PASO A PASO

FOCUS: ownership of your daily environment

POSITION: co-author

DURATION: 2 months

PROCESS: participatory
part of a multidisciplinary team.

EXECUTION:
-cooperation with the bureau spatial planning of municipality and residents of Lima district of El Madrigal.
- Making a Project proposal
- co-operation with the staff of municipal officials.
- Coordination with district representatives.
- Implementation of workshops with staff and residents.
- Final placement of tiles by a team of Lima municipality and residents El Madrigal.

RESULT:
- the path for residents
- protocol for comparable projects
- residents continuation project

The self-built neighborhoods in Lima are unambiguous and impersonal though they have been made by individual people. The public space is not designed, though the communities have been well organized. How do you translate the existing spatial individuality to a collectivity?
During the visits to the Barrios Altos, mountain areas, we notice that almost all districts look exactly. Although all the houses are built by different people. The method of construction apparently provides a specific building. The space between houses is not really designed. Often it the only collective space is the concrete football pitch. The creators/authors of the space do not appropriate that space.
The roads between the houses in the mountains are very dusty. They are not hardened by the municipality because it is too steep and too dangerous there. A dusty road is a sign of a bad neighborhood. Even a bit of a path makes a big difference. Dusty shoes show where you come from.

Another aspect is that the residents come from all regions of Peru. From the mountains or out of the forest. These are completely different areas and cultures. So you can not speak of a common culture. They are squatters. They do not have land, they invade it and put a house on it. Only after a long time, they can claim it as property. Many residents, therefore, do not have the status of real Limanese yet. Although they work together in practice there is no shared urban identity. The feeling of belonging is important for taking responsibility for the city. Not only as users but also as host and owner.
The proposal PASO A PASO, step by step, el camino de la vida, the road of life, addresses some of these problems.

We propose to create a path of stepping stones. Homemade concrete stones. Three per family. In the surface, a story can be drawn. The stones have the themes: yesterday, where I come from, today, where I am now, and tomorrow, where I'm going. If every family puts their stone in front of their house, in time a path be created. The history of the neighborhood and the residents can be read in this road.
The proposal was well received by the management of the municipal spatial planning bureau. We can do a pilot. Because the official authorities and the people in the neighborhood do not really interact with each other, the implementation of this idea is a delicate process.

First, the plan must be calculated by the project team. Then submitted to the representative of the district. Each district has elders representing fifty to a hundred people. When the elders agree a plan has to be made by the team of sociologists and architects. A protocol needs to be made. The residents themselves should be informed and workshops organized. All in all, the presentation and a long series of meetings.
The execution of the stepping stones will take place through a series of four workshops with local residents.
The participants have to get used to the idea that you talk about your origins and history. Neighbors for years have never shared their background. Also many of them have never made a drawing. Once they begin they find it very pleasant. It is one of the few occasions when they do something other than work.
We work with enthusiasm. Experts in concrete casting spontaneously appear.

The ultimate casting and placing of the stepping stones happen when we are back again. The residents want to keep the molds. Then more stones can be made whenever concrete is leftover from a DIY build.

El Madrigal

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TITLE: PASO A PASO
YEAR: 2013
LOCATION: Lima, Peru
BUDGET: Unknown

proposal: PASO A PASO, el camino de la vida (step by step, the road of life.)

presentation to the village elders

team meeting on the protocol

presentation to inhabitants

instruction workshop

designing and making stories

design for your own steppingstones

Production of the stones

Placing of the stones

BART STUART & KLAAR VAN DER LIPPE