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Experimental Programme to Improve Housing in Bogotá
The aim of this experimental project is to try out a model for improving precarious housing as a mechanism for reaping social benefits. The collaborating partners are the Pontifical Javeriana University, the Sephardic Jewish Community (a private sector philanthropic organisation), the local government and the communities of the selected areas.
This project originated from the Consultancy Office of the Faculty of Architecture, which comprises teachers, external professionals and occasionally students on internships. The office operates as a social service and only carries out projects of academic relevance that do not compete with its graduates and help to solve social problems.
Students, teachers and members of the university administration of the engineering and social work faculties also participate in the project.
The programme began in March 2002 by selecting three sectors of Bogotá: Bosa, Ciudad Bolívar and San Cristóbal that are characterised by their extreme states of degradation.
The project's total budget is $600,000 for a three-year implementation period. In the case of Ciudad Bolívar, which receives the most intensive intervention, the programme is being financed in conjunction with the Sephardic Jewish Community, which to date has contributed roughly 390,000, while the university has allocated a total of $130,000.
Bogotá suffers from areas of urban sprawl that have sprung up illegally as a result of spontaneous land invasions. These newly-created areas tend to develop their own social and organisational dynamics. Public interventions aimed at partially covering the material needs of these areas may neutralise these dynamics. Furthermore, the lack of government resources means that these interventions are sporadic and have little impact on living conditions.
The possibilities of construction for persons of low-income are limited and the results are of a low quality irrespective of whether they originate from the informal market or public institutions. The more these systems of development are carried out, the more acute the urban deficit becomes in quantitative and qualitative terms, thereby increasing the quality curve negatively with respect to the basic indicators.
The results of research conducted by the university have corroborated these perceptions. The solutions that have been provided for low-income users do not meet their minimum expectations. The vast majority of dwellings (as many as 85%) had to be demolished to adapt them to basic needs.
Therefore, the intervention proposed regarding the precarious housing situation needs to end these paradigms and actions must arise from the basis of wealth within diversity. Thus, rather than implementing an overall redevelopment and restructuring process of districts and urban centres, we seek to strengthen the community and reduce social risks by merely improving individual dwellings.
The aim of this experimental project is to try out a model for improving precarious housing as a mechanism for reaping social benefits. The collaborating partners are the University, the Sephardic Jewish Community (a private sector philanthropic organisation), the local government and the community of the selected areas.
This project originated from the Consultancy Office of the Faculty of Architecture, which comprises teachers, external professionals and occasionally students on internships. The office operates as a social service and only carries out projects of academic relevance that do not compete with its graduates and help to solve social problems.
Students, teachers and members of the university administration of the engineering and social work faculties also participate in this project.
The programme began in March 2002 by selecting three sectors of Bogotá, Bosa, Ciudad Bolívar and San Cristóbal that are characterised by their extreme state of degradation.
The project’s total budget is $600,000 for a three-year implementation period. In the case of Ciudad Bolívar, which receives the most intensive intervention, the programme is being financed in conjunction with the Sephardic Jewish Community, which to date has contributed roughly 390,000, while the university has allocated a total of $130,000.
The underlying aim of the programme is to develop a model that would demonstrate how specific improvements on housing units can recover, consolidate and vitalise the urban and social fabrics of a city's outskirts. Furthermore, the project seeks to be sustainable, contributing to a balanced use of the environment through three basic criteria:
2.1. Reducing the economic resources that are earmarked by institutions for housing renovation by up to 60% (while assuring the same impact in terms of quality).
2.2. Reassessing the urban development process in certain areas of the city which, owing to the conditions of the terrain, were not being used to their full potential. This would help to prevent the city from expanding in areas that have not been developed. In the case of Bogotá, the application of the model proposed herein would save 3,500 hectares.
2.3. Providing the community with legal instruments and production tools that would enable it to eliminate the excluding term “informal housing” and integrate it to the benefit of the city while respecting its diversity.
After a stage of analysis of variables, Ciudad Bolívar was gauged to have the most serious problems, and was therefore the area chosen in which to carry out the Experimental Project to Improve Housing.
This decision coincided with the fact that the project's financers (the Sephardic Jewish Community) were already sponsoring a programme to aid refuse collectors who reside in the Juan Pablo II district of Ciudad Bolívar, and had therefore identified the district's leaders.
Consequently, the community was informed about the initial plan of action, with the aim of setting the project's guidelines and obtaining the majority's approval of our presence.
A number of processes for organising the architectural and legal information obtained from the work in situ and from official institutions were established to consolidate the intervention model proposed.
A special agreement was also signed with the Town Planning Office to facilitate the planning applications and licenses for redevelopment. An agreement was signed with the mayor’s office to promote decent housing and with a view to applying the intervention model to the entire city once the experimental project has been validated.
At the same time, mechanisms were established for community participation. As a way of consolidating the social fabric, public works institutions were asked to draw up projects for planning and management of the public space that could be carried out in collaboration with the community.
The work was divided into groups of ten housing units. Architectural studies were carried out, the existing constructions and spatial conditions were studied, and the first renovation proposals were drawn up.
It was also necessary to modify the University’s administrative and legal apparatus to adapt it to the conditions of the project.
Administrative actions were taken to legalise the housing by drawing up public deeds through the city’s Caja de Vivienda Popular (the organisation authorised by the mayor’s office for this purpose).
Collaboration with building companies was sought to find possible industrial systems that would make the solutions proposed more efficient and reduce costs.
It was also necessary to work in conjunction with a team from the mayor’s office to modify administrative mechanisms and city development regulations to implement the proposed model.
In conjunction with the individual process, in order to bolster civil networks and social cohesion, community work groups were set up: cleaning, security, drug consumption prevention and football teams were organised, as well as groups to train people in weaving and metalworking.
1. At a specific level:
1.1. In addition to providing housing needs, the project has also succeeded in strengthening the individual, the family and the community. To date approximately 6,112,09 m2, (130 dwellings) have been architecturally renovated at an average cost of US $4,000 per dwelling. However, the most significant results have fed through to the community in socio-economic terms.
1.2. Employment was provided to 90% of the beneficiary families; teachers and officials were trained in construction technologies and in the application of the earthquake-resistant NSR-98 standard. It succeeded in adopting an appropriate technology in housing construction in the area that will prevent catastrophes, as well as reactivating the district’s economy.
1.3. The community leaders were identified, and worked in close collaboration with the project; the community set up groups to protect the building works, the materials and the personnel.
1.4. The use of public space was increased as a consequence of the uses and treatment afforded by the community. Hence, the public space is organised to be safer and cleaner.
1.5. The project succeeded in engaging public bodies such as the police, cleaning services, and the district authorities for building pavements and streets. It was also successful in involving the private sector, inviting various companies, in addition to those that financed the project, to participate with contributions within the framework of a city development project.
2. At a general level:
2.1. The project has been expanded to various bodies and cities in the area:
On a national level, the Vice-Ministry of Housing.
At a departmental level, the Provincial Government Cundinamarca.
The cities of Bogotá, Medellín and Calarca.
An invitation has been received from the City Council of Bogotá to sign the Decent Housing Agreement and the Agreement with the Caja de Vivienda Popular to enable the model to be implemented throughout the entire city. The first stage is being carried out on 1,040 dwellings belonging to 26 Zone Planning Units (UPZ).
The next stage will involve 3,500 dwellings and will bring into existence the first Zone Management Scheme for the city of Bogotá.
Projects to transfer this model to the cities of Medellín and Calarca are being drawn up, and these are expected to be carried out in 2006.
The university, together with the project’s collaborators and Bogotá City Council, has developed the process for assessing the project. The first positive results are:
The development of an appropriate methodology.
The need to increase research into contextual problems.
The Architecture Faculty’s enormous potential for solving social problems.
The possibility of generating spaces for living together in the communities, fostering their potential with small actions that resolve larger conflicts.
A number of weaknesses have also been detected:
1. The lack of administrative capacity of the institutions, including the University, to undertake large-scale projects.
The inadequate training of architects and engineers for tackling problems that call for a high degree of interdisciplinary knowledge.
A shortage of skill to use technological resources.
A lack of scientific rigor in the attitude of the professionals.
Lastly, we can conclude that:
It is possible to carry out specific interventions in a group of dwellings and to generate social processes that will benefit the community. State institutions have acknowledged the model developed by the university, and have used it as an paradigm of action for the city.
The University has demonstrated once again its capacity to draw up and put into practice solutions to problems that seemed unsolvable.
The project has demonstrated that it is possible to bring together different players in order to reach solutions to common problems.
It has been demonstrated that the University can be a driving force for comprehensive and sustainable development.
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