CONFLICTS IN PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION ON THE INFORMAL CITY

Abstract

The growth of Latin American cities in recent decades has happened mainly on the sidelines of formal planning, producing an “informal city” which does not follow the urban model defined and promoted by institutions. Urban planning in such a context is focused mainly in re-urbanizing this informal city, following criteria which often modify, or even destroy, the informal city’s functional logic. In the following article these conflicts are summarily reviewed, with examples drawn from Bogotá and Medellín, in Colombia. These are then put in contrast with European practices, where intervention in the existing city has become the pivotal element of urban planning, but in a very different cultural, social and institutional context.