More than a third of Bogota, the capital of Colombia, is estimated to be self-built by the inhabitants, mainly in the periphery of the city. In this article, we learn from Andrés Sánchez of urbz Colombia about the emerging forms of organisation and constant transformation in these self-built neighborhoods.
Since many years, the inhabitants of the San German neighborhood (located in Usme, in the metropolitan area of Bogota) have been developing many different projects on public space improvement and infrastructure, that permitted the amelioration of life conditions. The main goal is to promote projects of community improvement on social and cultural levels of the San German community.
Breathing life into a community´s vision for a ¨restorative cell¨ using Bamboo
A record book of 20 houses built by the mason Ataide Caetite in the Paraisopolis favela, which reflects on how the economic and cultural dynamics are reflected in home construction and design.
This experiment in affordable housing led to the co-designing and construction of a small house in Shivaji Nagar, in Govandi. A neighbourhood in Mumbai that is struggling against all odds to keep growing and improving.
Reviewing Sondgo and its functioning residential and work places, thirteen years after the initial plans were drafted. (The Hindu, 19.06.17)
Local contractors design their ideal Dharavi homes which are exhibited at Zaha Hadid's Maxxi in Rome.
Enquête de terrain pour améliorer l’expérience des usagers durant les travaux de construction en ville, avec COLAS SA et le laboratoire de sociologie urbaine (LaSUR), EPFL.
Field research on how to improve the cohabitation between construction sites and inhabitants in Geneva and Lausanne.
When pavement dwellers are chased away, which happens often, they have no other option than making a new home on another the sidewalk.
The official target of producing millions of quality homes for all can be re-imagined, as one in which the process of construction itself becomes a transformative moment.
While New York and London house the people that move from city to city, all acquainted with the etiquette of an urban lifestyle, Bogotá and Bombay are cities of villagers on the road to urbanization.
After a handstorm workshop to make a variety of user-oriented objects and with a pilot house on its way, a report about the updates of the Homegrown Cities Initiative
Housing must be seen as a process rather than a product: its values lie in the relationship and inter-action between the actors, their activities and the produced house.
While residents may live here and work elsewhere, this neighbourhood also shows a high level of its own economic activities.
In collaboration with local pedreiro Ataide, the urbz team helps build a house in Paraisoplis right from digging the foundations.
How to provide housing for all classes of people who need it, taking their varied livelihoods into account, while balancing their relative abilities to invest in housing?