Physical Upgrading of Self-Produced Environments

2006 – 2012

Faculty:

Ignacio Cardona, María M. Hernández

Visiting Faculty:

Josefina Baldó, Federico Villanueva, Carmenofelia Machado

Students:

Architecture students, Universidad Simón Bolívar

Institutions:

Universidad Simón Bolívar; Municipality of Baruta

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This teaching initiative explored the physical upgrading of self-produced environments through multiple architecture and urban design studios at Universidad Simón Bolívar. Working with communities including Las Minitas in Baruta, students combined conventional urban analysis—environmental conditions, patterns of urban development, infrastructure, and collective facilities—with experimental methods for documenting less visible spatial and social conditions.

Digital models, conceptual physical models, field observation, and mapping became instruments for understanding connectivity, mobility, public space, and access to urban services. Design proposals tested strategies including architectural and urban links, bridging projects, new ecological and mobility corridors, and public-space systems. The studios positioned the self-produced city not simply as a condition to be documented, but as a territory in which analysis could generate concrete strategies for spatial integration.