KTH Architecture and the Built Environment Learning from Slum Upgrading and Participation A case study of participatory slum upgrading in the emergence of new governance in the city of Medellín–Colombia CAMILO ANDRES CALDERON ARCILA Stockholm 2008 ___________________________________________________________ KTH, Department of Urban Planning and Environment Division of Environmental Strategies Research - fms Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan Degree Project SoM EX 2008-18 www.infra.kth.se/fms Zenobia, has houses made of bamboo and zinc, with many platforms and balconies places on stilts at various heights, crossing one another, linked by ladders and hanging sidewalks, surmounted by cone-roofed belvederes, barrels storing water, weather vanes, jutting pulleys, and fish poles, and cranes. No one remembers what need or command or desire drove Zenobia's founders to give their city this form, and so there is no telling whether it was satisfied by the city as we see it today, which has perhaps grown through successive superimpositions from the first, now undecipherable plan. But what is certain is that if you ask an inhabitant of Zenobia to describe his vision of a happy life, it is always a city like Zenobia that he imagines, with its pilings and its suspended stairways, a Zenobia perhaps quite different, a-flutter with banners and ribbons, but always derived by combining elements of that first model. However, it is pointless trying to decide whether Zenobia is to be classified among happy cities or among the unhappy. It makes no sense to divide cities into these two species, but rather into another two: those that through the years and the changes continue to give their form to desires, and those in which desires either erase the city or are erased by it." Italo Calvino, Le Cita Invisibli, 1972 Photo: Paulynn Cue Page | 2 Abstract This document compiles a highly discussed issue present in many cities of the developing world today; it brings forward the importance of facing the challenges that slums create to today’s cities and the mechanisms used for tackling such challenge. The study focuses on the use of Participatory Planning approaches in the context of slum upgrading, giving the reader an insight to the advantages and challenges that such an approach has. It is built around a case study in the city of Medellin, Colombia where there has been a strong political will and commitment to implement programs and projects in the poorest areas of the city. This initiative emerged as a need to tackle deep rooted problems present in the slum areas of the city that together with other issues placed Medellin as the most dangerous city of the world during the 1990s. For tackling such a problem, the local Administration (2003-2007) created a slum upgrading model called “PUI - Proyecto Urbano Integral” (Integral Urban Project) which is said to be based on “participatory planning” and “slum upgrading” principles. The results of the first project following the “PUI Model”, the “PUI Noriental”, have been promoted by the Administration as highly successful and been considered as a model for slum upgrading both nationally and internationally. Therefore, there is the need to acknowledge and critically asses the PUI Model by evaluating its principles, its methods and its results having a deeper understanding and assessment of the concepts behind such an approach; specially since it has been internationally recognized that there is a lack of cases in which the ideals of participation and slum upgrading are put in practice. In this order of ideas, the principles, methods and tools of the “PUI Model” and its implementation in the “PUI Noriental”, are evaluated based on international theories and experiences dealing with the topic. By doing so, it is shown the close link between the principles of participation and the very nature of slum upgrading processes. As well it is brought forward the need to implement such kind of a approaches in cities presenting problems with slum areas. The results of the evaluation show that even though there is a strong political will towards using principles of participatory planning and slum upgrading approaches in Medellin, there is still a high need to have a deeper understanding of such concepts and the way they can be implemented. Nevertheless, it is shown that even with these shortcomings the significant outcomes produced by the PUI Noriental are a clear example that participation in the context of slum upgrading is a strong tool to bring benefits to the people of such areas. Page | 3 Table of Content Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 3 Table of Content ............................................................................................................... 4 List of Tables ............................................................................................................. 5 List of Figures ............................................................................................................ 6 List of Boxes .............................................................................................................. 6 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 7 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................ 7 1.2 Problem Statement ............................................................................................ 11 1.3 Aim and objectives of the study ........................................................................... 12 1.4 Scope and Limitations ........................................................................................ 13 1.5 Research questions ............................................................................................ 13 1.6 Description of the research area .......................................................................... 13 1.7 Research Methodology ....................................................................................... 14 1.8 Thesis structure ................................................................................................ 15 2. Theoretical and conceptual framework ......................................................................... 17 2.1 The Challenge of the Slums ................................................................................. 17 2.1.1 Slums in General ........................................................................................ 17 2.1.2 Slums: Definitions and Facts ........................................................................ 20 2.2 The Slum Upgrading Rationale ............................................................................. 25 2.2.1 Slum Upgrading .......................................................................................... 25 2.2.2 Today’s best practice ................................................................................... 30 2.3 The Participation Rationale .................................................................................. 31 2.3.1 Participation in Planning Theory: A short approach to collaborative planning ........ 31 2.3.2 Participation in Slum Upgrading .................................................................... 33 2.3.3 Tools for Participatory Slum Upgrading: “best practice” in practice ..................... 38 2.4 Community Action Planning – CAP ....................................................................... 41 2.4.1 Community Action Planning in Principles ......................................................... 41 2.4.2 Community Action Planning Process ............................................................... 44 2.4.3 Participation in Community Action Planning..................................................... 45 2.4.4 Action Planning Menu of Techniques .............................................................. 46 3. The Case Study........................................................................................................ 48 3.1 The Challenge of Slums in Medellin ...................................................................... 48 3.1.1 The Challenge at the City Scale ..................................................................... 48 3.1.2 The Challenge in the “Comuna Nororiental” .................................................... 50 3.2 Urban Upgrading in Medellin................................................................................ 55 Page | 4 3.2.1 Previous attempts of upgrading policies .......................................................... 55 3.2.2 PRIMED first Comprehensive Slum Upgrading Program in Medellin ..................... 56 3.2.3 Focusing on the poor a new vision in politics ................................................... 58 3.3 Participatory Planning in Medellín ......................................................................... 61 3.3.1 Background of Participatory Planning in Medellin ............................................. 61 3.3.2 Public Participation in the local administration 2004-2007 ................................. 62 3.4 PUI “Proyecto Urbano Integral” Urban Integrated Proyect ........................................ 64 3.4.1 PUI in general ............................................................................................ 64 3.4.2 The PUI Process .........................................................................................