The “Villa 31” in the heart of Buenos Aires, Argentina is an informal settlement(squatter) which has been battling for its existence for the past seven decades. The immigrant settlement having resisted several ‘eradication drives’ is finally going to be revitalized and repaired by the public administration’s urbanization plan through the initiative called ‘Treinta y Todos 2009’
The project, “A Framework for Empowerment” not only works in parallel with the initiative’s vision but also strives to augment the vision to create self-sustaining communities. Further, the design project critically investigates the ‘Top Down’ urban design schemes generated through the urbanization plan and tangentially proposes an ‘Urban Repair’ framework that aims to poise between the city driven ‘Top Down’ and community driven ‘Bottom up’ design approaches.