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The Metamorphosis of Medelln

From narcotra c capital to city of ourishing civic culture
Architectural History Thesis [AR2A010] by Joost de Bont | spring 2013
Faculty of Architecture | Del University of Technology
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Cover photo: Cityscape of Medelln; some rights reserved by David Pea (DavidPLP under a Creave Commons license)
Source: hp://www.ickr.com/photos/davidpenal/350023280
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Contents 3
Introducon 5
Urban history 7
Medelln as a Lan American case 7
City of violence 7
Illegal land tenure and the right to the city 9
Narco tra c, paramilitaries, guerrillas and polics 11
Spaally fragmented city and globalizaon 13
The transformaon 17
Reinvenon of Colombian civic pride 17
The example of capital Bogot 17
Civic pride of the bogotanos 19
The renaissance of Medelln 21
Metrocable 23
Public libraries and other amenies 25
Cultura ciudadana 27
Conclusions 29
Bibliography 30
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Introducon
The city of Medelln, the second largest city of Colombia, has gone through some decades of major
change. What was once one of the most dangerous and deadly cies in the world and home to one of the
biggest criminals in the recent world history, Pablo Escobar, is now one of the Lan American cies with
the highest annual economic growth rate (McKinsey Global Instute, 2011). This is not only the eect of
the decreasing homicide rate and declining narcotra c. The urban governance of Medelln has improved
a lot since the beginning of the ninees of the last century, together with the fact that the municipal
government has become more stable over me (Marn and Corrales 2011, p. 30). Partly due to this an
integral improvement plan for the whole city, including the highly precarious slums in the outskirts of the
city, was established and is now being executed bit by bit. The main idea of this thesis will be to explain
how Medelln ended up to be the most violent city of its connent and how it aerwards miraculously
escaped from this posion.
The menoned improvement plan was partly based on the one that is iniated in the Colombian
capital Bogot. One of the main objecves of this plan is to increase labour mobility by improving access
to public transport. Labour mobility can be seen as one the most important ways to improve the socio-
economic status of people living in underdeveloped areas, as economist Jeremy Riin stretches in his
book The Age of Access (2000). Next to that a tendency emerged of improving civic culture by construcng
public buildings and making educaon and culture accessible for the people from all dierent strata in the
city.
To describe this transion in a proper way, rst the preceding history of Medelln will be dealt
with. This part on the early history will mainly deal with the socio-economic and urban issues during the
tweneth century, which leaded to the notorious status of being the drug cartel capital of the eighes.
Aer that the era in which the city changed towards the (more successful) metropolitan area that it is now
will be described. This deals with both socio-economic and governance issues, as well as the planning and
urbanism aspects of the improvement plan.
In order to place this urban improvement and slum upgrading project in the context of similar
ones, the Medelln case will be compared with the case of Bogot. Where necessary there will be referred
as well to other Lan American cies and improvement projects. This all to explain the process of major
posive change that took place in Medelln, which was described by journalist Sara Miller Llana as follows:
a combinaon of urban planning at the local level, security at the federal level, and a truce among gangs
on the ground has given rise to what some say is no less than a miraculous transformaon. (2010).

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Figure 1. Lan American cies round 1900, Medelln with about 50,000 inhabitants (Fernndez-Maldonado 2011)
Figure 2. Evoluon of Lan American cies in general with boom from 1950s on (CEDLA 2008)
Figure 3. Urban populaon in Lan American and annual growth (Fernndez-Maldonado 2011)
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Urban history
Medelln as a Lan American case
Lan American cies to a great extent share their early urban history. This shared historic is mostly
based on the total Iberian colonizaon of this part of the world. The shared history is even more evident
within the big Hispanic part of the connent. In the inial years of European colonizaon new cies were
founded as centres of mine extracon or near indigenous selements. From 1540 to the end 16th century
the highest peak of European expansion was reached. From 1600 to the mid 19th century there was a
period of slow change (Fernndez-Maldonado 2011). By than cies funconed as nodes of marime and
land routes. These cies were based on the classic Hispano American colonial model, mostly recognized
by a strong grid structure. Up unl far in the tweneth century most of the cies kept following this
inial structure when spreading out over the surrounding area. Starng in the nineeth century the rst
urbanizaon wave spread over the connent (see gure 1 and 2). By the end of this century Medelln was
sll a rather small city with around 50,000 inhabitants (gure 1).
The period from the 1950s on ll 1980 can be mostly characterized by high rates of industrializaon and
urbanizaon, which leaded to heightened urban primacy and populaon concentraons (see gure 3).
Next to the growth of industrial centers, proliferaon of squaer selements took place. This resulted in
an increasing dierenaon between the formal and the informal parts of the cies in Lan America.
In the upcoming period, from 1980 on, a new demographic and economic context came into
existence, a new hierarchy of cies in terms of their global economic integraon (Fernndez-Maldonado
2011). Next to that a diversicaon of naonal urban systems began. A second wave of sub urbanizaon,
mainly symbolized by the fragmentaon into islands of wealth, preceded by road and telecommunicaon
networks (Caldeira 1996). This urban (spaal) fragmentaon has an immense impact on the relaon
between dierent strata in the urban society. It creates tremendous tensions in the city, which can be
menoned in both daily street life as well as in polics. This was as well one of the main reasons that
Medelln became the highly problemac city that it was.
City of violence
If we look closer into the situaon of Medelln and the rest of Colombia, we see that during the ies
and the sixes mass immigraon was caused by polical violence taking place in the country side. In the
period of me from 1948 ll 1953, oen referred to as La Violencia (The Violence), a civil war took place
and one the most crical periods in Medellns history commenced (Marn and Corrales 2011, p. 36).
Even though this le an immense scar, the 1950s, 60s and 70s were decades of prosperity. This prosperity
leaded to an immense growth of the city, as in most of the other Lan American cies, which can be
seen as well in gure 4 and 5. This created together with the emerging polical balance, because of the
Frente Naonal coalion being in charge, hope and a posive vision for the future (Marn and Corrales
2011, p. 36). This is also visible in high amount of instuonal and public buildings being constructed
and educaonal organizaons and private businesses being founded in this period. In this period also
the expansion limits of the city were reached, also see gure 4. The slums on the slopes around the city
covered the whole ring surrounding the metropolitan area in all possible direcons. As a result of this the
only soluon was to grow in the vercal direcon, this mainly happened with residenal buildings in the
city centre, the construcon of the business district and the together with them constructed new avenues.
Next to that Medelln became pioneer in the industrializaon process and development of the country.
But nevertheless the city started declining round about the start of the 80s, and was confronted with a
wide range of violence, fear and terror (Marn and Corrales 2011, p. 36).
Aerwards the degeneraon of the rural economy leaded to an ongoing migraon ow to the
city. At a high pace, in a few decades, Medelln was transformed from a small agricultural based city with
a few hundred thousand inhabitants to a metropolitan area of millions of people. As the main character
Fernando in the movie La Virgen de los Sicarios (1999) explains as well: Medelln was one big farm with
a bishop. The on during mass immigraon together with a governmental incapability of dealing with it
resulted in the complex urban reality of rebellion, criminality and inequality. What made the situaon
even worse was the fact that corrupon started to penetrate into essenal state enes (Marn and
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Figure 6. Locaon of pirata and invasione selements with contract forms used (Restrepo Cadavid 2009, p. 47/74, edited by
author)

invasione seulemenLs
formal seulemenLs
oral conLacL
wrluen conLracL
pirata seulemenLs
Figure 4. Expansion of Medelln in the period 1950-2000 (Hernandez Palacio 2012, p.107, edited by author)
Figure 5. Populaon growth of Medelln in the period 1905-2008 (Marn and Corrales 2011, p. 42, edited by author)
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Corrales 2011, p. 38). These corrupt acvies were mainly nanced out of narcotra c, which was also
noceable in the fact that cartel leaders had immense (polical) power. A good example of this last point
are the polical ambious of Pablo Escobar, supported by the enormous inuence that he had on the
lower social class of the urban society (Pescados de mi padre 2009). Escobar mainly gained this inuence
by invesng the money from the narcotra c partly into the housing of this lower social class and by this
creang support for his ideas.
During the eighes and the early ninees migraon to the city happened mostly due to the
growing inuence of armed guerrilla groups and drug cartels (Pao 2011). This all leaded to an enormous
growth of informal selements in the unorganized and hardly unreachable sloped outskirts of the city.
As a result the inhabitants of these informal neighbourhoods or shantytowns had no link to the city;
nor physically (in sense of infrastructure), nor culturally (they did not feel like part of the city, cizens
of Medelln), they missed the feeling of being part of the civic culture. The people that moved from the
country side to the illegal occupied hill sides; exchanged being in a civil war within the rural area for
a maybe even more insecure situaon in the city periphery. A situaon that was controlled by armed
guerrilla groups, organized narcotra c groups and paramilitary groups that had as well big inuence on
the polical situaon of the city. In order to analyze all the dierent aspects that are menoned before
and the ones that contributed as well to the highly fragmented and problemac urban structure, they will
be described separately in the upcoming parts.
Illegal land tenure and the right to the city
One of the things that was not discussed before in this text, but is of a great importance regarding
the problemac growth of the city, is the issue of land tenure. The land that the slum dwellers use is not
their legal property; they occupied a piece of (mostly) state property.
More nuanced there is a disncon to be made between invasiones, when families illegally
occupy land by construcng a house; and pirata, which exists of landowners or promoters illegally selling
plots to people where they will build their houses (Baross and Mesa 1986, p. 153). Mainly the laer is
interesng to look deeper into. The land prices of the plots as they were oered by pirata developers
where rather low, as a result they ourished from the end of the 1960s onwards. One of the main
objecves of these developers was not so much to help these low class people having their own house. In
stead of that they used this process in order to force the government to invest in minimum infrastructural
development of these areas (Baross and Mesa 1986, p. 155). This land tenure speculaon mainly took
place in the zone between the predominantly at inner city (which was commercially more interesng to
develop); and the steep surrounding hills that are mostly occupied by the invasione selements. Aer the
infrastructure was deployed, the pirata developers removed the low income dwellers and their houses
from the land and further (commercially) developed these areas. This clearly shows the underdog role
that the slum dwellers were put into, and as a result that the inhabitants of these areas lacked the right to
the city.
This instable basis on which the slum dwellers balance is as well for a big part the result of the
fact that most of the concluded contracts are based on an oral agreement (see also gure 6) and thus
relavely easy to misuse. Selers with an oral contract have in this case a bigger change of being evicted
from their house (Restrepo Cadavid 2009, p. 80). With regards to this it is interesng to add that in these
informal selements, although based on illegal acvies, there is such a thing as a real estate market in
which trading of housing units takes place. Just like in other Lan American cies with big percentages
of informal selements, like So Paulo in Brazil, this mostly takes place aer a certain neighbourhood is
already consolidated for a certain me (Dias Tamborino 2011, p. 11).
The pirata development greatly declined aer 1970 although sll present (see gure 6),
but aer this the invasione sites kept on emerging (Baross and Mesa 1986, p. 156). These invasione
neighbourhoods consist of even more unfortunate inhabitants, since they are even less wealthy than the
people in the pirata neighbourhoods. The result of this is that these sites are in even more dangerous and
underdeveloped status.

It was only from ninees of the last century on that improvement plans for these neighbourhoods
started to be developed, and that these issues gained polical importance (Marn and Corrales 2011, p.
42). Before that, these urban regions were basically denied, did not exist on both geographical maps and
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Number of homicides (1987-2008)
Figure 7. Homicides in Medelln between 1987-2008 (Sistema de Informacin para la Seguridad y la Convivencia 2009, p.14, edited
by author)
Figure 8. Repressive act of Colombian military in informal selement (Suarez 2012)
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polical agendas. Next to that the inhabitants of these neighbourhoods simply did not have the same civil
rights as the people from the formal city, they were not fully accepted as cizens of Medelln.
Narco tra c, paramilitaries, guerrillas and polics
These urban problems are not all standing on their own and are part of a bigger range of urban issues.
Problems in both spaal and socio-economic guises that appeared together with the boom of informal
selements are for instance: scarce educaon amenies, criminality and narcotra c; and high violence
and homicide rates. If we look into the laer ones, we see that these are to a big extent correlated to
each other.
Medelln became notoriously known during the eighes because of the drug cartel leaded by
Pablo Escobar, called the Medelln Cartel. This was not only measurable in criminality rates and the
amount of cocaine that was produced by them, but also in violence and homicide rates. During the end
of the eighes, murder rates grew explosively, with a summit in 1991 of 6,349 homicides in one year
(see also gure 7) (Marn and Corrales 2011, p. 38). It was in this period that Medelln became not only
the most violent and dangerous city of Colombia, but also one of the most violent cies in Lan America
and even the enre world. With a homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants of up to 444, according to what
Medellns former mayor Alonso Salazar stated in an interview, the city earned this dubious tle (Carbona
2011, p. 7).
It was mainly because of the absence of instuonal power, such as police and judiciary, that
in the poor (informal) selements and outskirts of the city the violence ourished (Marn and Corrales
2011, p. 40). But not only the lack of repressive power from the state was a problem, also the fact
that amenies like educaon, health care and recreaon missed in these areas. As a result there were
the organized criminal groups (such as guerrillas and narcotra c cartels) that took over the power in
these areas. This did not happen only because violent suppression of the inhabitants in these informal
neighbourhoods, it was also because the gang leaders jumped into the vacuum of care taking for these
areas. This is shown as well by for instance whole communies that were housed with the money of the
Medelln Cartel, with even a whole neighbourhood being named aer Pablo Escobar (Pescados de mi
padre 2009). Although the government tried to control the situaon by suppressing these acvies, see
gure 8, it grew totally out of their hands.
Not only narcotra c cartels had taken over the power in the informal selements. They had to
share their prevalence with other pares such as le wing guerrilla and right wing paramilitary groups.
These groups had moved up from the salve (the hardly accessible jungle) to the periphery of the city (La
Sierra 2005). So the people that escaped from the civil war in rural areas, as was menoned before, found
themselves again in a war since the armed groups followed the same path to the city. This power struggle
was and is not only a maer of machismo, but as well a way to provide a certain sense of security for the
inhabitants of these neighbourhoods (Gurrez Sann and Jaramillo 2004, p. 17).

A constant dynamic of new created alliances and enemies made the situaon in these peripheral
parts of Medelln one of constant unpredictability, fear and insecurity. Most of the major extreme le
wing guerrilla groups were formed in the 60s of the last century, of which the FARC, the ELN and M-19 are
most known. That the power of these groups is not solely based on military power can be seen in the fact
that a lot of these groups also founded a polical equivalent, like the Patrioc Union Party (FARC) and the
M-19 Democrac Alliance (M-19) (Insight on Conict 2012). Although many of these side organizaons
feigned to achieve a secure and peaceful situaon and had some posive side eects, for the greatest part
they only enlarged the hegemony of the terrorist groups. The power that these groups have within the
periphery of the city is polically so big that they are oen referred to as a state inside the state (Gurrez
Sann and Jaramillo 2004, p. 21).
This situaon wherein wars between dierent militant groups take over the daily life in these
neighbourhoods is very well recorded in the 2005 documentary La Sierra, about the slum that goes by
the same name. It shows the incompetence of the state and the police to control the situaon in these
areas, as well as the almost hopeless situaon that the gang members and other inhabitants of the
neighbourhood nd themselves in (La Sierra 2005). But eventually it shows as well sparkles of hope
as the paramilitary group in which they end up, Bloque Cacique Nubara, gives up its weapons and as
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Illegal Armed Actors


Local government gradient of control


Informal seulements

Figure 9. Locaon of informal selement, local government control and illegal armed actors (Samper 2010, edited by author)
Figure 10. Spaal fragmentaon process in the centre of Medelln in the period 1950-2000 (Hernandez Palacio 2012, p.110)
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members get amnesty from the government and return to legality (Gurrez Sann and Jaramillo 2004, p.
27). That these dierent groups are sll present in the dierent areas of the city and the bales between
these pares are sll ongoing is very apparent (La Sierra 2005; Sann and Jaramillo 2004). This is mainly
a result of the policizaon of crime and violence that is sll very much extant. For is big part because
old role models do not disappear overnight, but as well for the fact that this process is sll (to a lesser
extent) going on. Aer the mainly repressive acons that were taken by the state in mainly the 80s, now
they seem to believe in more result from peace accords, as is shown as well by very recent negoaons
between the government and the FARC (Reyes 2013; Sann and Jaramillo 2004).
The rst negoaons with the dierent milias in the city started in the beginning of the 90s
under leadership of president Csar Gaviria (Marn and Corrales 2011, p. 46). These negoaons did not
sort that much result on the longer term. It is even said that in way the state provided for these groups
a way to connue their acvies, while appearing to be socially acve. This is maybe best stressed by a
quote from a milia member that their acvies existed of military undertakings in the night []and
social work in the day me (Sann and Jaramillo 2004, p. 22). These negoaons did not work out on the
long term, in that sense that aerwards the homicide and criminality rates in Medelln stayed high. On
the other hand the senment that was present within the communies of the informal selements is very
well stressed in the agreement that was achieved in 1994. This agreement stated that the state should
invest in improving the community infrastructure, basic health care, educaon and recreaon amenies;
as well as it should take care of the level of security in these neighbourhoods (Sann and Jaramillo 2004, p.
23).
One could say that the government agreed here on the fact that they have to take proper
responsibility for the quality of life of their cizens living in these informal areas of the city. The local
government of Medelln did not take this responsibility in full account right aer the 1994 agreement. But
with the introducon of a new naonal law, mandang the municipal administraons to be responsible for
assessing their own urban issues with a local development plan, cies like Bogot and Medelln showed
during the last decade how signicant planning is in the renewal of a society (Calderon Arcila 2008, p. 58).
And with the introducon of the Proyectos Urbanos Integrales (PUI) (Urban integral projects), iniated by
the municipality of Medelln in 2002 a real change became visible (EDU 2008). It was from that moment
on that the (local) government really started to take responsibility for these areas of the city, which should
be a part of their polical task. The urban development plan as such revitalized both planning, governance
and local democracy, by using these concepts in order to structurally ght social injusce (Calderon Arcila
2008, p. 58). As a result the city was able to change into a connental (or even world wide) example of
urban improvement and good governance.
Spaally fragmented city and globalizaon
The social fragmentaon within the city of Medelln, both between informal and formal city and within
the informal selements it selves, has a spaal correlave as well. The big dierence between rich and
poor, as it exists in a lot of developing countries, results in a cityscape that reects this socio economic
reality of extremes. This process of urban segregaon constuted the fragmented city that Medelln is.
The fragmented city as a concept is frequently described since it was rst menoned in the beginning
of the 90s. In an arcle on cies in developing countries Italian urban planning professor Marcello Balbo
introduced the term fragmented city (Balbo 1993). A fragmented city is characterized by its heterogeneous
structure, which is hard grasp with tradional planning techniques that were developed for more
homogeneous European and North American cies.
Medelln is a very parcular example of this model of a city as a heterogeneous and fragmented
assembly. Due to the organic and uncontrolled growth of the city, mainly during the tweneth century,
as is described before a cityscape emerged that is very unclear and appears very messy. This is for a big
part the result of the informal growth of the peripheral areas of the city, see gure 9. The contradicon in
these cies lays in the fact that there are islands of wealth, with private golf courts and police patrolling,
interspersed with slums that barely have access to fresh water and other basic infrastructures (Balbo 1993,
p. 25). The city of Medelln exists of dierent kinds of (sub) cultures, urban forms and architectural styles
that do not meet each other in the sense that they all seem to speak another language (Vasquez Zora
and Villalba Stor 2008). This physical fragmentaon is partly generated by new highways and avenues
14
15
that were constructed within the tradional city grid, see also gure 10 (Hernandez Palacio 2012, p. 109).
This resulted in an oversupply of services for the high class, in sense of infrastructure, but an undersupply
of services within the slums of the city. To put it even more extreme; with the creaon of this hyper
connecvity the rich elite, in the form of these highways, the inhabitants of the informal selements
became even more cut o from the rest of the city. For them these infrastructural axis works as a barrier,
that decreases their access to services and amenies outside their own neighbourhood.
It is this incommensurable aspect of the city that shows very well with what kind of complexies
inhabitants, planners and policians have to deal. A lot of mes the fragmented city is related to as an
eect of globalizaon, since the government oen invests more in the accumulaon of global capital than
they do in development for their local cizens (Bolay 2006, p. 285). In the case of Medelln some notes
can be made with regards to this theory. With having one of the biggest texle industries of Lan America,
during the 1980s the producon largely decreased and shied to South East Asia (Mendieta 2011, p. 177).
Even with the cocaine cartels taking over the local economy of the city during the same era, Medelln was
sll very much known as well for the texle producon with major brands like Coltejer and Fabricato.
In that sense the aracon of global capital for Medelln could be a way to reinvent itself as a
big texle producer in the world. And by organizing a big texle fair every year, Colombiatex, the city of
Medelln works on endogenous development in the words of John Friedman (Friedman 2007, p. 990).
The gain is that both local entrepreneurs prot, jobs are created and there are investments in both local
economy and culture (El Colombiano 2013).
The investment in local endogenous culture and economy seems the way to bridge the gap that is
created between the dierent strata in the city. This counts for the social economic development within
the city, as well as for the spaal planning of the city. The creaon of a common civic culture seems to be
the answer to the queson that has been raised in the last few decades by violence and social unrest.
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Figure 12. Antanas Mockus as Supercizen (The Telegraph 2010)
Figure 11. Medelln divided in the dierent sectors with upgrading projects indicated (Marn and Corrales 2011, p. 30/31).
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The transformaon
Reinvenon of Colombian civic pride
The intended changes that were already present in the 1990s became really tangible with the
implementaon of the rst Proyectos Urbanos Integrales (PUI), also see gure 11. This upgrading plan
was not the rst of its kind in Lan America and can therefore be compared to its predecessors. There are
several other big cies on the same connent that improved labour mobility by means of implemenng
public transport into the informal selements of the city (Curiba, Carcas, Bogot). This has been done
with dierent kind of transport modes, systemac approaches and on various scale levels. In both Curiba
and Bogot this has been done by the introducon of the Rapid Bus Transit system (Ardila 2004). Curiba
was the rst to implement a system as such, already back in the 1970s. That the mode of transport itself
is not necessarily the point can be seen in the case of Medelln itself and in Carcas where a Metrocable
system was implemented. In order to take a look not so much in the mode of transport that was
implemented itself, but more into the plan that it is embedded in, a comparison to the case of Bogot is
the most fruiul. The comparison to Bogot will be made, since this is not only geographically, but also
with regards to the undergone development process, a city that is close to Medelln.
The example of capital Bogot
Compared to Medelln the city of Bogot had to come from less profound, it did not suer as much from
guerrilla and paramilitary wars and narcotra c. But was sll considered to be one of the most violent
cies in the world, during the beginning of the 1990s (Feireiss 2011, p. 85). The stabilizaon of the
situaon in the capital of Colombia took place already round the change of the centuries. The start of
the era of recuperaon is considered to be with the inauguraon of mayor Antanas Mockus (1995-1997),
also see gure 12, and aer that connued by mayor Enrique Pealosa (1998-2000) (Pizano 2003, p. 13).
Antanas Mockus connued his recuperaon work in another term from 2001 to 2003. On the Architecture
Biennial in Venice of 2006 the city of Bogot was even acknowledged with a Golden Lion for being the
best-pracce case of egalitarian urban transformaon (Calderon Arcila 2008, p. 10).
The main reason for this major turn seems to be the stabilizing governance situaon since the
mid ninees. Several numbers support this postulated improvement of both the socio-economic status of
the city and the spaal organizaon level. A good example for this more stabilized governance situaon,
is the increase from 25 months in 1992 to four years for every mayor to stay in charge (Gilbert 2006).
This without a doubt leads to more connuity of administraon and thus polical stability. A more stable
polical situaon is a really ferle ground for development of integral urban improvement projects. The
Transmilenio project (gure 13), based on the Bus Rapid Transit system in Curituba, is a good example
of this. The project led to a higher labour mobility and by this increased chances for people, from
neighbourhoods that were formerly disconnected from the rest of the city, on the labour market.
Along with big projects like the Transmilenio there were projects on the lower urban level. These
projects that were developed closely with local communies were mostly dealing with recuperaon of
the public space. They existed out of thousands of partnership between the (local) government and civil
community iniaves (Pizano 2003, p. 54). These projects are part of an overarching plan called Red de
Espacios Publicos (Network of Public Spaces) which was launched by the local government together with
the Plan Maestro de Ciclovias (Master Plan Bike Paths) and Red de Bibliotecas (Network of Libraries)
(Calderon Arcila 2008, p. 10).
While the rst term of Antanas Mockus was mostly characterized by the improvement of the civic
culture that he made, besides his somemes eccentric behaviour (gure 12), Pealosa was the one who
pleaded most for infrastructural enforcements (Feireiss 2011, p. 86). Under leadership of Mockus major
changes were achieved, as stated very clear by Lukas Feireiss:
water usage dropped 40 per cent, 7,000 community security groups were formed and the homicide rate fell 70
per cent, tra c fatalies dropped by over 50 per cent, drinking water was provided to all homes (up from 79 per
cent in 1993), and sewerage was provided to 95 per cent of homes (up from 71 per cent). When he asked residents
to pay a voluntary extra 10 per cent in taxes, 63,000 people did so (2011, p. 86).
18
Figure 13. Transmilenio BRT system along Avenida de las Americas (Tongeren 2011)
Figure 14. El Tunal Library (Villamil 2011)
19
Next to that also behavioural changes can be menoned in the daily life of the bogotanos. This diers
from a general clampdown on drunkenness to homicide rates dropping from 80 per 100,000 inhabitants
in 1993 to 23 in 2006 (Gilbert 2006, p. 397). In that sense Mockus and Pealosa were complementary
to each other, as is also stretched by Colombian arst Adriana Torres Topaga in an interview: The rst
changed the citys a tude, and the second connued with these ideas, bringing to fruion necessary
infrastructural changes. (Feireiss 2011, p. 88).
From the introducon of the Transmilenio system on the commuter me dropped with 20 per
cent in 2001, with only a quarter of the total system being completed yet (Echeverry et al. 2004, p. 23).
In 2005 the network already existed out of 362 buses driving on 421 kilometres of especially for these
vehicles constructed bus lanes covering 78 mainly poor neighbourhoods in Bogot (El Tiempo 2005).
Pealosa, who is for the biggest part responsible for the introducon of the Transmilenio, was also the
one who opted for the construcon of new public libraries all over the city (Red de Bibliotecas), see also
gure 14, and parcularly in the poor (informal) neighbourhoods. These libraries that were designed by
Colombias most famous architects now welcome about eleven million visitors per year (Gmez 2004).
Civic pride of the bogotanos
That these big investments in the cultural, but as well the economic, life of the bogotanos improved the
quality of living is not to be doubted about. Various opinion polls show very well that the amount of
the cizens that see the situaon in Bogot improving doubled between 1999 and 2005 (Gilbert 2006,
p. 397). This shows that not only in (economic) stascs the quality of life has increased, but also in the
inhabitants daily life opinion on the city that they live in.
This improvement of the quality of life in Bogot also resulted in that the inhabitants of the city
discovered a sense of pride in their city, as Brish geographer Alan Gilbert put it (2006, p. 398). This civic
pride is maybe one of the most important achievements of all the upgrading projects that were executed
in Bogot. The creaon of this common identy is also very important regarding the fact that unl 1990
inhabitants did not idenfy themselves with Bogot, but with the region they originally came from, even
though they already lived in the city for generaons (Mosca 1987). This changed into four-hs of the city
populaon seeing themselves as bogotano, a full cizen of Bogot (2006, p. 398). This is a major victory,
which can not be overesmated, for both the city as for the inhabitants.
That Bogot can be seen as a (global) example of slum upgrading, and of upgrading a city in
general, goes without a doubt. This can be shown by the fact that many delegaons from all over the
world came to visit the city and see how they changed things (Ardila 2004). One of the major challenges
in that sense is the connuaon of this process of progress. The city has sll a lot to improve, like the big
inequality that is sll present in the city. The inequality is very much visible with 40 per cent of the income
of the metropolitan area, in hands of the upper 7 per cent of the almost 11 million inhabitants (Klink 2008,
p. 2).
Recent developments sll show improvement in for instance a decreasing murder rate, 24 per
cent cut in 2012, but there is also cricism on for instance the failed aempt to make rubbish collecon
a state issue (The Economist 2013). This last point of cricism is due to policy of current mayor Gustavo
Petro, a former guerrilla, who is following a more extreme le wing direcon. There where his recent
predecessors were more in favour of privasaon, which seemed to be a successful way (Gilbert 2006,
p. 402). This shows as well the main possible problems for the future, namely that polical disconnuity,
with a total dierent approach the achievements can be made (partly) undone. Nevertheless the
investments that are done in public transport, libraries and the public space of the city are there to stay.
They made the bogotano proud of its own city and brought the city a lot of welfare and prosperity. The
technocrac approach, of mainly the mayors Mockus and Pealosa, was essenal in the relavely quick
process of implemenng the Transmilenio and other public services (Gilbert 2006, p. 415). These mayors
with their brave and refreshing polical style made a change in the physical cityscape of Bogot, as well as
in the socio economic status of this metropolis. As Marcela Aguilar, a local denst, points out very clearly
in an interview:
The two mayors undoubtedly changed the quality of life of Bogotas inhabitants and visitors. Before their terms
as mayor, it was not possible to walk along the sidewalks in many streets; one had to walk in the street. Chaos
and insecurity reigned in the city (Feireiss 2011, p. 88).
20
Figure 15. Locaon of PUI projects, local government control and illegal armed actors (Samper 2010, edited by author)
Figure 16. Parque Explora building (Gil 2011)


Local government gradient of control


Informal seulements

Integrated Urban Projects
21
Seen from that side it is very much palpable that Bogot worked as a kind of model city for Medelln. The
results that were obtained created a trend in the country, Medelln was one of the cies where just like in
Bogot public services, facilies and public spaces are developed (Calderon Arcila 2008, p. 58). This was
not so much a literal translaon of the used plans, but more an intuive example of how public life in city
that dealt with this kind of issues can be improved.
The renaissance of Medelln
Aer decennias of violence, growing social problems and urban degeneraon as menoned before the
city of Medelln has almost turned one hundred and eighty degrees during the last years. Following the
example of Bogot, also in Medelln plans were made to come up with an integral approach to ght both
the socio economic and spaal urban problems of the city. The example of Bogot could not be followed
as a mere blueprint, since there are curtain dierences like in the specic topography of the city, the
relaon with the salve (jungle outskirts), see also gure 15, and populaon conguraon and a lot of
other urban specics.
The year 2003 can be seen as the start of this process, with Sergio Fajardo in o ce as mayor of
the city. Fajardo appointed a technocrac cabinet that prepared the integral transformaon model of
the city for the term 2004-2007 (Marn and Corrales 2011, p. 48). The main point of this plan is, as was
stated a publicaon of the municipality, to create an equal city were all cizens have the opportunity of
developing relaons supported by all the (cultural) services that are supplied, in the public space (Lpez
2006, p.10). The successor of Fajardo was Alonso Salazar, he connued the transformaon plans aer
2008. Salazar was already a prominent polician and was part of Fajardos government as well, in that way
he was very much complementary to his predecessor. Just like Mockus and Pealosa made the dierence
in Bogot, Fajardo and Salazar were the ones who brought Medelln change and polical connuity.
There were several plans iniated by the local government to improve the underdeveloped
parts of the city. Just like in Bogot the improvement plans focus upon the dierent aspects of urban
transformaon. These plans meant to increase mobility, improve educaon and recover public space and
green areas. They go under following specic plans as they are executed: Integral Urban Project (PUI),
the Land Use Plan (POT) and the Master Plan for Green zones (Drissen 2012). Known experts out of these
plans are the Metrocable project, Parque Bibliotheca Espaa and the outdoor escalators in Comuna
13 (BBC 2011). The Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano del Municipio de Medellin (Urban Development
Coorporaon of the Municipality of Medellin) is in charge of the implementaon of these plans (EDU
2008).
These development projects are received in a very posive way. This not only follows from
literature within the eld of governance, planning and architecture, but also turns out to be in interviews
with inhabitants from all dierent strata and areas of the city.
This if for example explained by interviews with local inhabitants in the book Tesfy! The
Consequences of Architecture on the Parque Explora (gure 16) project. The people from the community
changed their mind about policians, since they saw really posive change in their neighbourhood
(Feireiss 2011, p. 62). This seems to be a mutual exchange of growing respect, since in the same interview
appears that the mayors o ce improved the relaonship with the community. And a really important
gesture was made by creang close partnership with the local community, also showed by the fact that
residents were employed in the construcon zone (Feireiss 2011, p. 62).
The construcon of new public projects in neighbourhoods that were formerly seen as degraded;
gives them a new image and supplies in public funcons, like cultural and educaonal amenies. In
an arcle for El Colombiano Jaime Sarmiento states that the new architecture helped to change the
behaviour and mentality of the people in these poor neighbourhoods (Sarmiento 2011). This idea of
architecture changing the image of an area, also referred to as the Bilbao eect, should be nuanced with
the idea that most of these changes are preceded by years of civic renewal (Kimmelman 2012a). As is
shown in the example of Bogot the built Transmilenio and library projects, among the others, were not
the boosters of the success on themselves. They were supported by societal and polical changes, and are
maybe more physical reecons of these changes in civic life. The built projects in that sense can be seen
as material representaons of the civic pride and not merely as the cause of these proud feelings of the
inhabitants. This makes these projects really valuable in both material and social psychological sense. It
22
Figure 18. Locaon of metro lines in orange, with other projects of PUI located with circle (Navarro Serch 2010)
Figure 17. Metro network of Medelln with Metrocable lines J, K and L (Medelln Digital 2011)
23
should on the other hand not be confused with the idea of these buildings being the reason that this civic
pride is present in the city. The buildings, the architecture, should be seen in a larger social and economic
ecology (Kimmelman 2012b).
In the upcoming part this process will be described, from the iniaons of the plans, to the
construcon ll the newly created urban situaon. In order to give a nuanced idea of this, and to
cover both the lower scale implicaons and the integral urban plan, dierent parcular projects will be
described. These projects vary from transit projects (i.e. Metrocable) to public buildings (i.e. Bibliothecas
Espaa) and public space developments (i.e. Parque de la Paz 20 de Julio). This will be done in order to
describe the eect from the dierent intervenons on the dierent scales.
Metrocable
This aerial cable-car project was one of the rst intervenons to be executed, starng in 2004 (Dvila et
al. 2011). This together with the fact that this project has a very iconic eect on the upgraded area made
it one of the agships of the integral development process. The introducon of this transport mode was
a way to deal with urban challenges such as growing amounts of commuters, increasing transport speed
demands and a queson for environmental friendly soluons (Brand 2012, p.17). The choice for an aerial
cable-car was as such merely the soluon to solve the big height dierences that had to be bridged.
The informal selements that should be taken out of their posion of isolaon, are located mostly on
the steep hills surrounding the city. As a parcular soluon to solve transport problems for informal
selements in comparable topographical se ng; the example is followed by other cies. Other cies that
introduced a comparable system are Carcas (Venezuela), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Kohima (India).
The advantages of such a system is that it needs relavely less space on surface level, only the
staons and the columns are placed on the ground. This oers a lot of opportunies, since there is hardly
any spare ground in these informal selements available. Next to that, demolion of exisng structures is
not desirable, since the underlying social structures will be destroyed as well, which leads to a lot of social
unrest. This Metrocable system instead builds upon these social structures that are already present and
reinforces them with the potenal of mobility, which becomes a more and more powerful concept within
contemporary society (Brand 2012, p.18). As already menoned before it increases labour mobility, but
not only that, it gives the inhabitants of these informal selements the right to the city. The introducon
of a public transport system as such is a way to ght inequality, which was very much present in the city
of Medelln. It literally connected the informal selements with the rest of the city and by this these areas
where taken out of their (socio economic) isolaon.
The exisng metro network of Medelln, exisng of two train lines, was supplemented in 2004
with the compleon of Lnea K (Line K), see also gure 17. This line connects the areas in the northeast
(Comunas 1 and 2) of the city to the exisng public transport network (Brand et al. 2012, p. 39). Later on,
in 2010, this line was extended by a (mainly) tourist line (Lnea L) up to Arv, in the rural outskirts of the
city. The informal areas in the west side of the city (Comunas 7 and 13) where connected to the rest of
the network in 2008, when Lnea J was completed, see gure 18 (Dvila et al. 2011). With the compleon
of these lines some of the objecves as they were formulated in the beginning of Fajardos term in
2004 were achieved. By including these areas in the exisng transport network, they did not become
only spaally integrated with the rest of the city. These comunas (neighbourhoods) also became part of
the service network that is already present in the city, it became a potenal part of the daily life of the
inhabitants. By this the objecve of making educaonal, sport, recreaonal and health services accessible
together with increasing the mobility for all inhabitants of the city was achieved (Lpez 2006, p. 11).
On one hand the Metrocable is a system that has impact on the dierent comunas, because
of the city integraon eect, but on the other hand it has also an eect on the local level. Thus on the
level of the neighbourhood itself this public transport hubs have an impact on for instance the local
economy and the social structure. That the retenon and reinforcement of these structures on the lower
level are obviated as well is showed by the iniaon of the Centros de Desarrollo Empresarial Zonal
(Cedezo) (Local Entrepreneurship Development Centres). The centres are strategically located at the end
of the Metrocable lines, which seems to be well chosen, since for instance in Comuna 1 from all of the
local producon units 72 per cent are placed along Lnea K (Coup et al. 2012, p.81). Next to that, the
24
Figure 20. Fernando Botero Library Park designed by G Ateliers (Garca 2012)
Figure 19. Public escalators in Comuna 13 (La Tercera 2011)
25
contractors who are commissioned by the local government for one of the many satellite projects need
to hire a signicant amount of local labourers (Dvila et al. 2011, p. 9). These dierent projects that are
developed alongside the Metrocable project ensure its success, by simply implemenng the cable-car
system on its own it would not embedded enough in the exisng structure. The complexies of the
exisng informal neighbourhoods ask for a way more subtle soluon. These local entrepreneurship and
employment projects make sure that both on the long and the short term there is a good basis for socio
economic success.
With regards to the exisng social structure in informal selements it is also really important to
take care of the embedding of a new transport system. Within these neighbourhoods there is very strong
sense of a community bond. They are used to take the same pathways on a daily basis, since they are
considered to be safe. This kind of really precarious social structure should be taken into account when
a staon of the Metrocable is placed in a certain neighbourhood. This is why working closely together
with people from the community is a very important issue during the preparaon and design process
of such a transport system. That the authories somemes sll use to much of an top-down approach,
even though with good intenons, was what Colombian American urban sociologist John Betancur found
during his research in Medelln (Betancur 2007, p. 10-11). In reacon to this the government seems to
take this crique serious. It is even explicitly stated that parcipatory planning is a main objecve of the
development plans, together with construcng secondary infrastructure like pavements and public space
equipment (Municipio de Medelln 2007, p. 14). By this it can be seen that a lot of lessons where as well
learned along the way and made the whole process bit by bit more integral.

The mobility of the inhabitants of the dierent comunas is not only enhanced by the Metrocable
network. As stated before also the more local mobility of the inhabitants is developed. A good example of
this is the earlier menoned elevators in the barrio Las of Comuna 13, see gure 19. These elevators are
complementary to the Metrocable system and cover a total height of about 300 meters, decreasing the
travel me from 30 to 5 minutes (Morales Velsquez 2011 and BBC 2011).
These elevators make the rest of the city accessible for those who where not able to climb all the
exhausve stairs anymore and they run during same me of the day as the Metrocable (Gualdrn 2011).
This highly integrated development on a (local) infrastructural level in combinaon with socio economic
support of entrepreneurship and cultural amenies make these PUI as successful as they are.
Public libraries and other amenies
The combinaon and integraon of both the physical infrastructural networks, like the ones are described
in the previous part; and the cultural and educaonal network is one of the main characteriscs of the
PUI. The upcoming part is dealing with these educaonal and cultural amenies that are an integral part
of the development plan. One of the most known is the Bibliotheca Espaa, which is actually just one
of the 23 libraries that are part of the Medelln Library Network (Red de Bibliotecas del Medelln) who
oer together public knowledge to all the city cizens. In the arcle that New York Times architecture
cric Michael Kimmelman devoted to the upgrading projects in Medelln he interviewed several local
inhabitants on the parcular projects. Among them was Mateo Gmez, who stated that: The Espaa
library changed our concepon of ourselves [...] before, we felt a sgma (Kimmelman 2012b). The
Espaa library is located at the intersecon of Lnea K and L. Because of the many tourists that use the
Lnea L, as explained before, the library is good addion to the tourist route they take. This is maybe at
the same me one of the weaknesses of the project as such. Some of the criques on the project are on
the fact that the objecve of this building sll seems to be on creang eye-catching buildings to grace the
covers of glossy magazines (Kimmelman 2012b). This also counts up to a certain extent for a project like
the Fernando Botero Library Park on the western outskirts of the city, close to the Lnea J terminal staon
of the Metrocable, see gure 20.
This criques of course do not erase the big amount of opportunies that were created for
the inhabitants of the informal districts of the city. Because it did not only changed their concepon of
themselves and about how the government and the rest of the city thinks about them and sees them.
But it creates new possibilies that could not be thought of before. So explains as well Harold Giraldo, a
regular user of one of the educaonal building projects, in an interview: Parque Explora is a gateway to
26
Figure 21. Public life in the late aernoon at Parque de los Deseos designed by Felipe Uribe in Comuna 4 (Marn and Corrales
2011, p. 143)
27
knowledge, a place where one can nd out how things work (Feireiss 2011, p. 63). This clearly supports
the idea that this projects opened up a world of changes for the dwellers of informally built housing units.
They are no longer an unsupported part of the city, but they are supplied with the services and amenies
that are available to the rest of the cizens of the city as well.
And not only do these places like Parque Explora, among others as the renovated Botanic
Garden and the Parque de los Deseos, supply services and amenies to the inhabitants of the poor
neighbourhoods. They also aract people from other strata of the society and work in that way as a
social integrator for the city (Marn and Corrales 2011, p. 128). Because not only did they invest in
the development of public space and buildings within the informal selements themselves. They also
developed the public space in other places in the city and on the boundaries between the formal and the
informal. These projects include places varying from sport elds, to cultural centres up to bicycle paths
(Marn and Corrales 2011, p. 132). These places also added to the sense of cizenship for the informal
city dwellers. From now on they are literally able to parcipate with all the other cizens of the city, they
became an inherit part of the city.
On the more pragmac level there are sll aspects that could be improved, as they are menoned
by both inhabitants and other actors in the projects. The libraries for instance can be seen as a good
start of the development of a public realm within the comunas. But as is explained by earlier quoted
Mateo Gmez: were sll missing cultural spaces, the library closes too early, the situaon is sll very
uncertain (Kimmelman 2012b). There is a certain risk that projects become to much of a sham, and are
only becoming a aesthec make over. The challenge of course is to connue this development for a more
equal city, like it is in Bogot too. Here it is best to quote the words of Michael Kimmelman, who sees a big
role for the new generaon, that is not to much concerned about architecture magazine covers, but more
about a city of greater equality:

The city has made big strides, aer all, using cu ng-edge architecture as a catalyst. But here young architects press
for yet more creave soluons. They take for granted as their jobs both formal innovaon and also the humanitarian
role of architectural acvism (2012b).
It is this a tude that has to be inherit by both the community itself as well as by the policians
and planners. A good looking building is something that one can be proud of and should take care of, on
the other hand it should not become a goal on its own. The social context in which the building has to be
embedded should be strengthened by its presence. As is shown with the public buildings that were built
within the upgrading process, a building is able to create new possibilies, to bring people together. It is
this force of a building that should be taken to its maximum strength.
Cultura ciudadana
One of the most important achievements of the upgrading projects is the fact that the informal
neighbourhoods of the city that were: once shunned by cizens and forgoen by the public
administraon, are now a symbol of the urban renaissance in Medellin (Duarte 2011, p. 10). The projects,
as is menoned before, created a sense of cizenship for the inhabitants of the comunas. For decades
they were seen as the parasites of the city. The government did not see the informal selements in which
they lived as part of their responsibility. With the realizaon of the upgrading projects it did not only
appear to the dwellers of these self built neighbourhoods that they were tolerated, but they became
an o cial part of the city. It was the physical representaon of their way out of informality, of not being
registered and not exisng for the local authories.
It is this being part of what one could call the cultura ciudadana (cizen culture), that is the legacy
of this integral upgrading process (see also gure 21). Or to put it in the words of one of the revoluonary
mayors Alonso Salazar: It was a process in which society rea rmed itself in pride of identy, in the work
ethic; a self-made society because it had always been far away from everything (Carbona 2011, p. 37).
The integral upgrading project had as one of its main objecves the social inclusion of a signicant part
of Medellns habitants. And although it was long way, from the rst iniaves in 1993, ll its success
nowadays, it paid of well. The process proved that there are fruiul counter proposals possible as an
alternave to the neo-liberal fragmented city of social exclusion. It created a city with inhabitants that are
proud of living in Medelln and being part of a society with a ourishing civic culture.
28
29
Conclusions
What can we learn from the process that took place in Medelln? First of all that the project does not
stand on its own. The integral upgrading project of the informal selements in Medelln is one that was a
result of years and years of polical and societal struggle. The city had to come from the absolute boom,
with having one of the highest homicide rates in the world. And it was with acknowledgement to a new
polical generaon that the process of social inclusion could take of. This change was necessary in order to
overcome the enormous problems that the city was dealing with, as we can conclude from the following
as well:
Fighng against social exclusion presupposes changes in the exisng governance structures, such as rethinking
mechanisms for delivery of services and providing instuonal space to allow residents to act as subjects in
decision making and change in their neighborhoods (Cars et al. 2002, p. 6).
The extreme situaon that the city found itself in asked for new experimental and bold decisions.
Fortunately there were examples that could be learned from. As well from within Colombia itself, like the
process iniated in Bogot in the 1990s, as from foreign cies like Curiba in Brazil. These cies showed
that with innovave public transport systems (Bus Rapid Transit) the socio-economic situaon of a big part
of the society could be increased. This by liing up their labour mobility and as a result giving them the
right to city, access to services and amenies.
Not only the labour mobility and access to other parts of the city were improved, but by the
construcon of public buildings like libraries and educaon centres the informal areas themselves were
developed as well. This not only created a new face for these neighbourhoods that were before seen
as hideous and a burden by the rest of the urban society. It created a sense of civic pride within these
communies, the feeling that they are an o cial part of the city. This was done with the construcon of
both public facilies as well as open public spaces, that are scarce and mostly even lacking in informally
built neighbourhoods. These intervenons in the built environment were combined with policies like
legalizaon of land tenure (Betancur 2007, p. 10). This not only created an inux with regards to the socio-
economic status of the inhabitants, but also ensured them that they had the right to stay were they live.
The laer is very important, because this was also a reason for house owners to invest in their home and
by that creang a more liveable environment with a higher quality of life.

The iniated process resulted in new emerging social capital that not only added to the value
of the daily environment of the inhabitants of the comunas, but to the city as a whole. It did that by
reinforcing the social bonds that are present and creang new possibilies that together lead to a
urban society of parcipaon, instead one of exclusion and fragmentaon. It was the integral approach
of the upgrading project that marks a big part of the success. What started at the city scale with the
implementaon of the Metrocable system and the construcon of big public works was completed with
the embedding of these systems within the small and local scale. And all this with a parcipatory approach
wherein inhabitants did not only have a voice, but were included up to the construcon process. All
the dierent projects were developed in close partnership with the local community. By this both the
dierent scales where covered, from big tot small, as well as the whole process range, from iniaon to
construcon.
The architecture that has been built works both as a physical representaon of the civic pride of
the inhabitants and as a catalyst of social cohesion. It is up to the new generaons to connue this process
and even leapfrog the older generaon that was somemes maybe more concerned with aesthecs
than with social issues. The process that took place shows that it pays of for policy makers, planners and
architects to stride for a more humanitarian and equal city by carrying out the role of social acvist.
30
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Back photo: Bibliotheca Espaa with the Metrocable on the right (c) All rights reserved by K-ndeLa
Source: hp://www.ickr.com/photos/7942866@N07/3164775703
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The Metamorphosis of Medelln | From narcotra c capital to city of ourishing civic culture
Architectural History Thesis [AR2A010] by Joost de Bont | spring 2013 | Faculty of Architecture | Del University of Technology