Articulating the urban boundary : integrating Bogota with Los Cerros Orientales

Abstract

Los Cerros Orientales, a ridge of mountains that spans the eastern edge of Bogota are the most iconic and monumental feature of the city. They were also critical in the city's history as they provided the resources to support the original settlements, supplied the materials to build the city and dictated its urban form. Because of their symbolism and visual prominence preservation policies have been implemented to protect them from urbanization. Starting in 1977 the government instituted an urban growth boundary to prevent urbanization in Los Cerros. However, the large rural to urban migrations that began in the mid-twentieth century created an erratic urban expansion that the boundary was unable to contain. Informal and formal developments have continued to expand into protected land regardless of the different containment policies that have been institutionalized. The aim of this thesis is to reexamine Bogota's urban boundary in order to devise alternative strategies that can better address the inevitable urbanization of Los Cerros. The argument is rooted in the premise that social, political and economical conditions will prevent containment strategies to succeed. As a result, urbanization is acknowledged and used as a proxy to design strategies that will bolster and improve existing social and natural ecologies. Informality, infrastructure and architectural monuments are the lenses through which this thesis explores and articulates alternative strategies for the urban boundary.