Technique
How to escape
Built by an industrial brewery to house its factory workers in the early 20th century, La Perseverancia has remained rather isolated from the rest of Bogotá, for multiple reasons. This isolation has led the area to be taken for dangerous and dilapidated – two terms commonly used to justify future processes of gentrification. Against speculative pressures, the inhabitants of the area seem powerless.
Looking for simplicity
Three lines of inquiry offer a different interpretation. A careful morpho-typological reading of the area discovers potential in an underlying modularity of this built environment; the study of the productive history of the area reveals important latent resources; and the study of light building techniques taps into manual labor – a readily available resource in the area.
Light constructions for Cooperation
These lines of inquiry converge in an intervention that specifically taps into one of the latent resources identified on the site (the micro-brewing of ‘chicha’, a fermented corn drink with a long tradition), as a source of economic and political empowerment for the entire community. Self-construction, and self-governance, are encouraged by a negotiated use of the existing urban tissue, towards a cooperative productive activity based on the acknowledgment of existing values.
Bogotá, Colombia
Msc 3/4 Graduation Project 2017
Student: Silvio Pennesi
Teachers: Klaske Havik, Tom Avermaete, Jorge Mejía Hernández, Pierre Jennen