DESIGN
Factors influencing changes in urban fabric
RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS, PHASE 2
16/02/19
Going into big scale again I have looked at the flows of cocaine through this area. It is mostly produced in the Andes and the Amazon, but some of it in by antioquian farmers aswell. Most of this cocaine goes through Cali, Medellin and Bogota and then are distributed worldwide. Colombia is currently the main exporter of cocaine in the world with between 70-80% of exports. It currently produces and exports more cocaine than it used to in the time of the cartels.
A second factor that has had a huge effect on the cities is war. Since the 1920s there has been an armed conlfict in Colombia that started as a Civil war but continues in fights between Paramilitary groups and communist guerrillas. The whole conflict is and was specially felt in rural areas, creating an exodus of people moving to the cities. This explains the rapid evolution of Medellin which went from having 20.000 inhabitants to 4 million in 100 years.
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There were repeated urban expansion plans from 1930 to 1970 but during the time of the macro-cartels this stopped as the government focused in something else. During this period the major designers of the city were druglords. In the expansion of the city, informality has played a very important role since 1930s. Informal areas used to colonise a space and then formal developments would come and take over, then informality would go somewhere else and colonise it aswell. Now these informal areas have been recognised as actual neighborhoods so this process has stopped.
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As a result of these agents and these changes in the urban fabric, Medellin is the 3rd most populated city in the world (according to a report by UNHABITAT 2017) Thus its road network (focused on the river corridor) is very saturated. The metro was developed in the 1990s to try to solve the problem of mobility, and has been ever since a catalyst for improving and connecting marginalised areas. However, the city is very focused on the area along the river, mainly in the city centre and El Poblado. The neighborhoods in the higher areas are very isolated from each other and depend a lot from the centre.
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Also along the river are the wealthies areas. And the poorest areas are controlled by criminal organisations. There are two main ones: La Oficina de Envigado (descends from the Medellin Cartel and is controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel. An Los Urabeños, the major criminal band in Colombia at the moment. Usually each neighborhood is controlled by a gang and this gang is member of either organisation. La oficina controls most of the city, while Los Urabeños control the back accesses into the city. La sierra and the comuna 13 are the two most important areas in for criminal bands, for the topography of the area makes them strategic back entries into the city.
REFLECTION
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This part of my research made me realize how important it is to understand the different factors and elements that have an impact on a site. And that these can be city wide or also be flows and events of worldwide significance.
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I also realized that informal settlements are more susceptible to be affected by external fluxes or events due to the socio-economic conditions and poverty of these areas and the strong dependace they usually have from the formal city.
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This meant that for my design I should not only work just with the site of La Sierra, but also understand how it fits with a wider context within the city and the region, and how the changes that I will be proposing will also have an impact on the city overall.
REFLECTION ON PRACTICE
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I think we need to change our way of thinking as a discipline, from masterplans and sites where everything has a limit, to techniques that reflect better the organic, systematic and unpredictable nature of the natural environment. This will allow us to have a better understanding of the nature and behaviour of the site and the elements that influence it.