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“This workshop contributes to the practice of spatial intervention on spaces of urban informality, merging community involvement in areas of poverty with the innovative physical approaches of design.”

Future Growth Comuna 8’s organic approach to growth supersedes the City’s attempts to curb urban development.

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Pedestrian paths may be parallel to topographic elevation lines. 0

“The conflict between informal urban communities and the state is not unique to the Medellín; the geography Scenario of 2 Scenario 1 Future Growth Scenario Examples Cinturon Initiated Growth informality in the “global south” and urban regeneration in the “global north” are filled with such conflicts.” Unrestricted Growth

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Pedestrian paths may be perpendicular to topographic elevation lines.

Rethinking Informality

Due to the strong influence of geography and topography on Medellín was the most dangerous city In the 1990s, conditions at the fringe of Medellin, the 8world. Since 2003, the city has undergone an residents of in Comuna have developed patterns of growth to work within those internationally urban transformation, natural constraints. Understanding renowned how these informal settlements approach part toofreconciling a controversial nationwide peace process growth is essential the Comuna’s perspective with that of the implemented under three consecutive mayoral City. Through theadministrations. rule set we developed, The City’s homicide rate is now we see clearly how topography informs howathese communities growit was, and the plan is seen as an tenth of what and shape their own transportation example ofneeds. how to engage with conflict and violence according to their Urban informality across the global networks. When these rules are then applied to through spatial the context of the Cinturon Verde, it and urban policies. south accounts for up to one third immediately becomes apparent that of urban development in the world the City’s plan to use the Cinturon as boundary is futile. type this workshop was an international Starting inThis 2013, today. In recent years, it has becomeaofgrowth infrastructure will only fuel more and sprawl, as it is wholly obvious that informal housing and developmentcollaboration between the MIT School of disconnected from the mobility needs land markets are not just the domainof Comuna 8.Architecture + Planning, and practitioners and

Jota Samper, Catalina Ortiz, Javier Soto

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Pedestrian paths with high fidelity to topography and bordering steep topography lines are more likely to become formalized by size and pavement quality.

When pedestrian paths cross multiple elevations a switchback typology is observed.

of the poor, but that they are also important for the middle class, and even the elite, of Second World and Third World cities. Such trends point to a complex continuum of legality and illegality, where squatter settlements formed through land invasion and self-help housing can exist alongside upscale informal subdivisions formed through legal ownership and market transaction but in violation of land use regulations.

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These switchbacks enable more density due to their continuity.

scholars in Colombia. This workshop looked at the challenges of growth management of cities in the global south. On one side, it was interested in the creation of predictive models of city growth as tools to inform design and planning decision making process; even more importantly, it was interested in generating urban development strategies that use the inherent qualities of the informal development in the cities in the south as a way to direct growth in ways that are sustainable and equitable. Building orientation is parallel to elevation lines.

Quebradas act as natural physical and social boundaries but also manifest as thoroughfares.

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Housing: Roads: 21,860m2 1,472 m 1,005 units

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Housing: 19,500 m2 700 units

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Roads: 3,842 m

Students conducted on-site fieldwork on the growth of informal settlements in Medellín’s Comuna 8 neighborhood. Working with local counterparts, the MIT class worked in a studio environment space to quickly assess the challenges and produce quick ideas and prototypes of possible strategies. Using photography, video recordings, and community meetings, as well as questionnaires on site, members gathered information necessary to develop a preliminary design vision for the selected sites.

These diagrams show two examples of projected growth at the fringe in relation to existing development. From top to bottom: these images show the projected growth against existing satellite imagery; these diagrams show the current level of development against the proposed path of the Cinturon; and these diagrams forecast how new networks and development will occur according to the codified growth patterns.

Returning to MIT, the class combined seminars, discussions, and studio formats as course members grappled with revising the criteria and preliminary design proposals produced during the fieldtrip, researched the “state of the art” in urban strategies for the intervention on contexts of urban informality, and developed new criteria and design proposals. By mapping and understanding ways in which informal settlements have historical growth and envisioning trajectories based on ongoing development patterns and proposed projects, the students were able to understand the context in which state intervention happens in areas of urban informality. In the end, they developed criteria and design strategies and communication skills that make the proposals relevant for decision-makers, the community, institutions, and other stakeholders. In 2015, the class returned to explore Medellín’s New Jerusalem neighborhood, allowing students to discover firsthand the process and form of fast informal urbanization as well as its consequences. Learning from the successful social agenda and the ‘integrated urban projects’ that regenerated the informal fabrics of Medellín, they explored the potential for planned infrastructural interventions to help new informal settlers.

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