Life after fences
Negotiating low-income gated communities in Bogotá
F. Ruiz Carvajal (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
Luiz De Carvalho Filho – Mentor (TU Delft - Spatial Planning and Strategy)
Birgit Hausleitner – Mentor (TU Delft - Urban Design)
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Abstract
Low-income gated communities have become increasingly popular in Bogotá, despite the contradiction that lies at their core: that life in a self-sufficient and closed type of housing is an unsustainable endeavour for a population that cannot pay for a privatised life. To navigate through this paradox, residents constantly negotiate those regulations that keep communities closed (which they cherish as source of order and tranquillity) with their own experience and needs. This negotiation derives into actions of “overflow” that challenge the planned space and, under current conditions, are destined to remain unrecognised by formal institutions.
This research explores the ways in which these actions can be translated into and enhanced through a spatial and regulatory “framework for negotiation.” The goal is to create the conditions for the growth of open living environments through actions that prioritize horizontal interaction and spatial flexibility. In this scenario, residents become the main agents of production of social, political, and economic complexity of their neighbourhoods.