Designing For Life

Venezuelan Architect Manuel Delgado examines the 2014 design competition for the Civic Center of Medellín and the entry developed by a team assembled from many Designing For Life collaborators.
https://www.academia.edu/35672140/141121_MD_Memoria-edit.docx

One of the widest circulation newspapers in Caracas picked up the story of our event on Friday in its Sunday edition. Check it out!
http://m.eluniversal.com/caracas/130712/ledezma-busca-respaldo-internacional-para-el-proyecto-parque-la-carlot

Ledezma Busca Respaldo Internacional Para El Proyecto Parque La Carlot - Caracas - El Universal

Some press on our event.

Alcalde de Caracas estará en Boston para participar en Simposio de urbanismo Este 12 de julio estará Antonio Ledezma, Alcalde de Caracas, en la ciudad de Boston, MA, en Wentworth Institute of Technology, presentando los proyectos y el ganador del Concurso Ideas para La Carlot,NEWS/NOTICIAS

Folco Riccio claims that "air rights are human rights." No air rights have yet been transferred in the case of Boston's Big Dig. "Air" is a surrogate for breathing and openness essential necessities of humanity. If it is take away in one place it must be provided elsewhere. More positively, air space above highways is of negative value. Closing the highway creates a benefit, an increase in air quality. In the case of La Carlota, an enormous gain in high quality places for people.
The Caracas of 2050 is expected to rise from 3 million today to 7 million. Reconnecting neighborhoods across the barrier of the central freeway holds the potential to create an area equivalent to about one forth of the La Carlota park.

Maria Isabel Espinosa worked on three competition entries with Franco Micucci and many others. In the discussions with team members and the organizers, Maria Isabel identified the concept of "edificabilidad" as the key to understanding the perspective out of which all of these ideas emerge. Looking at the many ways of translating the word to English, she comes down to the sense of potential: What is the highest potential for the future manifestation of a given site or place?
The key concept is the coming together of three characteristics: Habitability, Activity, and Mobility, shorted as "HAM."
The common ground of the two entries by three teams is captured in the method identified as "mapping the possiblities" documenting both the edificabilidad and the Habitability-Activity-Mobility embedded in the situations of La Carlota. Rather than a fixed vision, the sense of possibility is preserved with three approaches to the implementation:
Project of Projects
Gradual Project
Consensus Project
Separately and together, these approaches maintain an on-going sense of possibility.
There is a need to design for people, regreen Caracas, and build on the existing strengths of Caracas and its people.
The city of Barcelona stands as a paradigmatic example of the way architecture integrated with strong understanding of forces operating at the larger scale of the city and the non-material processes and relationships (life). La Mina was the piece of the underdeveloped world in a developed urban center.