MATERIAL ECOLOGY

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Operating at the intersection of heavy industry and community in the rural communidad of Alta Vista near Medellin, Colombia, the proposal seeks to leverage the latent potentials embedded in the material extraction process to generate new models of habitation, ecology, and economy in this challenged landscape.

The proposal places heavy emphasis on locating new development on mining sites, reducing pressure on fertile and protected lands, while establishing connections between disparate pockets of settlement.  Stream corridors are opened up as continuous open space corridors linking the upper and lower San Pablo Valley, while directing and slowing runoff to reduce sediment accumulation.  A new centrality is created, introducing density, and providing the area with new civic amenities.

Mining facilities are strategically phased out of operation, and become repurposed as community amenities, housing institutional outposts and interpretation centers with special focus placed on monitoring changes in reforestation of the former mining sites or industrial scale agroforestry.  Territory is set aside for self-construction, with community services (schools, markets, clinics, churches, etc) acting as custodians over protected lands.  Active public spaces are linked with these institutions providing recreational, educational, and community agricultural opportunities for the community.