DISPELLING THE GAP. An urban focus for the integration of North Petare

Petare is known to be one of the biggest slums in Latin America, a massive spontaneous settlement where more than 200.000 people often live under harsh conditions, lacking basic needs, in precarious environments. Most of the problems of this slum are related to the pronounced segregation that isolates it from the rest of the city. In order to deal with this situation, the existing projects for an intermodal station, located in a large underused plot between the slum and the highway, are seen as an opportunity for integration. The strategy proposed consist of the development of an urban focus as integrator mediator, in an endeavor to dissolve the gap that separates poor and middle classes. Located at the east entrance of Caracas, Petare is enclosed by the highway that provides access to the city, but at the same time creates a barrier that highlights the disparities between the two sides: the planned and the spontaneous. These disparities are both cause and consequence of the segregation towards the slum, generating a strong social and urban gap that represents not only a physical limit, but also a limitation for the progress of this community and therefore, the city itself. Consequently, the purpose of the study is to integrate North Petare to its immediate context as well as with the rest of the city, in order to improve the life quality and opportunities of its inhabitants, promoting interaction and access to urban advantages. Taking the intermodal station as starting point, the intervention seeks to break the boundary by inhabiting the gap, replacing the barrier with an urban focus. An active node for citizen encounter, that responds to the local needs providing the urban elements that self-construction cannot achieve, a new pole of attraction that activates the economy of the area and places importance on Petare. An urban project whose dimensions correspond to the dimensions of the problem, since an issue of this magnitude cannot be solve by erecting a single building or small precise interventions, but rather by a master plan involving different scales of interventions from the metropolitan to the local scale in order to create in-depth integration. The possibility of this type of intervention is viable in Caracas due to the existence of large unused or residual spaces and in order to succeed it must be developed in phases by a joint work between the community, professionals, the private sector and the State, political will is fundamental. This urban focus is comprised of three systems according to the most problematic situations of the area. The system of mobility and accessibility connects from the inside of the slum towards the rest of the city creating clear, continuous pathways that prioritizes the pedestrian. The public space and interaction system provides several types and hierarchies of open spaces for different activities and encounters. Finally the system of equipment and civility incorporates the main services needed in the area, highlighting culture and sports as important elements for development. The design of the proposal responds to the conditions of the place, the logic of the slum, the topography and the advantageous aspects of a tropical climate. It answers to the problems and needs of the people and the place by creating quality spaces that promote integration, in order to improve the life conditions of its inhabitants and the well-functioning of the city as a whole, aiming for a unified and fair city.