Qualities of the built housing landscape and its impact on the morphology and densities of bogotÁ

Abstract

Different international studies have classified Bogota, Colombia, as one of the cities with the highest density in the world. However, in the interior, this density is nuanced by the differential characteristics of the housing built landscape. To understand and quantify this phenomenon, this study proposes as a methodology a classification of landscapes through a a spatio-temporal projection analysis of morphology and density. To identify the types of landscapes spatial databases and GIS software were used, parametrizing and quantifying the morphological and demographic differences at the scale of the block. This resulted in the identification of thirteen types of landscapes that represent diverse qualities of agglomeration regarding the patterns and morphological continuities, or ruptures, at each normative moment of urban design and planning in the history of the city. These results indicate how city high densities are related to the prevalence of informal urbanism and the introduction of a growth perimeter since 1980. In addition, an unbalanced distribution of densities and large inequalities in housing space per capita across the city was observed.