Resilient Sprawl

Proyecto Unidad Arquitectura del paisaje, studies the conflict between urban growth and biodiversity, through drawing existing ecologies, hydrological systems, urban and rural areas,  identifying and re designing a complex, multi functional matrix able to respond to the needs of urban growth and biodiversity across the metropolitan region of Bogotá, in Colombia, a high Altitude plateau that is expected to receive up to 6 million new dwellers in the next 30 years. If the trends continues, the city of Bogotá will continue to expand rapidly and in a disorganized manner, into valuable arable land and vulnerable ecosystems. This growth will mainly happen in the form of informal settlements, gated communities and large industrial complexes, responding to economic drivers only, increasing household numbers without understanding the existing ecologies, exerting enormous pressure over ecological assets, disturbing hydrological cycles, and reducing agricultural production, jeopardizing water and food supply for a ten million people region.

Through the detailed study of key projects around the city, mainly in the rural areas, students have mapped,redrawn and re-designed pre existing natural systems, infrastructures and new expansion areas, contributing to the construal of a new landscape plan for the metropolitan region protecting the Paramos, rivers, forests and wetlands and providing strategies to provide space for urban growth combined with intensive agricultural production.