300sqft, which are usually occupied by several smaller structures built to the property line, without side setbacks. The ground floor of structures is also subdivided into spaces that are smaller than those found in La Floresta, for example. A pattern of passageways connects to the interior of the blocks, where other lots and small courtyards are located. Buildings range between two and six stories in height, and vary in style and era. Almost all of them are built with a reinforced concrete structure and masonry walls made of either brick or concrete blocks. Even though the neighborhood originated with a primarily residential character, the ground floors of these buildings are mostly occupied by retail spaces nowadays, with several stories of housing and sometimes offices above. Many of the buildings lack a pedestrian entrance to the upper stories from the street, but instead have a passageway –oftentimes a driveway with a garage door- that connects to interior courtyards from which the housing is accessed.
Figure/Ground - América Neighborhood
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Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
Zoning
R-3: Housing and neighborhood, sector-, and zone-level commercial, services and amenities.
Multiple: Diverse uses of zone- and city-level influence.
General Amenities: social and public services with differente radio of influence.
Promocion
Satellite Image
Made in AmĂŠrica: Urban Manufacturing in the AmĂŠrica Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
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c. Production-Oriented Businesses
The first printing house in the América neighborhood started operating in 1979, and even though a report by the Metropolitan Environmental Agency documented only 51 printing establishments in the area in 2009, residents claim that there are between 700 and 800 of them (Rivas). This study identified 52 printing houses along 8 blocks. Located primarily in the ground floor spaces of residential buildings, these printing houses are small shops -usually under 300sqft- with two or three operators and at least one large-format piece of equipment: either a printer or a coating-,
die-cutting- or binding machine. They make books, brochures, business cards, packaging and other advertising materials. Some of them not only produce printed materials, but also have small woodshops where the dies are manufactured. In the América neighborhood, the street is the assembly line: workers are often seen carrying a pile of posters to another shop across the street, where they will be coated by a partner business, to then be packaged elsewhere. Some interviewees even attributed their success at least in part to this cooperative form of production. The following examples show some of the printing houses in the area, and present information extracted from the unstructured interviews to some of the business owners and workers in the area.
Ground Floor Uses Production-oriented retail
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Other retail
Housing
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
C1. Printing Houses
Edigraf
[printing house]
The space, approximately 10ft wide by 30ft deep, is divided into two areas. The main space in front has a large UV-coating machine, one die-cutter and a laminating press. Meanwhile, a wood-framed box encloses the woodshop located in the interior courtyard, where the dies are fabricated. According to the worker that was there during our visit, Edigraf has been open for approximately three years now, and the owner lives in one of the housing units above.
Liquor Store
Movie Store
Drugstore
Corner Shop
Printing House
Bakery Printing House
Access to Housing Above
Printing House Cybercafé
Printing House
Tailor
Finishing Shop
Printing House
A sign with white letters on a black background makes passersby notice this business located on the southern sidewalk of Rio de Janeiro, one of the primary streets in the neighborhood. The shop operates in what was the driveway that connected the street to the residential courtyard and parking lot in the center of the block, and the entrance is still covered by an opaque green garage door. Located under two stories of housing and next door to a printing house, Edigraf specializes in last steps of the process: they provide coating, laminating and die-cutting services.
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
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Megga
[printing house]
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dies. The large die cutting machine is located in the front of the space, whereas the gold stamping machine is in the back, along with a table jigsaw and other woodworking tools used by the two workers to make the dies. Upstairs, a mezzanine space is used by the owner as an office.
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
Bakery
Barber Shop
Corner Store
Entrance to Housing Above
Printing Supplies Store
Stationery Shop
Laundry
Clock and Watch Shop
Printing House
Corner Store
Printing House
Binding Shop
Printing House
Printing House
Cybercafé
Megga is a 10ft wide shop located in one of the four retail spaces in the ground floor of a three-story residential building. The housing units are accessed from an interior courtyard connected to the street by a driveway covered by a black garage door. This printing house specializes in gold stamping, the process through which gold leaf is applied onto book covers, for instance, by means of heated
Promo Arte [printing house]
Promo Arte operates in an 18x30ft ground floor space of a two-story building with housing above. The lot is occupied symmetrically, with another structure with the same configuration located on the opposite side. The two buildings are divided by a driveway that leads to the interior courtyard from which the residential units are accessed. Three clerestory windows on the courtyard side provide ventilation and light for the space. During our visit, the only persons there were one of the workers and a technician who was fixing the large format printer that occupies most of the
shop’s area. According to them, this printing house has been here for three years, about the time when the area’s printing industry was booming. The printer technician said that he only worked in this neighborhood, “because it is where most of these machines are, and because I have enough work”. When asked about the reason for their clustering, he said it was “because everyone knows this area as the printing house neighborhood, so when someone needs to print something they know they will find what they need here. That keeps bringing more and more clients.”
-imprenta[printing house]
Across the driveway from Promo Arte, another printing house operates behind a generic sign that says imprenta, which means printing house in Spanish. They are located on Estados Unidos, one of the secondary north-south streets in the neighborhood, a block west and another one south of the church. Eight other printing houses are located on this side of the street along this block, and two others operate on the opposite sidewalk. Even though the space has the same height as Promo Arte, this one has two stories with really low ceilings, and is around 12ft wide. The vertical subdivision has also enclosed the clerestories in the upstairs space, leaving the ground floor with little
ventilation and light. This business seems to be busier than Promo Arte, with three smaller machines running all the time, printing and laminating brochures to be later bound in the back of the room. The owner’s office is located in a 12x12ft mezzanine space cluttered with documents and brochures ready to be delivered. He has had this business for approximately five years, and has clients who send him jobs from across the entire city. He says that they also vary in scale from “independent professionals who need business cards to local branches of large transnational corporations making advertising posters and fliers”.
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
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Made in AmĂŠrica: Urban Manufacturing in the AmĂŠrica Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
Printing H0use
Printing House
Printing House
Printing House
Printing House
Finishing Shop
Access to Housing Above
Printing House
Dressmaker
Printing House
Access to Housing Above
Printing House
Printing House
Printing House
Max Brillo
[printing house]
Max Brillo is one of the larger printing houses in the area. Located on Canadá, a rather secondary street two blocks west of the church, the shop is a one-story structure that occupies the entire width and approximately a third of the depth of the 36x56 ft lot it sits on. Sunlight is provided by a number of translucent polycarbonate skylights that replace some of the corrugated steel panels that make up the roof. The space resembles an industrial structure; it looks quite similar to many of the steel fabrication or auto repair shops that one might see in Quito. The interior of Max Brillo is divided longitudinally, separating the main room, which has two printers and a smaller paper cutter, from the UV-coating area on the right. When we visited the business, the only person there was the owner, who immigrated from Colombia and started this business 10 years ago. He usually has three workers in the shop, and says that the proliferation of printing houses in the area happened because
graphic design for people who don’t know anything about this but still need to print something. Clients know that they can come here and we will help them out. When one of us cannot do a job, we either recommend another shop or partner with someone down the street, so for instance I will do the printing, someone else will do the binding and someone else the UV coating. We all benefit each other. There still is a lot of unfair competition in terms of prices, however.”
Other people had suggested that one of the reasons for the clustering of printing businesses in the América neighborhood might be the higher quality of the area’s power lines in comparison to other parts of the city, so we asked the owner of Max Brillo for his opinion. He said that power lines may have had an influence as well. [The power supply] worked fine for a few years after I opened, but then we started having problems, so the Municipal Electric Company came and changed the electrical transformers in the entire neighbor-
after a few of us started about a decade ago, peo-
hood, and it’s worked well since then. It’s not like we
ple began to know this place as the neighborhood
use that much electricity anyway. The only big volt-
of printing houses. We have created a sense of
age drop happens when you turn on the machines,
reliability, and provide additional services such as
and we rarely turn them all on at the same time”
SCALE: 1’’=100’
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
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C2. Complementary Businesses
The proliferation of printing houses in the América neighborhood has encouraged the development of other businesses which provide the printing industry with services and supplies. A significant
number of ink and paper suppliers are located in the blocks surrounding the neighborhood square, as well as large-format printer retailers and maintenance shops.
Eduardo
[machine parts]
One of the most interesting examples of this is a business on the corner of Venezuela and Caracas, a block north of the neighborhood square. Here, Eduardo rents a 12’x18’ ground floor space under a residential building where he manufactures machine parts, primarily for printing houses. He moved his shop here about two years ago, and runs the metal shop alone. He says it has become hard to find available spaces in the neighborhood that are affordable to rent, but a friend helped him find this one, which
he can afford because it’s so small. Even though he lives in the south of the city, he wanted to have his business here so that he could take advantage of the demand for replacement parts generated by all the printing houses in the América neighborhood. Most of his friends own printing houses in the area, to which he attributes part of his business’ success. He argues that they connect each other with job opportunities and provide mutual support for each other’s businesses.
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Machine Parts Manufacturer
Printing House
Printing House
Shoemaker
Printing House
ALE: 1’’=100’
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
C3. Other Makers
In addition to the predominant printing industry, the América neighborhood also features other production-oriented businesses of a more traditional nature such as bakeries, shoemakers, tailors
and woodworkers. The following examples describe some of these production-oriented businesses found during this study.
Zapatería Pino [shoemaker]
Luis Alfredo Pino has been making and repairing shoes in this same space for 38 years. The shoe shop is located on the corner of Canadá and Rio de Janeiro streets, and is entered from a courtyard connected to his business, a printing house on Rio de Janeiro street and a few houses further south, on Canadá street. All of these structures are single-story, and the space Luis Alfredo has rented for the last 38 years is approximately 6x8ft, enough space for his pedal sewing machine, a table, and a couple of racks where he keeps his materials. He lives in one of the houses that connect to
the courtyard where his shop is, and says that his business does well because everyone in the neighborhood knows him. Most of his clients are from the area, but when he gets a job farther away, he delivers it by bike. Luis Alfredo still uses the same pedal sewing machine he has always had, and when asked about the recent proliferation of printing houses in the neighborhood, he says that “there used to be more tailors, woodworkers and shoemakers around here, but now [the printing houses] are taking over. I’ve heard the power lines are good here, I think that’s why they come here. They need that to operate all those machines.”
SCALE: 1’’=100’
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
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Centro Ortopédico Ecuador
[orthetic devices and prostheses manufacturers]
These two brothers have been making custom orthopedic appliances and prostheses in this same location for over 20 years. The space they rent on Venezuela street, a block from the neighborhood square, is in the ground floor of a two-story building with housing above. The space is approximately 14ft wide by 16ft deep. The front area is used to display some of their products and has two benches for people to try them on, whereas the back is divided between a small fabrication shop and a changing room for clients. The two adjacent businesses are occupied by printing houses.
borhood and still live a few blocks from their business. They learned the trade from their uncle, and say that they get jobs from different parts of the city: We work with doctors from all over Quito. They send us a patient with a prescription or a drawing, and we custom fabricate everything to measure, ranging from custom crutches, orthopedic insoles and shoes, to whole prostheses. Our business does pretty well, that’s why we’ve been able to stay here for such a long period of time. This still isn’t taught at the University. We have taken multiple courses and workshops with international professionals, primarily Brazilian. We are certified Orthotics and Prosthetics Technicians, and we get jobs from all
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Housing
Glass Shop
Housing
Printing House
Orthopedic Devices Shop
around the city.
Printing House
Drugstore
Both brothers grew up in the América neigh-
Appliances Repair Shop
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
Anís-Pan [bakery]
Tailor
Cybercafé
Printer Repair Shop
Housing
Printing House
Bakery
main glass counter. The back area is the kitchen, with a central island and dough-mixing machines, racks and refrigerators against the wall. A door connects to the back of the lot, where they keep their ingredients and other supplies. We visited this bakery twice, and three employees were there each time. They seemed to be in charge of different tasks -those who baked also sold the bread at the cashier. Even though they were reluctant to talk to us and let us take photos because the owner was not there, they allowed us to walk to the back.
Hair Salon
Model Maker
Housing
Housing
Screen Printing Shop
Anís-Pan is one of the many bakeries in this area. Located on Rio de Janeiro, one of the busier eastwest streets in the América neighborhood, it occupies one of the two ground floor spaces of a two-story building with housing above. Next door is a printing house and unlike in the majority of buildings in the neighborhood, this one has a door on the street that connects to the residences upstairs. Anís-Pan has a space that is approximately 14x24ft, and is divided transversally. The front area is where the bread and pastries are displayed, and has three ovens behind the
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
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Why do production-oriented businesses cluster in the América Neighborhood? A number of hypotheses can be developed based on the information gathered during this study. First, we think that the location of the América Neighborhood relative to its urban context has played a significant role in encouraging small-scale production-oriented businesses to cluster here. The area is well connected with public transportation, with easy access to the three main BRT corridors that connect the city in the north-south direction. In addition, it is located in close proximity to administrative and educational institutions of great relevance, which provide clientele, generate demand, and serve the residents of this area. However, the neighborhood seems to be disconnected from the main touristic and commercial circuits of the city, where we expect rents and services to be more expensive. The area is also just outside of the Historic Center, beyond the domain of stringent regulations imposed by historic preservation and urban renewal efforts. We think that it would be harder for many of these businesses to operate in the Historic Center, particularly those who are using garages and other spaces not originally intended for production purposes.
ration between the commercial and residential uses, this organization might reduce potential conflicts between residents and manufacturing businesses, which tend to be noisier than other types of retail. There are also some benefits that seem to be intrinsic to the clustering, perhaps even regardless of the location. Small businesses are able to tackle production projects of different scales by parnering with other neighboring manufacturers. Using the street as the assembly line, clustered production-oriented businesses can stay small because they divide labor and work cooperatively. Some of the information provided by interviews also seems to suggest that clustering provides a natural way of marketing. By associating a place with a specific industry, in this case the América neighborhood and printing houses, businesses become more memorable to customers. This relates to the method we used to identify potential areas of study initially, and how people recognize some place as the printing house neighborhood or the woodworker neighborhood. We hypothesize that clustering increases the imageability of places and industries, causing customers to go to specific places in search of particular services.
At the same time, the América neighborhood has an urban structure more similar to the compact, fine-grained old city than to the more disperse developments seen in the modern areas of Quito. The grid provides a framework within which a pattern of higher density, smaller housing and retail spaces is developed, which probably results in lower rents, as costs are divided among more tenants than in less dense areas. In addition, the definition and engagement of the street provide favorable conditions for businesses in general, whereas the pattern of interior courtyards seems to benefit production oriented businesses in particular. By allowing for a higher degree of sepa18
Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
References Carrión, Fernando. “Evolución De La Forma De Organización Territorial En Quito: Sus Momentos Históricos Cruciales.” Editorial. Cultura: Revista Del Banco Central Del Ecuador 3. 2002: 129-56. Web. Carrión, Fernando; Jaime Erazo Espinosa. “La forma urbana de Quito: una historia de centros y periferias.” Bulletin de l’Institut français d’études andines . Aug. 19 2013. Web. Nov. 11 2014. Correa, Felipe. “Quito: the Section As an Instigator of Urbanism = Quito, el Corte Como Instigador Urbanístico.” In Joan Busquets and Felipe Correa. Quito: A Flatbed Site As an Agent for a New Centrality = El Vacío Como Generador De Una Nueva Centralidad. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2007. Print. Municipio De Quito. “Plan Metropolitano De Ordenamiento Territorial 2012-2022.” (2012): n. pag. Pdf. Ortiz, Alfonso. “Quito: a Brief Urban History = Una Breve Historia Urbana de Quito. ” In Joan Busquets and Felipe Correa. Quito: A Flatbed Site As an Agent for a New Centrality = El Vacío Como Generador De Una Nueva Centralidad. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2007. Print. Rosero, Mariela. “El Barrio América Es Otro Nexo Del Quito Antiguo Y El Moderno.” El Comercio [Quito] n.d.: n. pag. 24 Oct. 2014. Web. 24 Oct. 2014. Universidad Central Del Ecuador. Revista CIFRAS De La Universidad Central Del Ecuador. Quito: Editorial Universitaria, 2011. Web. 05 Nov. 2014. Wijnekus, F J. M, and E F. P. H. Wijnekus. Elsevier’s Dictionary of the Printing and Allied Industries in Six Languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1983. Print. Made in América: Urban Manufacturing in the América Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
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Housing
Appliance Repair Shop
Printing House
Hardware Store
Construction Supply Store
Housing
Printing House
Housing
Printing House
Printing House
Printing House
Printing House
Corner Shop
Appendix
Made in AmĂŠrica: Urban Manufacturing in the AmĂŠrica Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
Made in AmĂŠrica: Urban Manufacturing in the AmĂŠrica Neighborhood, Quito. | Lore Burbano + Sebas Oviedo | Prof. Howard Davis | Fall 2014
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