The Vivienda Azul-Verde: a rainwater harvesting system for El Pozón, Cartagena de Indias

The offer of social housing in South America and in particular in Colombia often does not meet the population real needs. Furthermore the consequences of climate change are affecting this reality, exacerbating even more the instability and insecurity of the informal settlements. For instance, the neighborhooud El Pozón, located in the Colombian city of Cartagena de Indias, in addition to its social and economic problems, is characterized by a contradictory environmental situation. On the one hand it suffers the problem of floods due to its proximity to the Ciénaga de La Virgen and to seasonal heavy rainfall and on the other hand the supply of drinking water is problematic and reaches unsustainable costs for a population who lives in marginal conditions. The project of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, in collaboration with the Politecnico di Torino, presented at the Solar Decathlon Latin America and Caribbean 2019 is aimed at improving the quality of life of the El Pozón inhabitants, proposing a new model of economic and sustainable house, self-sufficient from an energy point of view and achievable largely in self-construction. The participation in the design of the hidro-sanitary system of the vivienda presented itself as the starting point of the research, of which the theme of water is the main common thread. The prototype, that was built and tested for the duration of the contest, proposes an integrated water use strategy at the building scale, which combines different low-tech systems. At the same time, participation in the construction phase made it possible to conceive one of the main concepts that characterizes the neighborhood: the self-construction. The thesis work wants to present a possible methodology to conceive and realize a low-tech water technology: a blue-green roof module for the Solar Decathlon vivienda Maquina Verde. However the focus is placed not only the final product, but mainly on the process of inspections and interviews with the community that has strongly guided the final configuration of the module. The main purpose is to stimulate the inhabitants to address problems such as address lack of sanitation, water quality and environmental improvement, through a scalable, sustainable and cost-effective solution.