International Workshop: Imagining Housing Renewal In Deprived Areas

The ‘International Workshop 9 x 18. Imagining housing renewal in deprived areas’, is presented as a synthetic experience of diagnosis, analysis, proposal, and reflection on the challenges of regeneration of vulnerable urban neighborhoods, which are triggered from collective housing projects. Its structure, principles, and methodologies are born from the accumulated experience of the course 9 x 18, design module of the School of Architecture of the Catholic University of Chile, complemented with the knowledge and experience of the teaching team of the University of TU Delft. The Workshop was held on November 2017 in Santiago, Chile in Las Palmas neighborhood of Central Station

Conclusions

We are facing a paradigm shift in the production of housing, and it is precisely in this transition where contexts as different as The Netherlands and Chile find a common denominator: the problem of affordability and general discontent in the face of a supply that is increasingly remote from the economic capacity and needs of people. Access to housing has become a scarce commodity. In a growing context of demands for the right to the city, the provision of affordable housing has become such a situation that it has promoted the inhabitants to position themselves as protagonists - seeking solutions that cope with the housing problem through collaborative processes. In Europe these processes have re-emerged as a reaffirmation of self-determination in response to the commodification and standardization of housing. However, in Chile the search has been more related to means of collaborative survival through the dynamics of allegamiento and self-organization in pericentral areas.   From this common point of departure, the initial chapters of the book identify collaborative processes, alternating experiences both in Chile and in Europe. The European case, reviewed from the Dutch social housing model and the re-emergence of collaborative housing models, provides three important points of reflection when traditional and consolidated systems face novel and emerging models. First, the opportunity that arises from the hybridization of both systems and cooperation among different actors. Second, the importance of having a cultural change, followed by regulatory frameworks, to ensure the implementation and subsequent massification of new models. Third, despite the legal and operational barriers, the European experience has shown that self-organized and self-managed models are possible, necessary and effective when housing demands have not been satisfy by the State nor by the market. &nbsp

Introduction

oai:rius.ac:article/14This publication is part of an academic collaboration initiative between the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Delft University of Technology. It seeks to reflect on the development of alternative housing production models that have arisen in response to social, economic and political changes in both contexts. Although these experiences have followed different paths and have had different results, they share a common denominator: the search for alternative housing models that are collaborative, affordable and have the potential for regenerating urban neighbourhoods. We argue that housing that is produced in a collaborative way satisfies specific demands of the community, which have not been fittingly addressed by the dominant housing production models, both in the Chilean and European contexts. The answer to these needs has not been found in the institutions, but in the capacities of the residents who have self-organized and deliberately decided to develop models of collective living

Factors (type, colour, density, and shape) determining the removal of marine plastic debris by seabirds from the South Pacific Ocean: Is there a pattern?

1. While floating near the sea surface plastic debris interacts with a number of external factors, including many different organisms. Seabirds have the most extensive documented history of interactions with plastics, through ingestion, entanglement, and nest construction. 2. In the present study, eight seabird species from the South Pacific Ocean were used as a proxy to determine potential patterns of removal of marine plastic debris, and three hypotheses were tested in relation to their feeding habits and nesting areas. 3. Plastics from abiotic compartments (Chilean continental coast, South Pacific Gyre, and Rapa Nui beaches) and biotic compartments (surface‐feeding seabirds, diving seabirds, and nesting areas) were compared, according to their type, colour, shape, and density. 4. Continental beaches had a relatively wide range of colours and shapes, with many non‐buoyant plastics. Samples from the South Pacific Gyre (SPG) and Rapa Nui (Easter Island) beaches comprised mainly hard, rounded, buoyant, and white/grey plastics. 5. These results indicate that the composition of floating plastics from terrestrial sources changes during transport with oceanic currents, reducing the proportion of prey‐like plastics present in the subtropical gyres. 6. The stomach contents of surface‐feeding and diving seabirds were dominated by hard, white/grey, and round plastic items, similar to plastics from the SPG, suggesting non‐selective (accidental or secondary) ingestion. 7. Nesting areas had a more variable composition of brightly coloured plastics, suggesting a pattern of selective removal of plastics by seabirds, probably from oceanic sources. 8. The present study reveals extensive interactions of seabirds with plastics on a broader scale, which is highly relevant given that the impacts of plastics on seabirds are increasing worldwide, compromising their efficient conservation