Designing resilient cities in the Latin American informal city.

La Bombonera Park (Bogota, Colombia) and the integral improvement of public space.

Abstract

Latin American cities have been developed and densified mainly in peripheral areas, some not suitable for urbanization, representing a risk to the integrity of their inhabitants and creating a general imbalance in the territory. The clearest representation of this urbanization occurs in highly densified self-built neighborhoods, without basic infrastructure and lacking quality public space, which goes against the Right to the City of vulnerable and vulnerated communities. La Bombonera Park, in the Potosí neighborhood, is in one of the poorest and densest counties in Bogotá: Ciudad Bolívar. Currently there, urban intervention processes are being carried out with the community, through the Comprehensive Neighborhood Improvement Program (CNIP) of the National University of Colombia. However, the experience of intervention in the territory during the pandemic has generated challenges and concerns about the methods and strategies to address participatory design. Therefore, the objective of this document is to systematize and interpret the processes and advances that the CNIP has had in La Bombonera Park during the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting the importance of participatory design with the community as the backbone of urban intervention in self-built neighborhoods.

Keywords: La Bombonera Park, participatory design, right to the city, informal city.