San Francisco de Quito, a robust, midsized South American city of approximately 2.5 million people, has throughout its 500 years of urban history developed an intricate relationship between geography and geometry. Founded and perched in an Andean valley, 10.000 feet above sea level, this Spanish outpost capitalized on existing footpaths that linked current-day southern Colombia and Ecuador to the extensive territorial network of the Inca Empire. (…) Today, Quito straddles the north-south axis of the Guayllabamba River Basin, with urbanization occupying a diverse topography that registers elevation changes of more than 1000 meters. What was a legible grid built through infill and bridges, today is an expansive metropolitan district that covers more than 10.000 square kilometers and incorporates a much larger perimeter that extends far beyond the edges of the central depression, joining an extensive valley system into a single geopolitical entity. The broader metropolitan region includes large agricultural holdings, as well as newly developed suburbs along the lower valleys that flank the more compact fabrics adjacent the colonial grid.

From:
“A line in the Andes”,
Felipe Correa,
Harvard GSD, 2012

Project 1
Flavia Saggese
AAM

Located in the south part of the city and between the river Machangara and the deposit of petroleum products El Beaterio, the barrio San Blas is one of 250 districts developed and planned without authorization and later legalized.
The municipality requested to focus the project not on the definition of new residential districts, but rather on the rearrangment of the street structure, with particular attention to the long main street that goes from west to east, allowing a visual connection between the refinery and the valley.
The proposal has also to respect two new laws still not applied: the first refers to the limit of 50 m between the bed of the river and the first house; the second relates to the distance of 100 m to maintain between the oil depot and the housing unit.
The project chooses to offer a uniform reading of the intervention, defining the limits of the area with two long linear parks that delimit to the east and west side of the neighborhood and rethinking the long main street as a broad boulevard. The boulevard becomes a big square, enriched by the presence of tall trees and wants to propose a dialog with the inhabitants of the neighborhood, offering a new meeting place. The square, as all the pedestrian areas, is lifted up compared to the level of driveway; this creates a continuous and recognizable grid that is able to offer a new character to the informal context. To strengthen the peculiarity of public and open square, it was decided to place, in empty lots remained unused, four buildings for functions of public utility: a school, a sports center, a library and a market.
Even if intended for different functions, the four buildings are joined by some accents that highlight the common matrix: the same structural system, the same system of entrance that connects the scale of the square with the one of the building and the same height.

Project 2
Valentina Merz
AAM

The project area is located in the south west periphery of Quito, in a quite homogeneous neighborhood of two-storey houses, inserted in a regular grid of elongated rectangles. The site is a great urban vacant square, in the center of the district: already intended to be parcelled by the administration, the site, completely enclosed by a high wall, is currently inhabited by a small farm. The municipality proposed this area to accommodate the families that must leave their houses built too close to the deposit of petroleum products of El Beaterio: the municipality desires to develope a neighborhood of single-family houses of three stories and, in a smaller percentage, blocks of four floors.
The project investigates the importance of the public space, from the scale of the neighborhood to that of the house: the succession of spaces that derives from it, provides an overview of the importance of communal spaces as places which are essential for the community life. Starting from a simple grid, the project determines a sequence of parallel driveways connected to two streets that cross at right angles the neighborhood; on this simple system, the project defines a grid of footpaths that pass through the district in both directions: these paths define in one direction the blocks and in the other pass through them, connecting the sequence of small common areas around which the houses are organized. Five aggregative models are identified; composed in sequence, they offer an impressive variety of public spaces: every block is made of a series of dwellings variously composed, in which the courtyard is always the dominant element. All the ground floors are free from partitions and leave space for possible future expansion by the inhabitants. The entire neighborhood is cut diagonally from a succession of green areas on which the higher blocks overlook, clearly defining the main public space: on the ground floor there are small commercial activities that animate the long porch, that acts as a filter between the main public spaces and secondary ones. Three public buildings are inserted to reinforce the importance of the collective space: a library, a post office with a small bus stop and a community center.

Project 3
Irene Gazzillo
AAM

South of the Panecillo, the district of Chimbacalle represents a unique mixture of former industrial areas, infrastructures and houses. The old train station overlooks above all: once it was the main railway station of the city linking Quito to Guayaquil; now is used exclusively as tourist station with daily departures in the southern direction, to many naturalistic destinations of the country. The great embankment, on which the rails lay, starts from the street level with a slight slope because of the trains that need to reach the station. In addition to the station, several public buildings, such as the small railway museum and a theater, overlook this area with an uncertain future yet. Now there isn't a real connection between the two levels of the terrain: people climb the slopes of the embankment spontaneously. It perceives a not well-solved separation between the two parts of the city. The project decides to operate in this context, working with a long and narrow building that offers a new urban front and allows a reunification between the two parties. The building uses, as connection with the ground, a inhabited basement of commercial spaces and solves the problem of the different levels filling up with a long staircase, enclosed inside a tent of pillars, which gradually climbs up to the height of the embankment: on it will open a series of commercial activities that follow the ascent at the end of which, turning, people have access to a large lawn that acts as a common denominator for all public buildings in the area. To enrich the building presence, a small library extends for almost the entire length of the project. Above it, two floors of residences complete the building: the strategic position of the stairs body allows to develop the building with a considerable number of typologies and offers the possibility of concluding the long bar with two generous apartments.

Project 4
Daniel Ernesto Charry España
PUCE

South of the historic center, immediately behind the Panecillo, there is the former factory of the Pilsner, a large abandoned industrial area, which is dominated by silos for storage. The industrial site is among the most strategic areas for the future development of the city of Quito, even for its proximity to the new metro station which will be built south of the area, just on the other side of the street.
The factory is on sort of embankment, higher than the street level and is a natural terrace overlooking the city. The north-west side is defined by a military area and by a district of social housing enclosed by a high wall; the area represents the head of the entire district, extending for the whole length of the main road. Only the vestiges of silos are preserved, two large volumes composed of a series of cylinders that, deprived of their function, remain as ruins in the park that extends from the new underground station to the intersection with Avenida Cinco de Junio. The project is made by a series of three courtyards, placed on different levels; composed of long four-storey buildings and alternated with the green of the park, the courtyards define private and quiet areas around which the life of neighborhood happens. A series of pedestrian routes pass through the park and connect, by comfortable stairs, the surrounding urban fabric to the project.

Project 5
Farid Alejandro Cano Sarria
PUCE

The project area is located just north of the Panecillo, along one of the streets which, descending from the mountain, reach the long square 24 de Mayo, a new pedestrian area proposed as connection between historical center and the other old neighborhoods, characterized by two stories high buildings that hide a rich system of inner courtyards. The area is in a serious degradation state and, as a great part of the historic center, is suffering a slow and inexorable decrease of the population. To fight this situation, the municipality decided a series of interventions: the most important is the decision to bring a new university campus near to the city center. This decision offered the possibility of dealing with the theme of the accommodation for students, as a possible new population able to revitalize depressed areas of the city. The recommendations that the municipality gave only in programmatic terms, required first of all a relief of the area to identify places of particular interest; two small crumbling buildings, facing one the other along the way were determined as the possible areas of intervention. The aim of the project is to define a common space able to provide a new perspective to the whole neighborhood: the street is redesigned as a pedestrian route in the center of which opens a square with shops, a cafe, a library and the new houses for students. The two blocks are combined into one, offering a possible strategy of settlements for the future. The two residential buildings, in addition to defining the square, offer a rich inner world that is based around a series of courtyards on which overlook the common areas and rooms of the students.

Project 6
Andrea Bernardelli
AAM

The studied area is located in the south part of the historical center of Quito, in a quite ancient and popular neighborhood, between Avenida 24 de Mayo and the slopes of the Panecillo. Many of the original buildings are crumbling today; others, in an advanced state of deterioration, are inhabited by poor and disadvantaged families. A fate shared by a great part of the historical center of the city that, although it is one of the best examples of colonial architecture in South America, is unable to retain that typical variety of population that you can find in a consolidated urban center and is victim of a general depopulation. The municipality is trying, through accurate intervention, to change this trend.
The city administration offered the possibility of studying the criticality of the area and the chance of proposing a possible way to change this situation. The project proposes to work on several fronts, assuming a series of interventions of urban acupuncture that redefine the meaning of the various platforms that connect the neighborhood to the Avenida Pedro Vicente Maldonado. A study of the topography and of the borders of the neighborhood, aimed to emphasize the unexpressed potential of the area. Along the front which opens on the Avenida 24 de Mayo, it stands a high wall, a road infrastructure built to consolidate the slopes of the valley at the base of which flows the Avenida: on top of it a walkway, today only hinted, becomes the main backbone of the intervention. The project wants to reflect on the entire route, a long path that goes along the slopes of the district re-estabilishing a physical, not only visual, relationship with the historic center which is located on the other side of the valley. Along the walk, a series of specific residential interventions, redefine the two main entrances to the path: a square, a belvedere, a long staircase that connects directly to the access bridge to the old town. An other intervention was aimed to redefine the center of the neighborhood, now populated by huts and decaying buildings: based on a single platform, under which there is a shared parking for the residents of the neighborhood, the project consists of three buildings that, by connecting to the existing ones, creates a sequence of three courtyards that overlook the city, modulating an urban landscape which is quiet and away from the traffic: a new possible scenario of living in the neighborhood.

Project 7
Jesus Alejandro Maldonado Fandino
PUCE

The project is located on the west side of the Parque el Ejido, in an area involved in a large urban transformation. The site, located in a central area of the city, is the scenario of a radical change, where tall buildings and a remarkable urban density should replace the current urban fabric, composed of buildings of an average of four or five floors. The process of change is already evident, with administrative and office buildings that have redesigned the front along the park. Other interventions are under construction: large buildings of 12 floors overlooking the street that goes from the park to Plaza America, where is located the project area. The street, animated by a daily market, wants to be rethought by the city administration as a commercial walkway. The new settlement becomes an opportunity for rethinking the project site: the municipality, in fact, had assigned, as a place in investigation, two distinct plot, divided by the street, imagining a building in line with the proposals already in construction. The project brings together the two areas by proposing an alternative to the current planning: at the end of the pedestrian avenue and halfway between the Plaza America and the Parque el Ejido, opens a new large square, defined by the four corner towers of the building which contain the stairs and the elevators. The building announces, with his mole, the presence of the square. The building has the ambition to offer itself as a large open portal in each direction: four arms of variable height define the edges of the portals and contain different typologies of apartments reachable by long balconies that overlook the square. Aside of the large volume, it was designed, as conclusion of the existing buildings, a volume that contains offices and shops.
To further enhance the pedestrian axis and stress the importance of the square as visual and spatial conclusion, the project proposes to create a direct connection to the park with a bridge, bypassing the busy E35.

Project 8
Paola V. Gysi
AAM

The examined area is currently occupied by the factory of the Coca-Cola: an industrial area intended to be dismissed and reconverted as many others in the city. The proximity to the old airport and the opportunity to use a vacant lot, with considerable building indexes, pushed the local administration to suppose a total demolition of the old structures and replace them with high and huge buildings. The project aims to show an alternative development that integrates the new construction with the existing ones. The intervention wants to investigate not only the sense of collective memory, represented by the great industrial buildings of a very well known company in the city, but also the possibility to reuse these large roofs as “containers” for public activities. The large industrial pavilions, freed from their functions, are redesigned to accommodate cultural activities, theaters, events, exhibitions, sports activities. The pavilions are framed by mineral platforms lying in a green park and are interconnected by walkways. The residential development becomes a way to redefine the limits of the new park, able to offer a clear limit with the existing building. Picking up the rhythm of the existing grid, the project is structured in a series of six buildings that follow the orientation of the neighbors. The streets of the neighborhood, to which the project aligns, are concluded with wide stairs that rise on the first floor and allow to overlook the park and to access to the houses. The base of the building contains private parking and a series of commercial activities, in order to enrich the life of the neighborhood. Every building, eight floor tall, has a single central staircase which serves an average of eight apartments on each floor, organized around four small courts that allow to bring light inside the deep body.

Project 9
Elettra Carnelli
AAM

The site of the project, located on the north side of the disused airport of Quito, is currently occupied by a high artificial embankment, built to protect the Avenida Luis Tufino and to provide a safety barrier from possible airplane accidents to the district. The area has acquired a considerable importance after the closure of the airport and is the subject of several studies of new urbanization. New indexes of construction are particularly high: an opportunity offered by the extinction of air traffic. The project proposes a wide vision on the future of the site and offers a reading of pre-existing constructions as a basis for a possible settlement in the area. The project intends to rethink the meaning of the existing embankment, suggesting the conservation: the embankment becomes an elevated platform bounded on three sides and opened as a large terrace on the new Park Bicentenario and on the mountains that surround Quito. The platform does not arise as a self-referential element; it deliberately maintains a dialog with the surrounding neighborhoods, by finding there the possible roots of the project. The architectural intervention, articulated around the platform, redefines the edges of the area, dealing with the various existing urban situations and proposing a sequence of public spaces able to enrich and strengthen the relationship between the various districts: squares, large staircases and long porches extended for the entire perimeter, become the new places for a common urban life. The terrace, at 12 m height, is bounded on three sides by a wall that contains a series of sports infrastructure; people can go up and observe from the top the different sport events, walking among the various fields. With the same logic, is rethought even the big soccer field north of the site. Three large courtyards are opened in the depth of the building: these are quiet private spaces on which various types of apartments, served by a system of balconies reachable by large open stairs and directly from parking spots, overlook. Distributed efficiently around the embankment, the car park solve in an architectural way the joint with the large mass of earth forming a sort of artificial fence.

Project 10
Maria Paz Villagomez Dueñas
PUCE

The project area is located just north of the Panecillo, along one of the streets which, descending from the mountain, reach the long square 24 de Mayo, a new pedestrian area proposed as connection between historical center and the other old neighborhoods, characterized by two stories high buildings that hide a rich system of inner courtyards. The area is in a serious degradation state and, as a great part of the historic center, is suffering a slow and inexorable decrease of the population. To fight this situation, the municipality decided a series of interventions: the most important is the decision to bring a new university campus near to the city center. This decision offered the possibility of dealing with the theme of the accommodation for students, as a possible new population able to revitalize depressed areas of the city. The recommendations that the municipality gave only in programmatic terms, required first of all a relief of the area to identify places of particular interest; two small crumbling buildings, facing one the other along the way were determined as the possible areas of intervention. The aim of the project is to define a common space able to provide a new perspective to the whole neighborhood: the street is redesigned as a pedestrian route in the center of which opens a square with shops, a cafe, a library and the new houses for students. The two blocks are combined into one, offering a possible strategy of settlements for the future. The two residential buildings, in addition to defining the square, offer a rich inner world that is based around a series of courtyards on which overlook the common areas and rooms of the students.

Project 11
Elod Golicza
AAM

The project area is located to the north of the historic center of Quito, in an indefinite urban situation that is in continuous evolution: on one side low houses, workshops and small factories, on the other a steep slope not yet urbanized. There isn’t a real urban structure, nor a place that can be defined as the center. The lot is also characterized by an extremely accentuated topography that degrades in a steep descent to a flat area, from where you can enjoy a nice view of the valley. The project therefore is forced to interact with an urban and topographical complexity. Two were the main decisions: to protect the top of the site, transforming it into a panoramic viewpoint on the entire district, and to define a public space that becomes the center of a probable future urban development. The belvedere represents the limit of the roofs of the new buildings.  The entire project is organized around a large square, which is located at a lower level than the belvedere: the new houses are located along the perimeter, without closing the square in a large single courtyard. Wide passages accentuate the open and public nature of the square, strengthened by the generous size of it. All along the inner perimeter of the square, there are several commercial activities, while the public functions mark the entrances. The deep building contains a series of courtyards around which the apartments extend, overlooking both side of the square and of the surrounding panorama: various types have been developed, in order to meet multiple needs, like families, students and rent room. The three storey crown that defines the square, lies on a high inhabited basement that absorbs the inclination of the ground: other types, more long and narrow, with only one view, are located in this boundary wall that supports the square.

Project 12
Pedro Ismael Pisco Salas
PUCE

The project is located in the very northern part of the city, in a neighborhood of new construction, in phase of completion. The strong topography and the triangular shape of the lot represent two of the main challenges of this project area. In addition, the area is like the head of the entire district, thus assuming a considerable importance. The surroundings offers three floors buildings around common spaces, mainly used as car parks, and a long series of five floors buildings which run along the west flank of the district creating a continuous line of protection from the nearby highway. Therefore the whole district lacks of a real common space, a place that can be defined really public. The project aims to define the limits of this public space through the new buildings: a park, equipped for sports activities that completes the triangle and arises as a landmark for the neighborhood. The buildings are arranged on a L-shape around the park and define a common horizon aligned with the five floors height of the buildings-wall. The topography enriches the project that, taking advantage of the slope, developes with large variations in height.

Ten students from the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio and five of the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE) will face on the issue of social housing in the metropolitan area of ​​Quito. The group will participate in a study trip in Ecuador and will attend seminars organized by PUCE. The activities of analysis of the selected areas and the development of the first project ideas will begin in Ecuador with a ten-day intensive workshop and will be refined in Mendrisio with a five-week workshop.

Credits

7,5 ECTS

24th of July–
3rd of August
2013

Workshop in Quito

5th August–
6th of September
2013

Workshop in Mendrisio

Site visits

Hystorical center of Quito
Inés del Pino

Piazza dell’Indipendenza
Chiesa della Compagnia
Monastero di San Francesco
El Panecillo
Museo della Città
Calle La Ronda
Piazza di Santo Domingo

Quito surroundings
Alexis H. Mosquera

Centro Cerimoniale Tulipe e Los Yumbos
Mercato di Otavalo
Lago San Paolo
Cotacachi e lago di Cuicocha
Mindo

Modern architecture
Alexis H. Mosquera

Chiesa di San Gabriele, arch. Milton Barragan
Tempio della Patria, arch. Milton Barragan
Progetto di abitazione La Granja
Casa del arch. Francisco Ursúa

L’evoluzione Urbana di Quito

Alexis H. Mosquera

Argomenti di studio: Solanda e La Granja

Alexis H. Mosquera

Argomenti di studio: Carapungo e Quitumbe

Francisco Naranjo L.

Piano Metropolitano di Gestione Territoriale

María Augusta Larco e Roberto Valencia

L’abitazione a Quito (EPMHV)

María Augusta Larco e Roberto Valencia

Esperienze progettuali: WISH

Martino Pedrozzi e Andrea Nardi

Esperienze internazionali sul tema dell’abitazione popolare

Alexis Mosquera

WISH
is a project
of the Accademia di Architettura,
Mendrisio

Professor

Martino Pedrozzi

Assistant

Andrea Nardi

PUCE professors

Alexis H. Mosquera, Decan
Ana María Duran, Professor

Guest critics

Mario Botta
Sebastiano Brandolini
Sandra Giraudi
Alexis H. Mosquera

Edition of 2013

27th of July – 6th of September 2013
In collaboration
with the Pontificia Universidad Católica
del Ecuador.