Climate Justice, Watercourses, and Urban Resilience | Universidad Simón Bolívar

2009

Institution:

* Universidad Simón Bolívar

Course:

* Studio 7 equivalent.

Case Study:

* Vargas – Ten years after the flood disaster.

Teaching Staff:

* Ignacio Cardona / Instructor

* Franco Micucci / Instructor

Group of 20 students of architecture.

This project was awarded an honorific mention in the Students Competition in 2009

XXIII Latin American Conference of Architecture Schools (CLEFA).

*

In 1999, the flood disaster in Vargas shocked the whole world. Three days of heavy rains left more than 1,814 mm of water at the site, causing soil saturation; this, in turn, caused the flow of water down slopes of more than 30 degrees, bringing landslides, rocks, trees, and the topsoil of the mountains. Subsequently, the studies revealed a natural phenomenon that occurred periodically in millennial times.

At that time, dozens of professionals, especially the country’s most recognized universities, developed urban plans to restore the place. However, ten years later, the area was still almost destroyed. This Studio, set in 2009, explored ways to resume those plans through urban design projects.

After the urban analysis framed within the logic of sustainability, the course promoted a small but high-impact set of interventions. At the environmental level, the proposal included a green spaces network to protect the waterways and reconnect the city while mitigating the negative effects of water floods. At the economic level, we propose recycling old infrastructures and transforming them into public facilities. And at a social level, the project incorporates mix-used densification with mix-income housing.