Creating lively marginal urban areas through digitalization

Can you imagine a mobile application with which you could design public spaces in a matter of seconds? An algorithm that allows any citizen to propose these spaces and then be crowdfunded? Would it be possible to solve our public space deficit in such a simple way?

During December 2018, the Inter-American Development Bank launched its "Liberando Ideas" contest, whose objective was to identify and promote innovative solutions focused on preventing juvenile violence. One of the intervention categories was "Transforming urban-marginal neighborhoods into safe, recreational and healthy communities" and focused on community strengthening through the physical intervention of public spaces in urban-marginal neighborhoods since many young people immersed in gangs recognize that they perceive their neighborhoods as chaotic and hostile environments.

In this blog post I will explain the "Urban Enabler" app, a proposal that I presented to the contest to solve the problem described. Unfortunately, due to issues of time and other responsibilities, I could not develop my idea in depth, remaining at a conceptual level and, therefore, not being chosen as a finalist. However, this proposal has opened doors to a larger personal project that I am now developing.

Problematic: public spaces and family conflicts

34% of Lima's population lives in zones of informal occupation and the m2 of public green area of most of these does not reach 5 per inhabitant (PLAM 2035, pp. 493, 592-593, 2014). This is because these spontaneous cities were inhabited supplying the need for shelter resulting in that most of their land occupation is intended for this use without containing complementary activities such as commerce, education, health and, above all, recreation areas where children and young people can develop socially.

m2 of public green area per inhabitant in peripheral districts of Metropolitan Lima

Source: (PLAM 2035, pp. 592-593, 2014)

On the other hand, physical and psychological conflicts at the family level cover more than 30% of the population of children in Metropolitan Lima, in many cases caused by altered states due to alcohol or drug abuse.

Fuente: (Samusocial Internacional, pp. 13-14, 2004)

So, in a society where children must grow up alone due to the absence of parents for work reasons or because they live their own conflicts, public space should function as an educational and democratic lab. The separation of the family environment, the outcome with domestic life, forced labour, early sexual activity, school failure, crime, among other reasons, lead children to a process of regression or "desocialization" where all learnt values are left aside while spending more time on the street (Tejada Ripalda, pp. 48-153, 2005).

Fuente: (Tejada Ripalda, 2005; Sausa, 2015)

Pilot project definition

It is then proposed to prepare a territorial diagnosis in Metropolitan Lima to conclude on the place where the pilot tests should be carried out prior to the development of the application and then test it for the first time. For this, layers of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) would be crossed in order to identify the zone of Lima with the greatest urgency of intervention.

Fuente: (Lima Como Vamos, 2017)

The "Urban Enabler" App

Starting from the described problem, the concept of a mobile application that allows to design, in real time, small-scale public spaces in residual lands of urban-marginal neighborhoods that could later be financed collectively (as a kickstarter of public spaces) was developed. The process from the initiative of a user to the implementation of its design had two stages: a digital and a physical, which will be explained in the text and pictures below.

1. Digital process

1.1 Coordinates entry interphace where the user touched this smartphone's screen to define the residual plot's limits. The application would then use GIS to calculate the area of this plot and its slope.

1.2 User choices interface where railing and retaining walls materials, and the activities that would be carried out in that space would be chosen.

1.3 Design optiones interface where the user would choose between 3 options that the app designed. By using location-based Augmented Reality, the designs could be seen just by standing near the plot.

1.4 Design confirmation interface where the user could change the previously chosen activities or materials to obtain the approximate budget needed. As urban furnitures and prices were uploaded on the app, budgets were also obtained at real-time.
1.5 Crowdfunding where users could collaborate with money or volunteer labour to build the spaces; moreover, these would be constructed with the neighbour's participation.

2. Physical process

2.1 Verifitacion meeting with app representatives, neighborhood council president, a municipal representative and the user who loaded the design to define different topics.

2.2 Technical drawings development and adjustmen of furnitures in database.

2.3 Intervention and monitoring of public space.

2.4 Rewards program for users, financiers and volunteers.

The central idea of this operative process was that the algorithm could take the decisions that nowadays an architect would have to take, such as calculating the number of platforms needed depending on the slope or the number of trees, luminaires or urban furniture according to distances. The user could use the app in an interactive way designing a public space in the process (like a Blackmirror Bandersnatch of public spaces that if you haven't seen it do it RIGHT NOW).

I invite you to review in detail the proposal (although it has not been developed in depth) and comment that improvements could be included or with what ideas you do not agree with.

Thanks for your time,

Flavio 🐨

Linkless sources:

Tejada Ripalda, Luis (2005). Los niños de la calle y su mundo (1era ed.). Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales.

Competition links:
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