Elisa Isaza Bernhard
Urban Transformations & Sustainability: Planning Complex Cities
An adaptive strategic framework - The exploration of new upgrading strategies in Bogota, Colombia
Bogota, like many other cities in Colombia and Latin America, is facing the challenges of urban fragmentation and social segregation due to the rapid informal urbanisation process mainly triggered by forced displacements, socio-economic inequities and lack of effective governmental actions. The current neighbourhood upgrading programme of the city has not succeeded in generating a structural change due to the implementation of generic and short-term interventions that are lacking a long-term vision that embraces evolutionary and complex socio-environmental, spatial and political challenges related to informal environments.
The project proposes an alternative assessment and planning framework as a dynamic tool to improve the upgrading strategies in Bogota, by redefining the current view towards vulnerability and risk from a co-evolutionary socio-ecological approach. The proposal aims to reveal and enhance the local opportunities in informal environments by increasing their adaptive capacity and furthermore by strengthening their systemic interrelations with the formal structure through a collaborative process in time.