Capitalizing the Return of the Mountain
Iker MugarraFlores
The research addresses an emerging phenomenon that rapidly spread in Caracas, as highly accumulated unplanned buildings, known as “Barrios” (informal settlements), which is the result the local economic climate. Their socio-economic conditions have created social division and alienation of lower classes.
In response, a productive proto-villa is proposed in Barrio Sanagusting, that articulates agricultural production, structure, living space, public spaces and social interactions, all embedded within an architecture which emerge from the articulation of environmentally responsive design, composite materials such as Wood Plastic Composite Lumber as a degradable and recycled non-degradable materials, stacking techniques, cultivation techniques and the local ecology dynamics, as means to orchestrate and develop productive, spatial, structural and programmatic qualities, creating the opportunity to introduce a highly artificial urban strategy to return the mountain to the mountain.
This attempts to trigger a new sense of local community bringing them together, where they would engage with agricultural produce as a raw and refined product. This layer of food production will offer a common target providing economic opportunities that will improve and rejuvenate the barrios and people’s quality of life, also allowing trading between these communities and the wider city, introducing the barrio to the monetary economy of the city.
The villa will trigger social interaction between the formal fabric of the city and these alienated communities reducing social bridges, challenging standard protocols of design and construction while engaging with social and economic issues.