Description

3rd Year Design Project at the Academy of Architecture. The project was a strategy enabling
future growth of El Al by a series of facilities at the edge zone.
La Paz and El Alto (Bolivia) are two cities which form part of the metropolitan region of La Paz. El Alto is a fast growing city on the high plateau of the Alteplano in the Andez. Due to the growing distance between the edge and the CBD of La Paz, many people living in the informal settlements in the edge zone have to travel a long distance to gain an income. Moreover, El Alto is lacking an effective system of clean energy and clean water supply, as well as a waste water system. The strategy is to create a zone with facilities on the edge of the city, in a way that offers labour to the impoverished people arriving from the inlands. The facilities consist of the necessary supply of water basins (collected from the rivers), solar parks and wind parks, in order to create a more self supportive city. The water basins will be necessary for the existance of urban farming, which will supply food to the city. Furthermore, garbage dumps are also part of this zone, and it is possible to separate the usable waste to add value to the city. This will create jobs for many.
Altogether, the idea is based on creating new sources of income at the edge zone and solving the dependancy on external resources for energy, water, food and cleaning of the city.

Project Academy of Architecture – Type of plan: Development strategy – Location: La Paz, Bolivia, Status: student exchange program university, Position: student Urbanism/ Academy of Architecture Amsterdam – December 2003