Construction for changing environments

Architects Cristina Murphy and Andrea Bertassi asked the questions at Smartgeometry 2013 held in London April in their presentation “Constructing for an Evolving Ecology”:  How do we design for and within the evolving contemporary city and the cities yet to come?

How can we cope with relationships within and between global supercities and address the dynamics of our times in a world more densely and instantly connected? Who are the agents that generate change in construction industry and in relation to what kind of opportunities? They discussed these questions with Duncan Wilson (Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected Cities), Judit Kimpian (Aedas), and Alan Penn, Dean of the The Bartlett School.

Murphy talked about designing for people for the El Bosque project, in Soyapango, El Salvador. The Toolbox approach application has  been developed to address the housing issues there. El Bosque will become an Integrated Sustainable Low-Income neighborhood in the heart of the metropolitan area of San Salvador, surrounded and defined by nature. Poor people usually settle in areas that are unorganized and are then vulnerable. The El Bosque site is difficult, in that there are floods and it is hilly for social housing. Two violent gangs surround the area and are not connected to the community. People who live here are all poor and desperate.

The elderly, kids (embrace violent gangs because it’s easy), women who don’t have an economy because they have children are those who need housing and are at risk. The project includes applying a sustainable approach to low income housing, and putting in place hospitals and daycare. These are people who live and work in the same area. They need to generate an economy that is run by mothers, comes with grandparents, and figure out how the  house can grow in the future.

“NGOs are not supporting developing countries as they were before 2009,” said Murphy. “Nowadays microloans must be assigned to women, and people must work to pay the loan back. We need to also design working spaces and accommodations.”

Who will invest in this area? The idea is that each family will contribute a little money.

Each lot must be allocated to a family and each family puts in a little money.

The most simple and most efficient unit will be the best design.

The groups can learn to collect water, harvest energy through water and sun and reduce private and encourage more public transportation.

Almost 1.000 people (208 families) will move to El Bosque, which will provide a mixed program that combines housing with commerce, social facilities and high-quality public space for community expression, which are designed to stimulate a shared identity. Youth will have areas to recreate, women will have options to leave their children in safe hands while going to work, men and women can grow their own vegetables or sell at the local market. Small-scale enterprises will be stimulated in specific areas dedicated to boost the local economy.

The plan is that these types of community designs will be able to be shaped to use in other underdeveloped areas of the world.

Tags: AEC, architecture, economics, El Bosque, El Salvador, environment, housing for underserved populations, low-income housing

Categories: AEC, architecture, construction

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