Project Proposal - Barrio Stairways

The ‘Barrio Stairways’ project will evolve around the paths and stairways in the barrios, the slums of Caracas, Venezuela. In contrast with the transportation infrastructure of the more formal city the movements through the barrios is through a network of narrow staircases and alleyways. The stairways are more than just a means of access and have been described as meeting spaces and living rooms, places for conversations, games, domestic dramas, and daydreaming. The stairways are a central component of the physical and social character of Caracas hillside barrios.

Barrios are often associated with the more negative aspects such as poor housing, insufficient living space, sometimes built on unstable land, and lacking basic services including clean water and sanitation. However there are positive qualities of the barrios that if analysed and understood could perhaps offer clues to a more sustainable development and inform the more traditional urban model ‘the formal city‘. The study will explore how the barrio could serve as a guide to creating a culturally richer, more efficient and environmentally sustainable urbanism.

This research will investigate how the positive qualities such as the use of materials and the social character of the barrio can be retained, and in addition to that, it will focus on addressing some problems with the barrio infrastructure, in particular clean water, irrigation and food supply. Venezuela’s indigenous Timote-Cuica tribes’ advanced agricultural systems with irrigation and terracing will be studied. The project will explore whether a public circulation system could be integrated with water and food supply and conclude by making speculations how water can be collected, retained and used for a sustainable growth of crops in the hillside barrio stairways.