23 de Enero

Project Type: Requalification of an urban area

Location: Caracas, Venezuela

Status: Concept

23 de Enero, which takes its name from the date on which democracy began, is a district of Caracas; it is equally divided between the formal part where the project by Carlos Raùl Villanueva is located and the informal part where the Ranchos where most of the population live are located.

Villanueva's project did not work as hoped and the people who now occupy the apartment blocks are not happy with their condition, instead, they prefer life in the ranchos, which however present a very bad condition due to the use of poor-quality materials and frequent earthquakes.

By analyzing the energies available for on-site exploitation such as water, wind, solar and solar thermal resources, it was possible to understand how to best exploit the roofs of condominium blocks as energy connectors. By exploiting the technical rooms in correspondence with the lift systems and existing condominium blocks, it is possible to make the new public functions autonomous.