"Medellín developed a model that many cities around the world could learn from. For instance, the local energy company, EPM, is neither private nor nationalised but owned by the city, and it was decided that its profits (about $450m a year) should be fed back into the city. Where most mayors, including London's, have to lobby central government for money, Medellín's have tremendous spending power. Alongside this public-private partnership, the mayors have actively sought out the advice of an architecture community trained in the problems of their own city. Again, this is all too rare. In a short space of time, Medellín has turned itself into a model Latin American city, with good transport, dynamic public spaces, new schools and a culture of civic architecture. The real design project, however, was one of social organisation, with a section of society grouping together and deciding to rewrite their city's story."

"La publicación doble -que incluye la edición facsimilar del «Informe técnico del Plan Director para Bogotá» y una compilación de artículos analíticos sobre la presencia de «Le Corbusier en Bogotá: 1947-1951»- busca, desde la escala de un proyecto, aportar a la reflexión que, sobre la obra del Maestro, se trabaja desde diferentes latitudes. Los dos libros se proponen como un material necesario para las generaciones de futuros investigadores que, sobre el tema de la ciudad y la arquitectura en Le Corbusier, en general, y de Bogotá, en particular, quieran seguir ahondando en la materia, tengan acceso a un material hasta ahora inédito y a las reflexiones que varios autores han hecho especialmente para este libro. Los artículos, más que dar conclusiones respecto al proyecto, ponen al día una discusión sobre Arquitectura y Urbanismo que amerita seguir siendo fuente de muchas investigaciones de quienes piensen, sueñen o construyan la ciudad de hoy, mañana y siempre."

"Location:
This Project is located in the municipally of Soacha, Altos de Cazucá. This lies in a very depressed area that lacks of public infrastructure. This area is known for its security problems and it has become the shelter of thousands of people that have been displaced from their home towns due to recent conflict.

Approach:
Mazzanti came to the project with the belief that architecture's value lies in what it can produce. Mazzanti is interested in producing actions, change and relationships which in turn help generate shapes, patterns or open organizations that act in the construction of social actions. Hope Forest is what Mazzanti calls an open project, a project made out of modules that have the potential to grow and adapt to different situations. It consists of a canopy where modules can be added depending on the circumstances."

"I was recently asked to do a conversation/talk with Janette Sadik-Kahn, our commissioner of transportation, at the  AIA New York Center for Architecture Center (American Institute of Architects).  Since I imagined there might be some architects or designers in the audience, I took some time to share some of my notes and photographs from my summer Latin American bikes and cities tour. I also took this opportunity to finally organize some of the notes I had taken and post them. So here it is, many months late."

"Los casos de familias y comunidades que deciden educar sin escuela y educar en familia crecen aceleradamente en diversos países del mundo, incluyendo a Colombia. Este fenómeno es nuevo para los intereses de investigación científica académica universitaria. Las agudas problemáticas de la deserción escolar, el absentismo escolar y la baja o nula motivación de los niños, niñas, adolescentes y jóvenes para asistir a la escuela, tienen directa relación con este campo de investigación académica. En algunos países, como Estados Unidos, Canadá, Reino Unido, España, Noruega y Francia, ha ido creciendo rápidamente la investigación universitaria sobre esto temas, denominados generalmente como Homeschooling o Unschooling."

[via: http://www.patfarenga.com/pat-farengas-blog/2011/10/20/education-without-school-conference-in-bogota-colombia.html ]

"A controversial Pablo-Escobar-themed tour has been launched in his home town of Medellín, once Colombia's notorious cocaine-trafficking capital but now a growing tourist destination"

"Bienvenidos a Bogotá Urban Lab . Esta página Web fue creada por Trading Places, una red global de estudiantes de la ciudad que organiza conferencia itinerantes e intercambios virtuales alrededor del mundo. Buscamos promover el intercambio internacional de ideas e información sobre planeación y diseño urbano.<br />
Este es el producto de la Conferencia Itinerante de 2003 a Bogotá. Decidimos ampliar el objeto de esta página Web y convertirla en una plataforma para intercambiar información e ideas sobre la ciudad de Bogotá. Esta plataforma está abierta a quien tenga algo que contribuir.<br />
Esta página Web está en español y en inglés. Por favor utilicen el lenguaje con el cual se sientan más cómodos para comunicar sus ideas. Sus comentarios sobre cualquiera de los artículos y su participación en el foro son bienvenidos."<br />
<br />
[via: http://www.urbanology.org/2005/01/26/bogota-at-the-edge-planning-the-barrios/ ]

"Our mission is to transform lives and strengthen low-income communities by empowering people with information and communication technology. We use technology as a medium to fight poverty, stimulate entrepreneurship and create a new generation of changemakers"

"Founded in 1995, pioneer of the digital inclusion movement in Latin America, CDI (Center for Digital Inclusion) is one of the leading social enterprises in the world with a unique socio-educational approach. CDI Founder and Ashoka Fellow Rodrigo Baggio and our work at CDI have been recognized with more than 60 international awards. Today, we are a network of 816 self-managed and self-sustaining CDI Community Centers throughout Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay – monitored and coordinated by our 32 regional offices."

"En el 2016 la Red de Ciudades Como Vamos estará ejerciendo un liderazgo reconocido en torno a procesos de análisis, generación de conocimiento y planteamiento de recomendaciones y alternativas en políticas públicas orientadas al mejoramiento de la calidad de vida de las ciudades en Colombia."

"El texto, una visión de la realidad reciente, mostrará las transformaciones y las políticas públicas hechas en el Valle de Aburrá en los últimos 15 años."

"In November 2010, Alt.Latino and PBS's Music Voyager went on an adventure throughout Colombia. We traveled from city to city, town to town, interviewing musicians. Throughout the next two weeks we'll be sharing those experiences with you on this blog. You can also see interviews and extended footage of performances on Music Voyager."

"Diego, Nancy, Julián, Estefanía y otros 18 muchachos de El Peñol, acudieron el sábado 27 de noviembre a la cita que los llevó a fundar la séptima comunidad digital que, bajo el nombre de HiperBarrio, agrupa en Colombia a núcleos de creadores multimediales que el año pasado ganaran 10 mil euros y el gran premio internacional Golden Nica en Linz, Austria.<br />
<br />
Con desbordante entusiasmo los chicos se tomaron las instalaciones de la biblioteca y la sala de computadores de la Casa de la Cultura de dicho municipio, situado a hora y media de la capital provincial, Medellín."

"From Borges to Bolaño, Spanish has given us some of most beloved writers of 20th & 21st centuries. But as reach of Spanish-language culture extends far beyond Spain & Latin America, & as US tilts towards majority Hispanic population, it is time to ask who is next…22 literary stars of future.<br />
<br />
Andrés Barba –Spain, 1975<br />
Oliverio Coelho –Argentina, 1977<br />
Andrés Ressia Colino –Uruguay, 1977<br />
Federico Falco –Argentina, 1977<br />
Pablo Gutiérrez –Spain, 1978<br />
Rodrigo Hasbún –Bolivia, 1981<br />
Sònia Hernández –Spain, 1976<br />
Carlos Labbé –Chile, 1977<br />
Javier Montes –Spain, 1976<br />
Elvira Navarro –Spain, 1978<br />
Matías Néspolo –Argentina, 1975<br />
Andrés Neuman –Argentina, 1977<br />
Alberto Olmos –Spain, 1975<br />
Pola Oloixarac –Argentina, 1977<br />
Antonio Ortuño –Mexico, 1976<br />
Patricio Pron –Argentina, 1975<br />
Lucía Puenzo –Argentina, 1976<br />
Santiago Roncagliolo –Peru, 1975<br />
Andrés Felipe Solano –Colombia, 1977<br />
Samanta Schweblin –Argentina, 1978<br />
Carlos Yushimito –Peru, 1977<br />
Alejandro Zambra –Chile, 1975"

"The answer is Chia, about 45 minutes north of Bogota. Anchor Marco Werman takes us to a restaurant [Carne de Res] in Chia where owner Andres Jaramillo has transformed food and entertainment planning into a fine art. " [Includes slideshow of the restaurant, the design office, the workshop, etc.]

"The cable cars were originally built to connect Medellin's poorest neighborhoods to the rest of the city, but they've drawn tourists with their spectacular views. In February, the city extended the original cable car line from Santo Domingo Savio, which has struggled with drug violence, to Parque Arvi. Santo Domingo is the site of one of the many libraries that former mayor Sergio Fajardo had built to revitalize neighborhoods throughout the city. Designed by architect Giancarlo Mazzanti, the black three-building complex stands out on the mountain slope."

"Estas arquitecturas representan una novedosa forma de hacer ciudad y política, una nueva generación de arquitectos de cara al mundo preocupados por desarrollar discursos y arquitecturas más acordes con el momento histórico en que vivimos. Son arquitecturas que comprenden y trabajan con los lugares en que se insertan, con la cultura a la cual pertenecen; arquitecturas mestizas, múltiples y respetuosas de las diferencias, de las diversas formas del hacer arquitectónico. Estas arquitecturas no pretenden desarrollar un discurso totalizador y único, ni imponer una sola forma de hacer o pensar. Son arquitecturas incluyentes en las cuales se reúne lo global y lo local de manera transversal, actuando al mismo tiempo con un sentido social y urbano. Estas arquitecturas múltiples y experimentales son el espejo arquitectónico en el cual se refleja una sociedad cada vez más abierta, inclusiva, y tolerante, basada en las políticas pluralistas y respetuosas definidas por…Sergio Fajardo."

"Continuing his critique, Fajardo argues that poor communities should not receive infrastructural 'crumbs' wrapped around claims of meeting basic needs. In short, these communities deserve the best from the professions that are serving them. In architecture that means, for Fajardo and Mazzanti, to be able to bring high aesthetic values to the comunas. The larger point, I think, is that architects are at their best when they work by closely looking at historical precedent and discourse, even in a context like Medellin. The challenge is finding ways that the constraints and challenges found in the comunas can become opportunities to further design ideas and the profession itself."

"MISIÓN: Mejorar la calidad de vida de las familias que viven en situación de pobreza a través de la construcción de viviendas de emergencia y la ejecución de planes de habilitación social, en un trabajo conjunto entre jóvenes voluntarios universitarios y estas comunidades. Queremos denunciar la realidad de los asentamientos precarios en que viven millones de personas en Latinoamérica e involucrar a la sociedad en su conjunto, logrando que se comprometa con la tarea de construir un continente más solidario, justo y sin exclusión."

"As outgoing Editor for Latin America, I have seen the Global Voices team from Latin America grow tremendously over the past three years. Each of the volunteer authors has dedicated time and energy to serve the mission of Global Voices, and to share their part of the world with a global audience. At any given time, each of the countries that make up the Latin American region has been represented by a talented blogger tasked with the challenge of presenting a wide range of issues in a balanced and fair manner. Now that I am moving on to take the helm at Rising Voices, I am eager to see how the team will take the coverage of such a diverse region to greater heights under the leadership of the new Latin America Editor, Silvia Viñas. Continuing a recent tradition, let's meet some of these amazing people that have been part of the Latin American team (in alphabetical order by first name)."

"Happiness itself is a commons to which everyone should have equal access.

That’s the view of Enrique Peñalosa, who is not a starry-eyed idealist given to abstract theorizing. He’s actually a politician, who served as mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, for three years, and now travels the world spreading a message about how to improve quality-of-life for everyone living in today’s cities.

Peñalosa’s ideas stand as a beacon of hope for cities of the developing world, which even with their poverty and immense problems will absorb much of the world’s population growth over the next half-century. Based on his experiences in Bogotá, Peñalosa believes it’s a mistake to give up on these cities as good places to live."

"Somos una organización (501.C3) sin ánimo de lucro que sirve a las escuelas más necesitadas en Colombia. Como respuesta a una petición de la Secretaría de Educación de Medellín, estamos desarrollando un proyecto piloto en Inglés y Tecnología-Informática con los maestros y los estudiantes de la Institución Educativa Rural Marina Orth, que busca hacer de la misma, la primera Institución Educativa Pública y Rural, Bilingüe y con énfasis en Tecnología-Informática de Medellín y de Colombia. Después, la Fundación espera poder desarrollar el mismo proyecto en otras escuelas del país."

"Sarah Lacy and Paul Carr speak with Maureen Orth about her work in Colombia with One Laptop per Child and Medellin schools."

"En una zona selvática de la frontera con Colombia, la Armada Nacional localizó en la noche del viernes último un submarino utilizado presuntamente por narcotraficantes.

"In Colombia, an eccentric former Bogota mayor may win the presidency. Antanas Mockus, the son of Lithuanian immigrants, is trying to succeed Alvaro Uribe, a U.S.-backed hard-liner who was prevented from running for a third term. However, Mockus, whose trademark is an Amish-style beard, is better known for his antics than his politics."

"when new high-tech & high-priced gizmos like kindle & its much hipper cousin ipad came out, the blogosphere was very excited. nevermind that hacker websites from russia to south america have been scanning & posting pdfs for consumption of rest of the world that does not have a library around the corner nor easy access to jstor et al. the ipad is not the revolution, digital text is. it is less important how you read it, than the possibility of being able to read it at all! ingenuity finds uses for technology other than those originally intended, & this often happens because of need. think of cell phones used as micro loan mechanisms in india. think of the development of the bus rapid transit system in curitiba, transforming the bus into a dedicated line system resulting in an affordable mass transportation system that has been replicated in several cities in south america. christopher hawtorne thinks we should look at medellin… he is, of course, a bit late, but hey, we’ll take it."

"Medellín, in the end, is more than an isolated urban success story or an example of a city that has managed to bridge contemporary architecture's great divide. It also offers a timely model for Los Angeles and other cities that have long turned almost exclusively to New York and Europe for ideas about how architecture ought to look — and how cities ought to operate.

"Goyo says all members of Choc Quib Town grew up in Columbia. We tuned in to MTV like everyone else. We listened to The Police, Lauryn Hill, The Fugees and Stevie Wonder, she says. And Choc Quib Town mixes those influences with traditional Colombian music."

"Regardless of its rapid expansion, Bogotá seemed remarkably clean. Sidewalks were in need of major repair & quite a number of buildings were neglected, but the city itself was impeccable. We only took a couple of the ubiquitous lemon yellow taxis (cheap, fun, & clean as well) as most of our transportation was on the Transmilenio: bus service using dedicated lanes (two each way) with stations in the middle of the avenues. Although the schedules are confusing at first & lines for tickets can be long, service is quick & once again, the buses are amazingly clean. Buenos Aires could learn a lot from Bogotá:"

"A book which challenges traditional views about the nature and future of Latin American architecture has been written by Cambridge architect and lecturer Felipe Hernández.

"Giancarlo Mazzanti’s design for the Gerardo Molina High School in the outskirts of Bogotá is more of a piece with traditional modernist school design in Latin America, with the important difference that his interest in the social aspects of architecture has led to substantial changes to the general design of the building."

"Mention to anyone in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, that you are planning a trip to the port city of Buenaventura, on the Pacific Coast, and you will likely encounter stern warnings and looks of disbelief. Buenaventura holds a special, troubled place in the Colombian psyche. For decades the inability of the federal government to tame the hyper-violent city — despite efforts by the wildly popular and controversial president Alvaro Uribe — typifies the disruptive power of what has become a zone of insurgency — Colombia's "wild frontier." As recently as a few years ago, drug traffickers and right-wing militants fought daily turf wars in the city’s slums while guerrillas and paramilitaries battled for control of the sole access route to the city through the Andes. Although a massive military presence has dramatically improved security, even today skirmishes are not uncommon along the main road into the city, where the guerrillas now fight U.S.-trained Colombian government forces."

"A group called cicLAvia wants to close major L.A. thoroughfares to cars and open them to bicyclists on Sundays. City officials are looking for ways to support the plan, which originated in Colombia."

"when two city officials in Medellín, Colombia – now former mayor Sergio Fajardo and former director of urban projects Alejandro Echeverri – launched a plan to rejuvenate the entire city, once one of the world’s most notorious drug and murder capitals, the bar seemed almost insurmountable.

"Medellin, Colombia, was once a drug battleground; today, it is a colonial jewel with sidewalk cafes and open-air bars. Mexico's border city of Juarez has taken Medellin's place as the ground zero in the war against drug cartels. The former mayor of Medellin will be in Juarez to talk of his city's transformation. Juarez residents, traumatized by the highest homicide rate of any major city in the hemisphere, are desperate for answers."

"La enciclopedia visual de todos los gestos del mundo"

"To be effective, a new international climate treaty that will be negotiated in Copenhagen in December must include “a policy response to the CO2 emissions from transport in the developing world,” the Bellagio conference statement concluded.

"taller experimental de manualidades electrónicas* para arte sonoro / Curso de Educación Continua de la facultad de artes de la Universidad Javeriana"

"Para contribuir a combatir el mal llamado “paseo millonario” o “secuestro express” que aqueja a varios países latinoamericanos, una empresa colombiana ha desarrollado una aplicación que si bien no acabará con el problema, al menos nos ayudará a evitar ser víctimas. ... Nace entonces taxi-911, un servicio que funciona enviando un SMS al número 911 con el número de la placa del taxi, recibiendo como respuesta un “Registrado/No registrado” que indica si el taxi es legal y está en las bases de datos de la autoridad competente de tránsito y afiliado a una empresa, o si por el contrario el taxi es potencialmente inseguro."

"In the meantime, to get a feel for what this fascination with messiness means, consider the example of an ongoing project in Medellín, Colombia – begun by the city’s former mayor, Sergio Fajardo. Facing urban poverty and crime in the enormous slums around his city, the mayor chose to ignore the possibility of Big Bang renovation. Instead he decided to invest money and energy in the erection of precious cultural infrastructure in the very middle of the poorest parts of his home. Beautiful modern libraries, schools, and cable cars now connect the slums to the rest of Medellín; but what is most interesting is that his additions are not walled off from the existing urban landscape."

"Earlier this month, Nicholas Negroponte flew to Colombia, along with a team from One Laptop per Child, to deliver bright-green XO laptops to schoolchildren in territory once held by guerrillas. TED came along to film as part of a new, occasional feature called "TED in the Field" that offers updates on TEDTalks speakers and the initiatives, ideas and products they announced. Negroponte talks with TED about OLPC and what he's learned along the way -- and invites TED viewers to take part in the Buy One Get One program."

"Berta's is located in a quaint, little cottage in the heart of Old Town where you’ll find some of the finest Latin American cuisine this side of Guatemala! Our atmosphere is casual and fun, and the food is delicious! So, come on down and see why we are the 1998 winner of the highly acclaimed Zagat Survey! AND why Berta's Latin American Berta's PatioRestaurant was awarded the 2001 Critics’ Choice Award from San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles!"

via: http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/2007/04/28/remember-the-present/ via: http://kashklash.dreamhosters.com/currency-evolution-and-crisis/ via: http://liftlab.com/think/nova/2008/12/03/mobilisable-at-arts-deco-in-paris/

"El Malpensante has a few kindred spirits in other Latin American countries: Peru's Etiqueta Negra, Argentina's La Mujer de mi Vida, and Mexico's Reverso, to name a few, evince the same affinity for literary cosmopolitanism as a means to interpret culture at large. Most of these countries are, like Colombia, plagued by instability—in Mexico, an escalating, grisly war between drug traffickers and the military; in Peru, a tenuous state of peace achieved by an ex-president who is now undergoing trials for corruption and human rights abuses. In such contexts, magazines like El Malpensante and Etiqueta Negra act as bunkers for literary culture; they protect our enjoyment of the more refined pleasures from the hostility of the elements."

"Commissioned by Art in General, Carlos Motta's new Internet archive, The Good Life, is the latest part of a project the artist has developed since 2005, comprising 360 video interviews with pedestrians in twelve Latin American cities. In his essay, "Postscript: Civilization or Barbarity," the Colombian artist outlines the shift from politicized, creative practices, like those of Argentina's Third Cinema and Brazil's Paulo Freire, to increasing U.S. incursions, since the 1970s, into Latin American governments and economies. Attempting to close the divide "between democratic theory and practice" and reclaim, according to essayist Stamatina Gregory, an older conception of participatory politics, explored by Aristotle and revived by Hannah Arendt, Motta asks his interviewees about their own conceptions of democracy, democratization, and U.S. interventions in the region."

"What’s true is that I am Chilean, and I am also a lot of other things. And having arrived at this point, I must abandon Jarry and Bolivar and try to remember the writer who said that the homeland of a writer is his tongue."

"San Andres and Providencia are 2 Caribbean islands that are part of Colombia. Especially Providencia is still incredibly unspoiled by tourism - a real tropical paradise....Providencia is very family-friendly and has great atmosphere."

"From Paris to Bogotá, urban spaces are undergoing a radical transformation with one thing in mind: your well-being...more time we spend on foot, on bikes or even on public transit, more we slow down, more we fuel this kind of social alchemy."

"secuencia de rocas habitables...visibles desde valle...símbolo de ciudad...objetivo...crear AMBIENTES pedagógicos (te -matizaciones)...sistema de relaciones de ambientes...secuencia de recorridos...aptos para la multiplicidad de acontecimientos."

"To mark the release of our special issue on South America, VQR is pleased to present an interactive map of the continent with links to the full content of the issue and six online exclusives—plus videos, slideshows, author readings, and more."

"How is it, we asked, that a city with about one-tenth the per capita income of New York was able to build one of sleekest, most efficient and high-tech surface transportation systems in the world?"

"How could i not want to know more about a girl who creates delicate and elegant (but slightly ludicrous) machines that smoke, tie shoes, pull thread through the hole of a needle, relentlessly measure walls, switch the light on and off, on and off, on and

"Mr. Fajardo hired renowned architects to design an assemblage of luxurious libraries and other public buildings in this city’s most desperate slums"

"From the Globe and Mail comes Bogota's urban happiness movement. It's a long article that packs a punch, here summarized."

"From living hell to living well: A radical campaign to return streets from cars to people in Colombia's largest city is now a model for the world"

"The aim of One World with Many Faces is to create a record of the faces of people from 12 major cities on four continents...Wien, Antwerpen, Bogota, Panama City, Buenos Aires, Lodz"

"I_Sem. 2007 -Programa de Bellas Artes - Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano Bogotá, Colombia"

"Laboratorio de investigación en diseño, arte y tecnologías digitales"

"Laboratorio de investigación en diseño, arte y tecnologías digitales Departamento de estética - Facultad de arquitectura y diseño Pontificia Universidad Javeriana"

"Laboratorio de investigación en diseño, arte y tecnologías digitales - Departamento de estética - Facultad de arquitectura y diseño - Pontificia Universidad Javeriana"

"The v*i*d*a lab, part of the Aesthetics Department at the Javeriana University, is focusing on the development of new design products and ideas. Guided by a reflexion on life itself, the course proposes to engage with organic (biological) and "post-organ

"García Marquez book has Vargas Llosa prologue · Mexican cinema brawl in 1976 remains unexplained"

"Ex-Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa Lectures City Officials On How to Steer a Car-less Future"

"In this podcast, we present excerpts from a recent speech by Peñalosa in which he discusses the importance of public spaces in creating great cities."