Year: 2014
Framework: Preliminary Project 05, Scheps Workshop, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism of the University of the Republic (FADU-Udelar).
Co-Authors: Arch. Inés Fernández and Arch. Luciana Tejera
Tags: Urban Planning | Architecture | Project Design
The urban proposal arises from the recognition of the territory of Montevideo and part of the metropolitan area as a fragmented territory, the materialisation of an emerging socio-territorial fragmentation between two or more different socio-economic realities that coexist territorially but do not integrate or coexist, they ignore each other. These dynamics have an impact on the territory, modifying traditional integration values, creating the "ghettoisation" of its inhabitants, increasing the lack of infrastructure, accessibility, connectivity and quality of public spaces in some sectors of the city.
"Hinterlands" refers to areas beyond the visible or known. In this context, the term is applied to those segregated fragments within the Montevideo territory. Segregated not because of remoteness per se, but because of a lack of interest and care on the part of both the state and the inhabitants themselves. Nevertheless, these areas should be qualified - in terms of urban infrastructure and public space - in the same way as the central areas of Montevideo.
Thus, the Hinterlands urban proposal aims to generate new spaces for democratic coexistence, to integrate back into the city those areas that are considered to be materially segregated from the Montevideo fabric. Thus, it is defined to focus on transit strips, access and exit from the capital's centre to the periphery that cross areas of high vulnerability, often close to the most marginalised sectors of the city.
Eight linear spaces are proposed parallel to each road axis on which they are located. Each one of them is inserted in fragments with potential territorial and social characteristics to blur and ignore the existing fissures. Scenarios of social coexistence, diversity and equality are thus created. Interventions in the form of democratic scenarios, where the social and daily encounter of collectives that are currently ignored originates.
The conjunction of the eight spaces forms a network of nodes that allow for active and participative action on the territory so that they intervene in a plural and combined way, improving social cohesion and coexistence.
Of the eight proposed nodes, the one at the intersection of Camino Maldonado and Susana Pintos is developed. In this, the urban proposal takes as a landmark the number of neighbourhood educational centres in the area and the number of young people who live there, generating an infrastructure that complements and supports educational activities.