Moravia: The story of a slum on a hill of garbage

DANNY ANDRES OSORIO GAVIRIA

Human Settlements l [Project Case] l Fall 2014

MORAVIA: THE STORY OF A SLUM ON A HILL OF GARBAGE

BASIC PROJECT DATA: Initiator: Mayoralty of Medellín.

Other partners / Actors involved: Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano (EDU), Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Name: Integral plan for the improvement of the Moravia neighborhood 2004 – 2011.

Place: Medellín, Colombia.

Date: 2004 – Present.

Number of residents/ users catered for: over 1 million

North Region, South America

Antioquia, Colombia

Medellín, Antioquia

Image 1: Old Medellín's dump, nowadays part of the Moravia neighborhood (Source: Tobón, 2004).

Short description The integral plan for the improvement of the Moravia neighborhood is part of a governmental initiative of the Colombian state for the recovery of the Moravia Hill, the old dump of the city of Medellín. The intervention on the neighborhood is composed by strategies like the social intervention, the urban regeneration, the improvement of the environmental conditions of the site through spatial and physical processes.

The site of intervention is integrated by the community of different informal settlements in the zone: El Bosque, Moravia, El Morro, El Oasis Tropical, La Herradura, Los Llanos and part of the neighborhoods: Miranda, Bermejala, Los Alamos and Palermo. The project is funded by the City Planning Department and the Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá (Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley), the second most important and populated area in Colombia; with the social support of the Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano (EDU) and the Alianza Cooperativa Internacional (ACI); and with the technical advisory of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (National University of Colombia).

The intervention in the Moravia neighborhood is established in the Line 3 of the Development Plan of Medellín 2004 – 2007 and the aim is contribute with the improvement of the quality of life of the people

in the informal settlements promoting the sustainable development through urban regeneration and the recovery of the environmental, economic, social and cultural conditions.

The community involved in the project is around 35.619 inhabitants.

Site Medellín is the capital of the department of Antioquia and the second largest city in Colombia.

The city is located in the Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley, the second largest urban agglomeration in the country with more than 1 3.731.447 inhabitants [ ].

Almost 50% of the population of the city lives in informal settlements and occupy geographically 2 dangerous areas [ ].

Moravia is part of the Comuna 4, situated in the Northeastern zone of the city. It is a neighborhood of 48.000 inhabitants living in an area of 42,7 hectares, one of the highest population density in 3 Colombia [ ].

Image 2: Moravia (Source: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2001).

Historical background Moravia is situated between two Metro stations: Universidad and Caribe; the informal and spontaneous settlement processes of the zone are one of the most ancient of the city, starting for first time in the 60's. These processes of occupation were stimulated and influenced by the proximity to the old Train station El Bosque and the extraction of materials from the Medellín River.

The municipal dump of the city was established Moravia in the 1977 by the Medellin Municipality and the human settlement rapidly growing due to the chance of the inhabitants of the zone to survive through the separation and recuperation of recyclable materials from the trash. In the 80's the violence problems, the economic crisis, the forced displacement and the presence of the dump produced the highest level of population in the neighborhood.

In 1983 the Medellin Municipality relocated the municipal dump of the city in la Curva de Rodas, this action seeks avoid the problem of the trash and subsequently defining the nonexistent urban fabric through the road infrastructure, defining the urban blocks, providing public services: water, energy and sewerage system; creating urban amenities like health centers, educational and cultural buildings, and canalize the streams El Molino and La Bermejala.

As an informal settlement Moravia is an urban closed system developed inwards, creating a strong community in a kind of labyrinth not integrated into the city. For this reason in 1990 the Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial (Land Use Plan) established Moravia as an important area of intervention as part of a partial plan for guiding the integral improvement of the neighborhood. In 2006 this plan started with the eviction of the inhabitants of the hill of trash (the old municipal dump) and their relocation in secure areas, after that the hill was decontaminated and it was converted in public space.

1

[ ] Medellín, by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medell%C3%ADn>.

2 [ ] Informalidad y Urbanismo Social by Hermelin, Echeverri, Universidad Eafit, 2010.

3 [ ] Art & Social Space Centro Cultural Moravia, Medellín, Interview with Carlos Uribe by Adriana Rios Monsalve, 2010.

The first part of the plan for the improvement of the neighborhood include the development of a series of small urban projects in order to reactivate the zone, in second place the location of new educational and cultural buildings and finally the creation of new dwellings for the people relocated from settlements in dangerous areas. The objective is maintaining a fraternal and close community around the social and urban structures of the neighborhood.

Image 3: The hill of garbage, Moravia 2003 (Source: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2001).

Initiator, partners and actors involved The integral plan for the improvement of the Moravia neighborhood is part of a governmental initiative of the Colombian state for the recovery of the Moravia Hill, it is funded by the Departamento de Planeación Municipal (City Planning Department) and the Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá (Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley). Another important actor involved in the development of this project is the Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano - EDU (Urban Development Company), the EDU is a state institution, part of the Municipality of Medellín, which is in charge of the management, development, operation, implementation, advisory and consultancy in urban projects and urban plans at local, municipal, departmental, national and international level.

The Universidad Nacional de Colombia (National University of Colombia) was in charge of the technical advisory. The Grupo de Investigación Urbanística (Urban Research Group) from the Faculty of Architecture developed a Diagnosis Project of the Public Space in Moravia and the Urban Regularization and Integral Legalization of the Properties in the Moravia Neighborhood. The team who developed this project was integrated by the architects Diego Lopez, Natalie Montoya, Gilda Wolf and Nora Elena Mesa.

The Centro de desarrollo cultural de Moravia – CDCM (Cultural development Center of Moravia) was designed by the one of the most renowned Colombian architects Rogelio Salmona, he died from cancer in Bogotá on 2007. The new dwellings for relocate the population who lived on the hill of garbage was designed and built by the Municipality of Medellín and the Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano – EDU.

Description Issues The smell of garbage that came from the hill where the city deposited the waste became a problem not just for the surrounding area; people spoke about “children fighting with buzzards for leftovers”, it was incredible that people could live there, perhaps, as the only chance to have a roof under which to sleep.

The neighborhood faced a systemic environmental crisis and the extreme expansion of poverty. In Moravia the 29% of the population were living in non-recoverable risk, 29,5% of the registered dwellings were dangerous structures, 30% of the population were children, 31% were adult population and 8% were adults over 50 years old, divided in 9.089 households with an average of 4,8 persons per house in 6.524 dwellings.

In the economic aspect, 65% of the population of the neighborhood was economically active, but with an unemployment rate of 67% and an informality of 88%, more than 98% of the population lived with less of one legal minimum salary.

Image 4: Moravia (Source: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2001).

With houses in 1 and 2 stratum (the lowest and poorest in the city), the 92% of the dwellings were in illegal possession.

Legal aspects of the intervention in Moravia In Colombia the law establishes the principles of land use and urban planning with a social and ecological functions with prevalence of the general interest over the particular interest and the equitable distribution of burdens and benefits, in addition, the importance of the urbanism and democratic participation as part of the urban actions and as a public service. Therefore, the urban planning institutions and authorities must ensure the effectiveness of public policies and encourage the participation of the inhabitants and their organizations as part of the considerations between environmental, social and urban interest.

The law provides the Planes de Ordenamiento Territorial – POT (Land Use Plan) in which local entities defines the territorial occupation model, the long term strategies in three periods of government, constituting the POT as a tool to generate physical and spatial conditions for the improvement of the general welfare and the quality of life of the population as a main purpose of the government.

The partial plan for the improvement of the Moravia neighborhood started in 2004, as part of the POT of Medellín and the plans of the respective periods of government, establishes the integral urban planning and improvement as a way to develop and complement the POT as a collective project.

Relocation of the population of Moravia The relocation process of the community of Moravia has been traumatic for most of the people, in some instances have been accepted but much of the population still feels insecure in order to survive in an environment which is strange to them. The life inside and outside the neighborhood is very different.

From the point of view of the municipality they present the following statement: “Still it is much remains, there is tremendous poverty in many homes and insecurity in many places, but Moravia is a very different neighborhood today than it was six years ago. In 2011 we will have a completely green hill with no dwelling on it as a result of a very strong process of environmental recovery and foreign cooperation we will implement a recycling industrial park, a health center, a quality school, linear parks, the urban paseo of Carabobo and the Cultural Center of Moravia.”

The housing system defines multiple strategies as a priority response to the resettlement of the population inside the neighborhood and its area of influence, the relocation process is composed by different alternatives that should be agreed with the affected households and according to the urban agreements. The municipality designed projects of urban integration with a renewing character for the qualification of the dynamic borders of the housing area and the main street of the neighborhood (Carabobo Street), the proposal of cloister housing and multifamily housing developments in the configuration of new centralities and the establishment of new centralities and urban axes to promote a more balanced distribution of the human settlements in the territory, a real mix of uses, productivity and urban habitability.

Image 5: Mirador de Calazanz (Source: Montoya, 2009).

In this relocation process the community has been involved in the challenge of leaving a place with so much history, consolidated in the zone and with a very good location respect to the city center of Medellín, the place of the services, opportunities and where they develop the informal economic activities to survive, that is why come families resist the relocation process away from the neighborhood when consultations with the community to formulate the intervention plan started.

There are two main relocation processes. The first one is the relocation in site, this means that the population is relocated in new housing developments in the neighborhood or places really close to it.

From 2015 to 1012 around 2.500 family groups from Moravia were relocated to new densified multifamily housing projects like Álamos I and Álamos II located in the northeast side of the neighborhood and in expansion areas of the city. On the other hand, the second relocation process called Resettlement in another neighborhood established the relocation of 1.689 families to new densified multifamily housing projects in the expansion areas of the neighborhoods Pajarito and Altos de Calazanz; places located in the slopes of the northwest side of the city.

Socio – environmental recovery of the hill of garbage The integral plan for the improvement of the Moravia neighborhood is divided is three main strategies of transformation: economic, social and the environmental regeneration, working in the environmental restoration of the hill, the strengthening of the productive units and social organization with the social accompanying of the families in the resettlement process.

As part of the social intervention families were hired to work in the new gardens and to be part of the productive units in the neighborhood. In addition the intervention has included environmental awareness campaigns with the community and educational institutions for the recognition of the two icons of the city: the flowers and the mountains.

Image 6: Moravia Hill (Source: Cátedra Unesco, 2014).

Most of the environmental interventions was implemented using natural systems of water management and the plan foresees in 15 to 20 years minimize the presence of contaminants such as heavy metals (Mercury, chromium, nickel, lead and cadmium).

Critical evaluation From my point of view, the integral plan for the improvement of the Moravia neighborhood is a complex urban project that searches for the improvement of the quality of life of the population promoting a more human and sustainable integral development of the neighborhood through interventions of urban renewal and the improvement of the environmental, socio-cultural and economic conditions of the community.

The urban model contribute to the consolidation of the compact and diverse city and it is orientated to grow to inside. The urban project is the device for the intervention in the territory enhancing the qualities of the place and suggesting a new more possible and feasible image of the community in the city condensing the principles of prevalence of the public, the protection of the inhabitants and built on what the neighborhood built to start a legalization process of the informal housing and based in the imminent need for an adequate management of the public space and the occupancy of the private space.

However, I think in the relocation process there is not enough accompanying of the authorities and entities in the process with the displacement community, the project stipulates a series of structural and infrastructural pilot projects to change the face of the neighborhood but the social support is completely forgotten in the adaptation process of the population in the new dwellings, specially the people who have to live in a new house really far for the Moravia. The decisions are taken without consulting the people who are directly involved. For many people the struggle for many years is in vain.

In the new housing projects there is not a deep understanding of the manners and life style of the community, for example, in the new dwelling in Pajarito it was not considered places to host all the economic activities of those who came from Moravia to the new housing project. The negative weight of the municipal bureaucracy in the development is inherent to the project, in this kind of development it must have key decisions to ensure the efficiency of the management, coordinating, articulating and synchronizing the development of the plan with the municipal bureaucratic structure.

In Colombia there are social, political, economic and cultural problems affecting the cities and its inhabitants, for this reason the urban project must integrate a huge social component and a complete strategy to facing the problem of the violence. In the country we know different kind of forced displacement and the urban project must be careful with this factor and specially develop a complete studio about the original architectural and urban structures to design the new spaces where this people will live not just in a different way, in a better way.

Comparative session In the comparative session I want to establish the common points of my project, Moravia, with the other projects of my group: the Spain Library Park also in Medellín, Habitat Popular Urbano Program in San José, Costa Rica, the Vertical Gymnasium – El Dorado in Caracas, Venezuela and the Upgrading San Rafael – Unido also in Caracas, Venezuela.

In first place the Spain Library Park is part of the projects of one of the most renowned mayors of Medellín in recent times: Sergio Fajardo, who conceived as the main objective of the city the education, that is why he built a network of public library parks as a hybrid typology of urban architecture and public space. Under the ideas of the “social urbanism”, “Medellín the most educated” and “The most beautiful for the most humble” these library parks are punctual projects executed in different parts of the city as a way to reactivate and renovate areas affected by violence and extreme poverty. We can compare the Spain Library Park with the Cultural Center of Moravia, as cultural and social epicenter of

integral projects where the people is secure, can share with others and the most important there is a place, different to a school, where children can spend the time. A criticism I have ever had is the integration of the library park network with a space public project, in spite of the existence of the Metro Cable as a way to connect the city with the Spain Library Park, I think is necessary establish this connection through the public space creating continuous flows of people between the library parks reactivating the entire city. In contrast the Cultural Center of Moravia in integrated to the city through the Carabobo Street, one of the most important boulevards of the city which leads directly to the city center, the place of the services and the development of the important economic activities in Medellín.

In second place the Vertical Gymnasium – El Dorado in Caracas has the same role of the Spain Library Park and the Cultural Center of Moravia, the difference is that the project is based in sports and recreation, a valid offer to a zone of the city where the lack of public space is one of the problems. As the other projects it is a punctual intervention capable of decrease the violence in the area of influence, creating a sense of belonging in the community and in the city. From my point of view I have the same criticism of the previous projects, I think is necessary an integral urban project based in public space to connect the vertical gyms in Caracas.

Finally the projects of the Upgrading San Rafael – Unido, also in Caracas and the project Habitat Popular Urbano Program in San José, Costa Rica are more similar to Plan for the improvement of the Moravia neighborhood, in this sense the projects have an emphasis in new housing projects with the importance of the social assistance in this process as part of the social responsibility of the architecture and urbanism and as a way of social change. The improve of the transport public is a point in common in almost all the projects with the objective of create a connection between the informal settlements and the city, It is not the case of Moravia, due to the closeness of the zone to the city center, that why, as I mentioned before, the problem was the relocation process of the population living in risk areas to a new housing projects away of the zone and away of the city center, the place for the informal economic activities.

I join the conclusion of the members of my group, as a part of the social process of this kind of projects “residents possess a firm understanding of what their communities need the most” and it is something that sometimes the architects and urban planners forget, the participation may be the key to avoid anonymous public spaces, the question to be raise is: “Is big architecture a necessity for change in a slum?”; the comparison of these five different project present the necessity of the integration of public transport as inherent part of the urban project. Finally, I think these kinds of interventions are just the beginning of a long process for improve and dignify how people live in the cities and integrate the entire society through culture and having the architecture and urbanism as the perfect vehicle of the transformation and renovation of our cities.

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