Project Statement

The “Eco-booster” project transforms Ibague’s vulnerable neighborhoods by providing sustainable housing, integrating green armatures, and enhancing connectivities. Located in the historic city center, the area suffers from flooding, landslides, and poor housing conditions. The project addresses these issues by relocating high-risk neighborhoods and improving onsite housing. It enhances connectivity through integrated essential communal services, pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, and green public spaces. By creating floodable zones, wetlands, and nurseries, while supporting agriculture, coffee production, and manufacturing, Eco-booster ensures safe, resilient, and sustainable communities that celebrate Ibague's cultural and natural assets.

Project Narrative

The project “Eco-booster” aims to transform Ibague’s vulnerable neighborhoods by addressing environmental risks, improving living conditions, and enhancing connectivity through sustainable relocation, on-site improvement, and the creation of green armatures. 

Our site is located at the historic city center of Ibague, a gateway to the Combeima Canyon with various eco-tourism destinations and it is also the cultural center for music and arts. However, the neighborhoods here constantly suffer from flooding, landslides, segregation, and poor housing conditions. Informal housing expansion, settlement in floodplains, and poorly constructed homes on steep slopes and ridges pose significant risks to the residents and the city. During site visits and engaging with local communities, the local community representatives revealed pressing needs for better connectivity and sustainable housing solutions, ensuring safe, resilient, and sustainable communities for future generations. 

To revitalize the city center and the neighborhoods, “Eco-booster” provides durable and expandable housing with essential communal services, while also integrating green public spaces for connectivity and pedestrian accessibility. The project supports local businesses in agriculture, coffee production, and manufacturing, integrating these enterprises within the community. It also tackles extreme topography, constant flooding, and a disconnected urban environment by restoring habitats, conserving natural resources, and promoting sustainability through floodable zones, wetlands, and rain gardens. Culturally, our proposal honors Ibague's heritage by creating public amenities for music and arts within the neighborhoods. 

To achieve these, it will require relocating high-risk neighborhoods to areas within the same district or onsite housing improvement in order to preserve the same social ties. The newly designed communities will offer expandable housing and essential amenities like schools, markets, and libraries within a 15-minute walk. Community typologies include terraced community, co-creation community, and gateway community, each adapted to different topographies and needs. Housing typologies feature expandable housing with sustainable, locally sourced elements like reflective metal roofs, recycled plastic bricks, prefabricated concrete columns, and reused bamboo railings, designed for future expansion and local business integration.

The proposal also seeks to break the segregation due to extreme elevation differences, by providing green connectors and community plazas, to link the city and the new communities to the natural assets. After the sustainable relocation and onsite improvement of the neighborhoods, the Combeima river flood plain will be released and transformed into municipal parks with wetlands and plant nurseries. The Centenario river at the city center will be daylighted and reconnected, creating lush green corridors and relinking to the urban fabric. 

The project will also Enhance street infrastructure and public amenities, which will make the city pedestrian-friendly. Public and green infrastructures like lookout points, daycare centers, sweet fruit farms, nurseries, and green plazas connect these communities and will serve the entire city. The creation of bridges, mountain elevators, and buildings that address elevation differences will ensure a 20-minute walk to the city center and access to all public spaces.