Overview

What is the urban and architectural strategy for an emerging Bogotá?

Bogotá’s inner city was long characterized by chaotic urban development, which led to great inequality and informality. Today, Colombia’s capital is globally recognized for its urban innovation and social justice, an urban transformation put in place by a series of three consecutive mayors who vastly changed the face of the city. This emergent urbanism, produced at the intersection of top-down planning and bottom-up improvisation, cannot be meaningfully addressed by traditional planning models and demands critical investigations into the future vision of inner city Bogotá.

Students will travel to Bogotá as an extension of the Urban-Think Tank Design Studio to investigate the architecture, urbanism, culture, and social exchange in Bogotá with a specific focus on public spaces and park systems. City and architectural tours, museum visits, lectures and talks from local experts will constitute the majority of the trip. With representatives from the City of Bogotá and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, we will take part in a series of on-site mapping workshops to collect urban ideas and input from residents, interdisciplinary experts, community groups, NGOs, and the private sector.

Office visits:

Rogelio Salmona Architecture Works

Konrad Brunner Arquitectos

Daniel Bermúdez, Holcim Award Jury

Giancarlo Mazzanti

Alejandro Restrepo Arquitectura

Reception at the Swiss Embassy in Bogotá.