Lima's Block Attack

Through speculative design, the proposal will seek to showcase the impacts of vertical densification on social interactions, economic capabilities, and environmental sustainability, within the informal settlements of Lima. The output will ultimately result in a new typology to be appropriated.

The project approached the development of the intervention by firstly combining the processes of informal, bottom-up urbanisation with the top-down approach of formal urbanism. \nThe project begins with the provision of an empty structure and formal zoning plan. This was in order to deal with the existing typology’s most critical factors being the safety of its inhabitants and the typology’s limitations for it. The infill allows the inhabitants to dictate their own spatial configurations as each persona requires very specific spatial requirements. In addition, the provision of a formal structure allowed the residents to have the security to invest in their dwelling as the structure will be able to resist future earthquakes. Connecting spaces are also provided in order to allow for much needed public and green functions. \nA second important theme raised in the course of this project, is the projection of the ground floor into a vertical element. The intervention proposes a 2 meter wide ramp which connects each slab’s communal space. Each of these communal spaces will have allocated public areas as well as productive green areas. The ramp will allow for the accessibility of residents, including mobile vendors. These mobile vendors are a core activity dictating the usage of streets in Lima. The high population density of the proposed block will therefore attract such commercial activity which in turn will ensure the communal spaces are activated. While this structure will not be able to replicate the desired grounded conditions of street life it will instead allow for more intimate and manageable public spaces which will, encourage an increase in social interactions.\nIn conclusion, the proposed typology should not be viewed as a completed architectural project, but instead as a system of functions dictated by an extensive matrix of parameters. It should also be understood, not as the correct solution but as one more alternative typology put forward in the increasingly urgent theme of global south urbanization.