Designing water infrastructure and context-responsive housing: a case study in the Sabana de Bogotá.

The flood prone areas and agricultural soils along the Bogotá River in Colombia face a continuously increasing conflict between urban development, amongst others by low-cost housing projects, and environmental needs. This research investigates how current contested relations between water, settlement patterns, and productive landscapes can be turned into a constructive interplay. This paper presents a water urbanism research project, which uses interpretative mapping and research by design to critically understand the evolution of the relationship between water and settlements in the peri-urban areas of Funza and Mosquera. The project landscape typologies for adaptation and mitigation in view of climate change and to address demands of urbanization in the Bogotá River floodplain. The paper demonstrates how designing with water can re-qualify the peripheral areas of Bogotá, solving both qualitative and quantitative water issues, delivering a framework for new housing fabrics, and creating new sustainable relations between different water uses.