RETROFITTING CAROLINA URBAN CORRIDOR
QUITO URBAN DESIGN STUDIO
Penn Design City Planning Studio 2016 Spring
LOCATION: Quito, Ecuador
INSTRUCTOR: David Gouverneur Maria A. Villalobos H.
AREA: 24 acres
INDIVIDUAL WORK
AWARD: Barcelona International Biennial of Landscape Architecture (click to view)
EXISTING CONDITIONS
The site loates close to Quito CBD, with Carolina Park with Quito botanical garden in the middle. The anthropology park to the west and the metropolitan park to the west. The local population are high and mid-income social classes. Most of the buildings are 2-3 story houses which is no longer been able to accommodate the market demand. The public realm of both open space and streets are underutilized.
There are three major challenges caused by the upcoming 2 metro stations and 1 cable car station. First, they will bring a huge number of people to this area. Second, there will accordingly be huge development pressure that pushes the 2 story housing to more mixed-used development to be compatible with the surrounding area. Third, the transversal connection needs to be created for both public transit and pedestrians.
There are three major challenges caused by the upcoming 2 metro stations and 1 cable car station. First, they will bring a huge number of people to this area. Second, there will accordingly be huge development pressure that pushes the 2 story housing to more mixed-used development to be compatible with the surrounding area. Third, the transversal connection needs to be created for both public transit and pedestrians.
MAJOR CHALLENGES
There are three major challenges caused by the upcoming 2 metro stations and 1 cable car station. First, they will bring a huge number of people to this area. Second, there will accordingly be huge development pressure that pushes the 2 story housing to more mixed-used development to be compatible with the surrounding area. Third, the transversal connection needs to be created for both public transit and pedestrians.
STRATEGIES
This project consists 4 strategies to deal with all these challenges. The first two open space and streetscape improvement focus on public realm. It will also apply the Heritage Tree Program, which aims to bring the local preserved trees back to the streets. It is a real program supported by municipality and other institutions. Another strategy is rezoning, aiming to density this area. The last one is the new local bus line that goes along this corridor and links metro, cable car and BRT stations.
EXISTING SITE
CONCEPT MASTER PLAN
PUBLIC REALM IMPROVEMENT
The finger parks, the plaza and the streets will be revitalized. Moreover, a pedestrian street will be created by opening up the mall alley to connect the park and the future metro station.
The finger parks, the plaza and the streets will be revitalized. Moreover, a pedestrian street will be created by opening up the mall alley to connect the park and the future metro station.
AMENITIES
School, museum, library, etc, will be built around intersections, close to BRT stations. Anchor museum at the plaza will direct the activity from the street to finger parks.
School, museum, library, etc, will be built around intersections, close to BRT stations. Anchor museum at the plaza will direct the activity from the street to finger parks.
MIXED-USE COMMUNITY
A densified area with mixed-use will be built to support the active corridor
A densified area with mixed-use will be built to support the active corridor
REZONING STRATEGY
This Rezoning Strategy assembles the small lots and create a mixed-use community with higher density. This shows the buildings to be remained. The proposed zoning map contains commercial, educational, and mixed-use community, which is the orange one. I looked into it and developed two building typologies. A, B and A+B.
FORM-BASED CODE
These are the building envelops that allows for diverse facade and architecture style. For building shape, it allows for the cut-out on the tower or the street corner to serve as street cafe. It can also implement the tax bonus policy to incentive public service and educational.
CMX-01 Mixed-use Block
The building is right next to the corridor, with the commercial on the ground and second floor, parking in the middle, raw houses with green space at the back. On top of them are offices. Then is the apartment tower.
RM-01 Green Community
The buildings are behind an existing building from the corridor. They will be raw houses with green space in the middle. The variances can be focus on the green space in the middle, which can either be public open space, or private gardens.
The mixed-use grasps most of the energy, attraction, activity to the corridor. The building area bar charts shows the different land use of before and after condition. It triples the FAR from 1.2 to 3.2.
The building area bar charts shows the different land use of before and after condition. It triples the FAR from 1.7 to 5.2.
ZONING STREET SECTIONS
PHASING
Finally, all the strategies of the public realm improvement, the rezoning and new bus line will be implemented within 3 phases from east to west. The charts of land uses shows that each phase will follow a mixed-use development pattern.
THANK YOU!