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.