PRODUCTION-ORIENTED URBANISM A SPATIAL RESPONSE TO ECONOMIC FUNTIONALITY OF THE INFORMAL:
DIEGO GRINBERG MANUEL OTERO
Several examples demonstrate that the informal plays an essential role on today´s economies.1 However, particularly in Latin America, it tends to be spatially segregated from the rest of the city. As a result, crossovers potentially beneficial for the integration of formal and informal production are rather curbed than fostered by urban features. In Buenos Aires, the isolation of the informal is such that it constitutes an inaccessible part of the city for any outsider. In addition, its main informal settlements sit on obsolete industrial areas in processes of redevelopment. Although their slow progression, due to intricate political conflicts and economic cycles, it is not hard to see the small-scale industry of these areas slowly replaced by real-estate, mostly monofunctional investment.
BUENOS AIRES METROPOLITAN AREA
Thus, crossovers between formal and informal could not only integrate an increasingly important production force, but also collaborate in redefining current patterns of urban transformation based on speculative fluctuation of land price.
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