The “Active Guadua” Colombian project receives award in the III Urban Development Competition

(Bogota, October 28, 2013). The Colombian project Active Guadua: Planting Guadua Cane,

Population Training and Construction of a School-Workshop won the second place in the III International Competition for Urban Development and Social Inclusion Projects, an initiative supported by CAF- Development Bank of Latin America-, which seeks to promote the development of solutions to the region's housing problems. The winner of the competition was Chile's Mapocho Pedaleable (Mapocho by Bike) project. 

L. Victor Traverso, CAF's representative in Colombia, was present in the ceremony to recognize Carlos Hernandez, the Colombian architect who led the project. He highlighted the project's importance in terms of the environment, urbanism and infrastructure, and citizen inclusion.  

CAF's representative director stated that this is "an innovating project which proposes an alternative model for sustainable urban development at a territorial level, based on the use of local resources to achieve a self-sustainable city-territory starting from productive rural towns". 

The project, located in the city of Palominos and the municipality of Dibulla in the Guajira, seeks to create opportunities and to preserve and increase the value of productive lands that promote new economic activities in the area, such as eco-tourism, as well as strengthen the cultural identity by using guadua cane. 

Among the actions promoted by CAF in the framework of the Cities with a Future is the Urban Development and Social Inclusion Competition, whose aim is to reward and support projects in Latin America which seek to improve the quality of life of their citizens, promote improvement of urban functions with more efficiency, foresee considerations for urban demographic growth, and are responsible in terms of environmental needs and risk considerations. 

All of this is done by conceiving and designing innovative, relevant, justified, and feasible projects. It is an initiative that responds to the urban opportunities and needs of our region, given the demographic concentration seen in cities, its success as an economic development model, and the need to address the social and opportunity differences. 

The Competition this year received 68 proposals from 12 countries. In its three editions, 143 projects have participated in the Competition. 

The jury this year was made up of the following architects: 

Ximena Samper, Universidad de Los Andes Bogota, Master's Degree in Urban Design, Harvard University; Assistant Manager at G.X Samper Arquitectos - German y Ximena Samper Arquitectos; Director of the Master's Program in Habitat Sciences, Universidad de la Salle, Bogota Colombia. 

Sharif Kahatt, PhD from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Barcelona, Master's Degree in Urban Design from Harvard University, Director K+M Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Lima, Peru. 

Antonio Lipthay, architect from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Master's Degree in City Design and Social Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. Director Mobil Arquitectos. 

Active Guadua: Planting Guadua Cane, Population Training and Construction of a School-Workshop 

This Colombian project was distinguished by the jury for the ingeniousness of its social statement, which explores the role of architecture in education and creates a sense of community. 

In this case, the match between the social program and the proposal show great coherence and the jury highlighted its value as an adequate and adaptable solution for medium and small scale urban contexts in Latin America, with appropriate technologies used by the inhabitants of a place. 

The authors of this project are professors Carlos Hernandez Correa, Martin Anzellini, Catalina Lopez, Santiago Pradilla, Daniel Feldman, and Antonio Yemail grom the Faculty of Architecture of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; architects Elena Gomez Merino, Rut Cuenca Candel, and Juana Canet Rossello from Estudio SPN; professors Santiago Pradilla and Orfelina Quinto, from Palomino Cultural; and the Local Mayor's Office of Palomino and Corpoguajira.