Self-sustainable periphery. Incremental housing and neighborhood renewal in Medellin, Colombia. Pilot project El Picacho

From the mid twentieth century, the main characteristic of urban development in Latin America’s metropolis has been the rapid city expansion due to internal migration. The reasons vary according to each country but the trend is common and ongoing. In most cases, this city growth has not been regulated, supervised nor even planed by governments resulting in the proliferation of slum areas in the cities’ periphery. According to UN-Habitat the dynamic of these neighborhoods exacerbate urban poverty and increase the gap between the rich and poor by creating severe job restrictions, gender disparity, deteriorated living conditions, social exclusion and high incidence of crime. The current project takes as starting point the politics of urban renewal from the city of Medellin, Colombia. A city that has undergone a 15 year transformation. These politics are focused in the political, social, territorial and urban spheres, arising from the need to regulate the present informal growth of the city and address urban poverty, by considering the particularities of Medellin’s geography and sociopolitical situation. In this context, the periphery of the city holds two urban renewal plans, the PUI (Integral Urban Plan) and the Encircled Garden. By taking into consideration these plans, the aim is to implement a pilot project of flexible housing and neighborhood improvement which will be able to attain a proper transition between the rural proximity and the on growing city and at the same time provide environmental recovery of the surroundings and transform the geographic limit and barrier into a self-sustainable periphery threshold capable of solving the current needs of the surrounding inhabitants while at the same time provide a proper response to the expansion requirements of the city, anticipating the occupation of the hillside (Medellin’s natural border) and reassuring the right of permanency for the current residents. Therefore, the pilot project proposes the restoration of the natural landscape by relocating the most informal settlements into flexible and incremental housing dwelling and by reorganizing the existing neighborhood with urban connections and local productive elements which enrich and create quality public space. For the housing dwelling, the technological approach considers the use of compressed stabilized earth block (CSEB) combined with steel structure as construction technique to give a social sense of inclusivity, community and economic opportunity in the execution of the project. In addition to environmental considerations which minimize impact and resource use; reuse of rain water, proper orientation and insulation, local materials and production and efficient land use.