Download - Final Study Proposal
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Geoffrey A. Kornegay
Proposal for a Professional Study
In partial completion of the requirements for the Master of Architecture degree
at Texas A&M University
ARCHITECTURAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Expected graduation date
May 2012
Members of the Graduate Advisory Committee
Dr. Peter Lang, Chair, ARCH
Dr. Cecilia Giusti, Member, LAUP
Dr. Jesse Saginor, Member, LAUP
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Table of Contents
Project Abstract 3
Background
Hyper Urbanization 4
Informal Settlements 5
The Case of Mexico City 7
Three Types of Infrastructure 7
Case Studies
Grotão - Fábrica de Música 9
Living Rooms on the Border 12
Parque Ecologico Lago de Texcoco 14
Goals and Evaluative Criteria 16
Project Description 17
Building Codes 19
References 20
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PROJECT ABSTRACT
Over the course of half a century of “slum fixing,” and “urban revitalization,” the world
has seen a broad spectrum of answers to the question, “what should we do for the urban
poor?” From the short sighted “tabula rasa” to concrete mega-blocks of the hyper-modernists,
each theory, though well intentioned, had flaws. More recent approaches encourage less
intervention and more basic support. This method is gaining ground, but can fall short of
providing a complete solution. By understanding not only the physical needs of informal
settlements, but also the economic and social needs, a more complete approach can be taken
to encourage positive growth in depressed areas. This approach will be utilized in the design of
an “Architectural Infrastructure” facility in the Neza-Chalco-Itza settlement of Mexico City. By
addressing all three categories of needs in a holistic manner, a design solution can be reached
that truly meets the needs of the communtiy.
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PROJECT BACKGROUND
Hyper Urbanization
According to the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs, sometime
between 2005 and 2010, the population of the world reached a critical milestone and now, for
the first time in history, more than half of the planet resides in an urban area. (UN-DESA, 2009)
The same report estimates that by 2050, nearly 70% of the world will live in a city – 6.3 billion
people. In an interview with the BCC, Hania Zlotnik, the director of the UN’s Population Division
said, “Most of the urbanization is happening at the lower level… Our surveys and projections
indicate that all urban growth over the next 25 years will be in developing countries. In
developed countries, urbanization will remain the same or decline.” (BBC, 2005)
Over the course of the next several decades, rural citizens of developing countries will
continue to pour into cities at unprecedented rates. In its Population Challenges and
Development Goals, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs lists 22 countries that
accounted for 75% of the world’s population growth from 2000 – 2005. 21 of those countries
are a part of the developing world, with the lone exception being the United States. This report
also provides several eye opening projections, including those in Figure 1, showing negligible
population change in the developed world from 2005 – 2030, 2.2% annual growth of urban
population in the developing world, and negative population change in rural areas. It also
asserts that, “Particularly rapid growth is expected in the group of 50 countries classified as the
least developed. By mid-century, the population of the least developed countries could more
than double in size.” (UN-DESA, 2005)
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Figure 1. Selected Indicators for the Urban and Rural Population, 1950 – 2030. (UN-DESA, 2005)
Informal Settlements
The UN’s HABITAT group reports that there are currently 1 billion people living in
informal settlements around the world, accounting for 1/6th of humanity. This number is
expected to double by 2030, at which time 1 in 4 people will belong to this group. Most of this
growth is expected to take place in cities of the developing world with populations between 1
and 5 million – cities which are largely unprepared for such growth. (UN HABITAT, 2007) As
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seen in Figure 2, there are already more than two dozen nations with 5 million or more people
living in informal settlements, all of them in the developing world.
Figure 2. Population of Urban Informal Settlements by Nation – (UN HABITAT, 2010)
In his book, Shadow Cities, Robert Neuwirth asserts that the majority of this population,
“…are simply people who came to the city, needed a place to live that they and their families
could afford, and, not being able to find it in the private market, built it for themselves on land
that wasn’t theirs…. These squatters mix more concrete than any developer. They lay more
brick than any government. They have created a huge hidden economy – an unofficial system
of squatter landlords and squatter tenants, squatter merchants and squatter consumers,
squatter builders and squatter laborers, squatter brokers and squatter investors, squatter
teachers and squatter schoolkids, squatter beggars and squatter millionaires. Squatters are the
largest builders of housing in the world – and they are creating the cities of tomorrow.”
(Neuwirth, 2005, pg.10)
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The Case of Mexico City
For its Global Report on poverty in 2003, the UN’s HABITAT group published,
Understanding Slums: Case Studies, a series of in-depth looks at the most impoverished
informal settlements in the world. Though the data is now several years old, it still provides the
most complete analysis of this specific location.
Mexico City faces all of the same problems with poverty, pollution, and infrastructure
that any mega-city would but is unique in that its difficulties are exacerbated by the land itself.
The entire city is built in a basin that has no natural outlet for drainage and whose water system
has been manipulated by humans for over 500 years. Some areas of the city are flood-prone
and today 30% of the city’s potable water must be brought in from sources over 100km away.
“Water is undoubtedly the major environmental problem facing the city as a whole; and the
lack of sufficient clean water is one of the major component factors defining slum housing.”
(Connelly, 2003, pg. 4)
The most prevalent, and often the most rudimentary, form of informal housing in the city
is the colonias populares. They are characterized by a lack of services, building permits, and
titles, high flood and landslide risk, and are often built haphazardly. This type of housing
represents about half of the urbanized area of Mexico City and houses more than 60% of its
population. (Connelly, 2003, pg.13)These areas are active business centers, home to micro-
economies that support their inhabitants. It is estimated that at least 40% of the economic
activity in the city is informal, thriving on cash transactions by people who make a living as
small scale venders and who pay no taxes. (Sudjic, 2005)
Three Types of Infrastructure
The notion of infrastructure has proven itself difficult to organize. Many immediately
assume the word is in reference to traditional physical infrastructure, such as electrical service
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and roadways, and never consider any other possible contexts. Others merely differentiate
between “hard,” (the aforementioned physical) and “soft,” infrastructure, which includes
governmental infrastructures such as law enforcement, (Casey, 2005) but this is still too
simplistic. Due to the complexity of this “soft,” subgroup, I prefer to further separate “social
infrastructure” such as healthcare, education, civic and public interaction systems, and
“economic infrastructure” which would traditionally be considered formal banking institutions,
but in the context of informal settlements, is often the simple purchase, sale, and trade of real
goods.
Basic standards for “hard” infrastructure have been established for decades, making
financial feasibility the only hurdle for its implementation and expansion in economically
depressed parts of the world. While this physical system is vital to the improvement of informal
living conditions, it must not exist in a vacuum. “Hard” infrastructure must be considered as an
investment in conjunction with its social and economic counterparts. This “Social Capital” is
defined by The World Bank as “the institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality
and quantity of a society's social interactions. Increasing evidence shows that social cohesion
is critical for societies to prosper economically and for development to be sustainable. Social
capital is not just the sum of the institutions which underpin a society – it is the glue that holds
them together.” (World Bank, 2011)
To address the issues faced by informal settlements, we must understand that these
forms of infrastructure do not function independently. Any intervention, improvement, or
imposition must consider the implications on all three systems, and designers must address
projects of every scale from a holistic point of view. By creating places, systems, and programs
that operate to improve each type of infrastructure, we can ensure that needs are met on all
three fronts.
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CASE STUDIES
Case Study 1: Grotão - Fábrica de Música
Architect: Urban Think Tank
Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Client: SEHAB, City of Sao Paulo Housing Authority
This multi-function public building is under construction in the Paraisópolis informal
settlement of São Paulo, Brazil. Its program includes classroom and performance space for a
pre-existing music school program, small sports facilities, public space, urban agriculture,
commercial space, a transportation link, and a small amount of replacement housing. This is
clearly a vast undertaking, but by designing each space for multiple purposes, the program
can be condensed and the building can be occupied more efficiently.
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The site was formerly occupied by rudimentary housing equally dense as that
surrounding the facility. A small section of the housing was destroyed by a mudslide – a
common occurrence in this area of high erosion and steep terrain – creating a unique
opportunity for investment. The building and site improvements create a new section profile for
the site and serve to reinforce the hillside and prevent further erosion while creating much
needed open space.
The project won the Holcim Gold Award for Sustainable Construction for its design
approach and integration of sustainable features at every scale. In its conclusions, the award
committee summarizes by stating, “The project utilizes site orientation to provide a
combination of both passive and active systems for maximum efficiency and low cost. The
buildings and landscape work as one system that can effectively handle the varying conditions
of the wet/dry season cycle. Prevailing winds in combination with an in-floor cooling system
provide efficient tempering; the waste heat is stored in the terraces (as heat sink) during the
day and emitted through hybrid-PV panels at night. Excess heat is vented through a solar and
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wind supported chimney. Water is reused on site; what was once a danger is now a resource.
Wetlands filter the water through the site, which can be used for irrigation (in urban agriculture)
and gray-water applications or further filtered through rapid sand filtration. An on-site water tank
distributes excess water to the sewage system during the wet season and stores it for later use
during the dry season.” (Holcim, 2011)
Images: Holcim Foundation – www.holcimfoundation.org
Informantion: Urban Think Tank – www.utt.com
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Case Study 2: Living Rooms at the Border
Architect: Estudio Teddy Cruz
Location: San Ysidro, California, USA
Client: Casa Familiar
This experimental community model is not just a proposal for a building, but rather a
small scale reinvention of prototypical planning policy in United States. Along with non-profit
developer Casa Familiar, Teddy Cruz designed a housing project that embraces the informal
patterns and impromptu mixed-use development of the low income areas of Southern
California. Paired with this project is the designation of what he calls, “AHOZ: Affordable
Housing Overlay Zones” which create micro planning policy areas that allow for the inclusion of
program that would traditionally be considered a “non-conforming use.” This allows for
densification, which leads to affordability, and stimulates micro-economic activity in public
spaces.
The program includes housing, public space, workshops, a market, a community
center, community gardens, and group kitchens, but more importantly, it encourages the social
interaction between each of these spaces. In an interview with California Architect, Cruz says of
the project, “In a place where current regulation allows only one use, we propose five different
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uses that support one
another, suggesting a model
of social sustainability for the
neighborhood, one that
conveys density not as bulk
but as social choreography
and neighborhood
collaboration.”
Equally as important in Cruz’s design is the ability to utilize a single space for multiple
functions. Much of the ground level is left open as multi-function space to be used by the
community for both planned and spontaneous events. This opportunity is a vital part of the
culture of the neighborhood.
Images & Information: California-Architects - www.california-architects.com
MoMA - www.moma.org
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Case Study 3: Parque Ecologico Lago de Texcoco
Architect: Iñake Echeverria
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Client: Department of Ecology and Natural Resources
Though this project is programmatically different, and on a larger scale than my
proposed project, it addresses many of the same issues by virtue of its location and public
nature. It represents a proposal for massive investment in urban ecology and social place-
making. Lake Texcoco is a largely abandoned zone, prone to flooding and neglected for
decades, surrounded by some of the most economically depressed areas of Mexico City.
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The UN’s Mexico City case study in Understanding Slums focuses on this area and
points to its water cycle problems and topography as key issues, stating. “[The] paradox of too
much and too little water has characterized Mexico City’s growth throughout its history and has
been a major factor in the urban segregation and the location of slums…. The steep slopes
surrounding the extinct lakes are undesirable for most conventional building uses, and have
provided a cheap alternative for unauthorized settlement.” (Connolly, 2003)
The project aims to reestablish the hydrological cycle of the area to prevent flooding
and to engage the surrounding communities through the provision of sports fields, trails,
museums, and other community facilities. It is intended to serve as a “social catalyst” for the
nearby informal settlements and encourage the reactivation of social, cultural, and educational
networks in an underdeveloped part of the city.
Images & Information: Iñake Echeverria - http://www.parquetexcoco.com
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GOALS AND EVALUATIVE CRITERIA
1. The program should consider physical, economic, and social infrastructure and provide
a holistic solution encompassing all three, not a series of individual solutions.
2. The facility should be adaptable for variable use in both short term (day-to-day) and
long term (year-to-year) to account for the changing needs of the community.
3. The project should provide high quality public space to allow for social interaction
amongst the members of the community.
4. The project should have a positive impact on the local environment by addressing site-
specific environmental problems and encourage local sustainability through education
and services to the community.
5. The project should provide opportunities for local “sweat equity” investment by the
community to create a “sense of ownership,” by the end users.
6. The culture of Mexico and informal settlements is very family oriented; therefore the
program should encourage use by all age groups separately and together.
7. Displacement of existing housing stock should be kept to an absolute minimum. Any
displacement should be accounted and compensated for.
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PROJECT DESCRIPTION
This project aims to create a prototype “Architectural Infrastructure,” to service the
unique needs of informal neighborhoods. It will sill serve as a “community center” which
addresses the needs of the physical community, the economic community, and the social
community. The intention is not to create a “stock” building to be used in all locations, but
rather to develop a framework that allows for variability and therefore implementation in areas
with differing needs.
The Neza-Chalco-Itza settlement of Mexico City will be used as a test site for this project
and the needs of this community will be used to develop the test program. As a specific site is
chosen, the issues facing the site and immediate vicinity will guide the program, but possible
features include:
Physical Infrastructure:
Water quality, delivery, and storage problems
Garbage collection and disposal
Power generation and distribution in the community
Mitigating flood risk and air quality problems relating to seasonal water level
change in the Texcoco Lake
Mitigating soils and landslide risk if located on one of the many unstable
hillsides
Transportation and access
Economic Infrastructure:
Public market
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Small scale financial institutions
Education facilities for teaching job skills and developing small business owners
Community garden or other public project space
Social Infrastructure
Public space both indoor and outdoor
Sports and recreational facilities
Performance and presentation space
Cultural space for art or other exhibition
Health clinic and related education facilities
Due to the nature of informal settlements and the people who live there, the service area
of this type of project is limited to, “acceptable walking distance,” as understood by the users
of the facility. This radial area and number of “targeted users,” will become the guidelines for
the development of a specific program. It will be used to develop the schedule of facilities to be
included in the project and the amount of built area dedicated to each use. To encourage
spatial efficiency and extended occupancy, facilities will be designed to allow complementary
uses to utilize a single space at differing times. This variable use of space should be
encouraged in both indoor facilities and outdoor open spaces to create a sense of constant
occupancy.
It is understood that this facility would be one of many spread out across a large
informal settlement. The goal is not to provide a single, massive solution for millions of people,
but rather a network of related (though not identical) facilities, within walking distance of each
other, to service the needs of a local community. As these needs vary throughout the
settlement, so should the manifestation of the “infrastructure,” provided.
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BUIDLING CODES
This project will comply with the current building code of the Federal District of Mexico
as well as additional standards of practice. Mexico is currently partnered with the ICC to revise
its building codes, but the active code is:
REGLAMENTO DE CONSTRUCCIONES PARA EL DISTRITO FEDERAL
Building Regulations for the Federal District
Published January 2004
This code is a bit convoluted and dated, so as a general guide, and to meet international
standards, ICC and other codes will be used as a higher benchmark where necessary. These
codes include:
IBC 2012 – Intenational Buidling Code
IECC 2012 – Interational Energy Conservation Code
ADA SAD – Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design
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REFERENCES
1. United Nations – Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2009,
World Urbanization Prospects – The 2009 Revision;
http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/index.htm
2. United Nations – Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2005,
Population Challenges and Development Goals;
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/pop_challenges/Population_Challenges.pdf
3. Whitehouse, David, 2005,
Half of Humanity Set to Go Urban, BBC;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4561183.stm
4. United Nations – HABITAT, 2007,
Slum Dwellers to Double by 2030;
http://www.unhabitat.org/downloads/docs/4631_46759_GC%2021%20Slum%20dwellers%20to%
20double.pdf
5. United Nations Development Group, Data Collection 2010,
DevInfo Database;
http://devinfo.info/
6. Neurwirth, Robert, 2005,
Shadow Cities, Routlege;
7. Holcim Foundation, 2011,
Comment of the Holcim Awards jury Latin America – Relevance to Target Issues;
http://www.holcimfoundation.org/T1358/A11LAgoBR.htm
8. Connelly, Priscilla – UN HABITAT, 2003
Understanding Slums: Case Studies for the Global Report 2003
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global_Report/cities/mexico.htm
9. Sudjic, Dejan, BBC, 2006
Making Cities Work: Mexico City
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5061626.stm
10. World Bank, 2011
What is Social Capital
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/EXTTSOCIA
LCAPITAL/0,,contentMDK:20185164~menuPK:418217~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSite
PK:401015,00.html
11. Casey, Sharyn, The University of Queensland, 2005
Establishing Standards for Social Infrastructure
http://www.uq.edu.au/boilerhouse/docs/establishing%20standards%20web.pdf