Chilean Project "A Ride Over The Mapocho" Wins Third CAF Urban Development Project

(Santiago, Chile, Sept. 11, 2013).Chile's "A Ride Over The Mapocho"  city development proposalwon theThird Annual Urban Development and Social Inclusion Projects International Competition, a CAF-Development Bank of Latin America initiative that promotes the development of solutions needed to address the region's housing and urban development issues. 

An awards ceremony took place in the municipality of Providencia in the Chilean capital Santiago, with Mayor Josefa Errazuriz serving as the guest of honor. The event also saw attendance of CAF Social Development Director Bernardo Requena; CAF Senior Specialist Elisa Silva, and competition winners Tomás Echiburú Altamirano, Osvaldo Larraín, Daslav Bremer and Ignacio Abé. 

Second place went to the Colombian project "Action Guadua: Guadua Cane Plantation, Training and Construction of a School-Workshop,"while Mexico's "Life on the Outskirts of a Green City"  received an Honorable Mention. 

Bernardo Requena unveiled the winners of the third annual contest, highlighting CAF's support for the region's countries under the auspices of theCities With a Futureprogram, which he described as "a high-impact social initiative designed to improve the quality of life and living conditions for urban populations, including our most vulnerable citizens, through comprehensive urban development." 

Like all Cities With a Future initiatives, the Urban Development and Social Inclusion Competition, whose goal is to support and reward projects designed to improve the quality of life in Latin American cities, seeks to improve and modernize urban services, foresee urban population growth trends and needs all while remaining accountable to environmental preservation and risk conditions. 

Such blueprints can become realities through the conception and design of innovative, relevant, justified and doable projects, especially those spearheaded under the Urban Development and Social Inclusion Competition. The competition serves as an initiative that seeks to find opportunities to cater to the many needs facing our region's cities, giving special consideration to demographic concentrations in our cities and their role in the region's economic development and, of course, the need to address social imbalances with new opportunities. 

This year, the competition received 68 proposals from 12 countries, which brings the total to 143 projects when including past events. 

This year's jury included the following architects: 

• Ximena Samper, Universidad de Los Andes Bogotá University, Masters in Urban Design from Harvard University; Assistant Director at G.X Samper Arquitectos - Germán y Ximena Samper Arquitectos; Director in the Masters of Science program at the Hábitat Universidad de la Salle University in Bogotá, Colombia.
• Sharif Kahatt, Doctor at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Barcelona, Masters in Urban Design from Harvard University, Director K+M Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú University in Lima, Perú.
• Antonio Lipthay, architect at the Chilean university Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Masters in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile University in Santiago, Chile. Director, Mobil Arquitectos. 

A Ride Over The Mapocho 

The jury praised this Chilean initiative for its economic use of resources that will benefit a significantly large population. The jury also praised the proposal's exceptional design, highlighting its ability to harmonize the city's infrastructure and landscaping with its natural surroundings in a bold, effective and wide-reaching manner. 

The project, developed on the banks of the Mapocho River in Santiago, Chile, will transform infrastructure designed to address flooding issues into bicycle routes that serve as a new intercommunity transportation conduits that promote greater social inclusion and integration by linking various sectors of the city. 

The project's authors were Tomás Echiburú Altamirano, Osvaldo Larraín, Daslav Bremer and Ignacio Abé from BEAP; Pablo Lara Saintard of pedaleable.org provided community support; Mauricio Capitani Ávila of Happy Cyclists also represented the community and the Municipality of Providencia. 

Action Guadua: Guadua Cane Plantation, Training and Construction of a School-Workshop 

This Colombian project received praise from the jury due to its ingenuity in its approach to addressing social issues by highlighting the role of architecture in strengthening education and creating a sense of community. 

The jury underscored the program's added value as a fitting and adaptable solution to Latin America's small- and medium-scale urban issues by providing apt technologies where needed. 

The authors of this project were professors Carlos Hernández Correa, Martín Anzellini, Catalina López, Santiago Pradilla, Daniel Feldman and Antonio Yemail of the School of Architecture at the the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana University, architects Elena Gómez Merino, Rut Cuenca Candel  and Juana Canet Rosselló of Estudio SPN; professors Santiago Pradilla and Orfelina Quinto of Palomino Cultural, and Municipalities of Palomino y Corpoguajira. 

Life on the Outskirts of a Green City

Mexican entry Life on the Outskirts of a Green City  received an Honorable Mention. The project's authors were architects Gilda Valencia Casado, Moritz Bernoully, Piedad Gómez Sánchez, Heriberto Maldonado Chávez, Flor Marín Zamora and Gilda Valencia Casado. Also contributing were Alberto Vanegas Arenas from the Social Development Department of Tlalpan, and Antonio García Sandoval, who represented the community of Ejido San Andrés Totoltepec Miguel Antonio Gonzalez Nova. 

The jury recognized the project's value as a tool to improve living conditions in the outskirts of Latin American cities, especially by addressing the needs of those living in poorly defined urban boundaries. The project developed clearly defined thresholds linking urban and rural communities, a tool that will help build productive economies as well as much-needed spaces for recreation and gatherings needed to promote social mobility.