Where have we been?

In the past few weeks, we have been wading knee deep in snow here in New York as well as in issues of growth, development, infrastructure and ecology at scales that stretch from our site in Usme to Colombia, to the globe. As a way of representing these issues, we have constructed word maps outlining each of our primary questions in order to develop a collective narrative. Out of this narrative, we created diagrams to synthesize the information we collected.

Christian

My primary issue of interest is Flexible Housing. In the Word Map, I define flexible housing not simply as an architecture typology, but as economy, community empowerment, and politics converging and influencing each other to create a new system of planning and development. Through this exercise I believe real flexibility can be reached at all scales: housing, community, USME and beyond.





Zenon

For this exercise I examined the issue of environment. I began by identifying several of the main problems and stating the overarching possibilities. Then I listed the actors involved, what they do, as well as examples of how they do it. -Next I took three elements from the word map, highlighted relevant case studies, and diagrammed them. The elements I chose were: Community Engagement, Pedagogical Platforms, and Green Housing. After that I combined them and created my own mechanism. The revised diagram articulates the use of Community Engagement and Pedagogical Platforms to create Green Housing.




Miranda

We are challenged with the densification of housing types in order to accommodate growth in Bogota. I challenge the premise that new development is really necessary. Is there a way to develop Usme as a continued agricultural area for Bogota, developing housing and agriculture together in order to provide a new economic livelihood, without developing the entire region?
Could we see what happened at the archeological site in Usme as a way to freeze conventional development and instead, become more specific about the ways in which Usme will grow and support its own economy?



Drew

Bogota’s current system of community empowerment is problematic because of its structuring around centralized, top-down policy implementation. The result is a system with incomplete connections between the governmental bodies and the public. This exercise investigates issues that inhibit networks of public knowledge that influence decision-making. Additionally, it proposes a system redefined by the specificities of culture, people, skills, and geographies to organize community networks of education and, eventually, empowerment.



Zahra

Most of the housing finance policies in Bogota are designed for households who are working in the formal sectors, excluding the population who make a living in the informal economy. How can we involve communities in the process of improving their living environments? I am investigating strategies for financing housing projects through the use of communities' own assets and also in the ways that housing projects can act as an economic engine for the communities.