MANUEL

L.

QUEZON

UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

RESEARCH PAPER
ON

BAGOTA, BUILDING A
SUSTAINABLE CITY
(REACTION PAPER)

Submitted by:
Castro, Jerico D.
Student No.: 16-00055
Submitted to:
Ar. Agustin, Servidad
SPE 1 Professor
(REACTION PAPER) Bogota, Building a Sustainable City

Rapid urbanization and fast economic growth of a city has both positive and negative impact on
the community especially on the environment. Rapid urbanization means the city has a very
good economic development, but on the other hand it has a negative impact on the urban
environment, most of the time the community will only notice it when most of the spaces in the
city are already occupied by large buildings and concrete pavements. The people will then
realize that the city is lack of green areas and the amount of occupied spaces by building and
concrete pavements, plus the large number of vehicles causes a pollution and heat island
effect.
Bagota city is facing a real problem due to the fast growth on its periphery; it reduced a large
amount of green areas inside the city and many of its building in the city center are abandoned.
This aspect of the city is not very convenient for people to live and it will only cause health
issues and environmental problems in the near future. Due to this problem the mayor of Bogota,
Colombia, Enrique Penalosa proposed a sustainable retrofitting throughout the whole city, this
can become a powerful tool that not only helps the city to stop the growth of its footprint, but
also to create high quality spaces that can satisfy the needs of the present world.
Bagota has many abandoned building that is not used on their full potential, by sustainable
retrofitting the mayor of Bagota proposed to move 60000 work spaces to abandoned buildings
in the city centre, and to create social housing in the buildings in which these places are today.
The majority of the abandoned building was proposed for Sustainable Refurbishment; this
concept is the equivalent of sustainable development which relates to new developments of
cities, buildings or industries etc. Sustainable refurbishment includes insulation and related
measures to reduce the energy consumption of buildings, installation of renewable energy
sources such as solar water heating and photovoltaics, measures to reduce water consumption,
and changes to reduce overheating, improve ventilation and improve internal comfort. The
process of sustainable refurbishment includes minimising the waste of existing components,
recycling and using environmentally friendly materials, and minimising energy use, noise and
waste during the refurbishment. To lessen the carbon foot print in Bagota, the city provides
bicycle lanes and maximizes the use of public transportation by prioritizing buses by means of
transportation, and to counter the heat island effect, the city provides parks and recreation areas
where people are able to interact with the environment, and not to mention, nowadays the
Bagota city has one of the most extensive bike lanes in the world.
The Bagota city had faced a real urban environmental problem that put the city on risk of
pollution and destroying the cities natural environment, but the Mayor of Bagota finds a solution
to the problem by sustainable retrofitting, so its never too late to the other city and country to
rescue and enhance the existing infrastructure with a sustainable approach especially here in
the Philippines.