UA: Water Systems in Bogotá
FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
Universidad de los Andes
Unidad Avanzada (Advanced Unit)
Professor: Daniel Bermúdez
2018-01
During the first semester of 2018, the design course will study and intervene different areas of Bogotá that present a direct relation to the city’s water systems. The mismanagement of this resource as an element of integration has led to the fragmentation of the capital’s ecosystems, which, being disregarded and altered, increasingly lose their natural character and function, and finally, leave the landscape deteriorated. The objective of the studio is quite the opposite: to identify the opportunities that Bogotá still possesses to utilize this vital resource for the conformation of habitable urban environments and public spaces, and to optimize water management in the built environment.
The interest of the studio is for the students to develop proposals that increase the population density of the city sector (dwellings) and to nurture it with complementary services, as required by each specific site. Following this objective, the impact analysis of the projects should cover a radius of 500 m and the proposals should explicitly develop a relation with the city’s water systems and the surrounding areas and parcels affected by water basins, streams and surface runoffs. Along these lines it is desired that the students, besides developing an exact number of buildings, put forward a mass study that reflects an understanding of the intrinsic needs of the chosen site.