The urbanism that historically shaped much of the city of Medellín, Colombia, was the result of the development of economic activity from the early 19th century onwards. Throughout the 19th century, Medellín became an industrial and financial centre, with gold and coffee at the heart of the economy. It is no coincidence that the Banco de Antioquia was born in the city in 1871, the Banco de Medellín in 1881, the Banco Popular in 1882 and the Banco del Comercio in 1896. With progress and economic stability, the city attracted successive waves of population to settle on the outskirts, on the slopes of the surrounding mountains.
This rapid, chaotic and haphazard urban development, to which the state’s limited public policy capacity contributed, produced areas that lacked proper streets and neighbourhoods without services, transport or public spaces. Among other poverty-related problems, drug trafficking, violence and insecurity found a favourable environment in the labyrinthine communes and their narrow, winding streets. In the 1990s, Medellín was one of the world’s most dangerous and violent cities. However, with the arrival of the 21st century, the city’s urban inertia reached a turning point that led to an improvement in the quality of life of its residents. One of the factors that pushed in that direction was precisely the fact that the citizens of Medellín and the authorities embraced the so-called “social urbanism“.
Social urbanism, of which the city is a world pioneer, seeks to provide solutions to “socio-spatial” inequality through investment in public spaces and infrastructure. Indeed, bringing public services to Medellín’s informal settlements has proven to be an effective means of reducing inequality and violence. This form of urbanism has materialised through successive Integral Urbanism Plans (or IUPs) in the city.
Medellín’s IUPs have been implemented according to three principles: the physical, whereby architecture, design and construction are put at the service of the most disadvantaged and impoverished areas of the city; the social, whereby interventions are born from the community itself, through dialogue and proposals; and the institutional, whereby municipal departments work in unison to implement the necessary interventions and coordinate them with citizen participation. There’s nothing better than a tour of the various IUPs carried out in Medellín to understand this issue.
In 2004, Metro de Medellín inaugurated Metrocable, the world’s first cable car public transport system. It was part of the city’s northeastern IUP. After its construction and installation, the system connected the city’s poorest neighbourhoods, high on the mountain slopes, to the city centre. A two-hour, multi-ticket journey became just 30 minutes and a single ticket. Line K, which was used by 5,234,458 passengers during its first year of service, was followed by 5 more, until 2021. Within this same North East IUP, there was also the Mirador Bridge, an infrastructure that connected two neighbourhoods, Andalucía and La Francia, separated not only by a deep ravine, but also by gang violence.
The northeast IUP also included the Parque Biblioteca de España in the Santo Domingo Savio neighbourhood, which combines a park for public use with spaces for learning, reading, culture and community activities. Three architecturally unique volumes, built according to a participatory design, house an auditorium, classrooms for training and a library. In an impoverished urban area with high school dropout rates, the new infrastructure is a factor in improving the quality of life, oriented towards education and culture.
In the commune of San Javier, on the westernmost side of Medellín, an area of extreme housing density and a virtual absence of transport systems, marginality and violence were a daily occurrence. The Comuna 13 San Javier IUP came to alleviate this situation. After a series of workshops and conferences with the neighbourhood’s citizens’ groups, it was finally decided to carry out a particular investment: a network of ascending and descending escalators. This solved the mobility problems of the neighbourhood. At the same time, the integration of small parks, viaducts and pedestrian paths stimulated street life and social interaction. Thanks to this public investment, the area around the escalators has become a pole of economic development. In addition to the residents of the neighbourhood, a multitude of visitors venture into what is an urban landmark, where culture and entertainment take root.
These are just a few of the more than 200 projects that the Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano and the mayor’s office have carried out. Thanks to public investment, Medellín is a different city today. It has gained spaces that did not exist before, libraries, schools and parks, around which businesses and civic life flourish. Its development continues. It is no coincidence that in 2013, the Urban Land Institute and The Wall Street Journal recognised the city as one of the world’s most innovative urban centres by awarding it the “City of the Year” prize.
For more information, with testimonials from the locals themselves, click HERE to see a video.
Sources: Archdaily, World Resources Institute, Story Maps, Urban Land Institute, Citymakers, El País, Wikipedia.
Images: Medellín Travel, Seminario Espacio Público y los citados.
