Climate Change and Post-Disaster Rebuilding: Urban Design for Vargas

2009

Faculty:

Ignacio Cardona, Franco Micucci, Instructors

Students:

20 Architecture Students

Institutions

Universidad Simón Bolívar

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Developed ten years after the catastrophic 1999 Vargas landslides, this urban design studio examined post-disaster rebuilding in the context of climate change and recurrent environmental risk. Building on recovery plans developed after the disaster, students investigated how urban design could translate large-scale planning intentions into spatial strategies capable of responding to increasingly vulnerable relationships between settlement, water, and topography.

Following urban and environmental analysis, the studio proposed small-scale, high-impact interventions integrating ecological, economic, and social strategies. A network of green spaces protected waterways, reconnected fragmented areas, and mitigated flooding; existing infrastructure was repurposed as public facilities; and new mixed-use and mixed-income development introduced greater urban diversity. Together, these strategies approached climate adaptation and rebuilding as opportunities to establish more resilient relationships between urbanization, infrastructure, and landscape.