EMERGENCY, URBAN SPACE AND CHILDHOOD
Urban design strategies for community spaces2018, ResearchLocation:Cura Mori, Piura-Peru.Cooperation:u Lab, Centro de Investigaciones y Servicios (Research and Services Center), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and the Bernard Van Leer Foundation
As a result of the natural disaster produced by 'El Niño' in 2017, thousands of Piura inhabitants lost their homes, crops and possessions. Under this state of emergency, the government installed temporary camps called ‘albergues’ to accommodate migrants. However, over the last year, this ‘albergues’ have consolidated as places of permanent residence. Against this background, this specific axis is a public learning space, by identifying the current state and need of the population on urban space, the provision of basic services and public infrastructure. The group detailed in to improve the urban condition of the Km. 975 settlement, based on the urban characteristics that currently prevent the construction of healthy, safe and stimulating spaces for children, based on a participatory process that actively includes residents. In several attempt, meeting and workshops the population was actively involved in the co-production of knowledge that, subsequently, enabled the design of urban interventions. Thus, based effectively on their needs, perceptions and aspirations. Among many benefits of this process, the population became direct agents of spatial transformations. Some of the carried out activities involved collective mapping and transect walks. Through the diagnostic study, it was recognised that the Settlement Km.975 is divided in sectors called Pedregalito, San Pedro, Ciudad de Dios -includes San Jose and Pozo de los Ramos- and Buenos Aires.
Each sector has a political structure with a board of directors that operate as a link with the local government and service providers, as well as is in charge of gathering the dwellers to debate about community issues. By delving in the perceptions of spaces, socialisation nodes appeared that host diverse uses and public buildings, such as coordination offices, public green and blue roofs -open structures in which the population gathers for adults or children activities respectively-, communal dining rooms. It is worth mentioning that the dwellers can access these services on nearby settlements, but on a high money and time cost. Commonly was emphasised the lack of electricity, water and sewage services.
Un lugar para los niños
As an important starting point for the design, it was explored the children perception of the spaces at the settlement and identified the house as the most important point of their everyday life, a place where they feel safe, where they can play and receive special care. As play spaces, they recognised the public blue roofs and the football courts. The project "Un lugar para los niños" aims to make available to children a space in which they can take the first step of their educational path. The education system in Peru is structured as follows: initial education is divided into the Cuna Más and Jardin programs; they follow the primary and secondary one which cover the years between six and eleven, and twelve and sixteen years. The Cuna Más service is guaranteed within the KM by means of three buildings built with relatively more developed construction techniques than the construction standards with which the houses are built. Inside KM 975, in the "Ciudad de Dios" sector, there is already a building dedicated to initial education (Jardin) consisting of three classrooms divided by age group, which however does not reflect the functionality required by a structure of this type: the classrooms have a reduced size, it is not equipped with a thermal insulation suited to the climate of the area.
La quincha
La Quincha is a construction technique commonly used in Central America and in the South American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. It has ancient origins, with evidence of its use found even before the Inca, Maya and Aztec empires. In each country, the process has different connotations based on the types of local materials available, but the foundations of the method remain the same: an intertwining of vertical and horizontal elements that form a single network containing the insulating material. The net is fixed with mud, earth and plaster (generally a mixture of lime and water). Vertical and horizontal elements are usually reeds, small trees or tree branches.