The Urban Overflow Network of the Ibero-American Programme for Science, Technology and Development (CYTED) has awarded first prize in its international competition to the proposal Rethinking Medellín's Urban Edges in the category of university-promoted environmental projects. The project was coordinated by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and, in 2013, the ESARQ School of Architecture's Master's Programme in International Cooperation: Sustainable Emergency Architecture, among others, collaborated on the project.
Rethinking Medellín's Urban Edges is an academic project led by the Master's Programme in Urban-Regional Studies at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The idea behind the proposal is to gain firsthand knowledge of the requirements and contributions of the community of Medellín, so that different actors can then encourage rethinking of the model and propose alternative intervention approaches at the urban edges of Medellín, the capital of the Department of Antioquia. The project also received support from the students in the Master's Programme in International Planning and Cooperation at Columbia University in New York and the Master's Programme in International Cooperation in the UIC's ESARQ School of Architecture, as well as different local actors and the Administrative Planning Department of Medellín.
The award includes publication of the article in a special issue on the CYTED Urban Overflow Network in the Montevideo-based journal Vivienda Popular. The researchers also received invitations to participate in the 3rd Urban Overflow Network Ibero-American Meeting and the 3rd Conference on Social Housing and the City held at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning at the Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Santa Fe, Argentina, on 1-3 October 2014.
The Urban Overflow Network is a network of research groups and interconnected spaces for academic training and technology transfer, design and the application of policies. It aims to encourage the accumulation and true cross-cutting circulation of sustainable comprehensive management of peripheral urban spaces in Latin America.
