Design Concepts That Have Shaped Your City

LIMA - PERÚ

System City Design

PREVI

Traditional City Design

Lima Downtown
Modernist City Design
San Felipe Complex

As shown in the maps, the following presentation is about three types of city designs in Lima, Perú. It is remarkable that both PREVI (System
City Design) and the San Felipe Complex (Modernist City Design) were designed and built almost around the same time (1960’s). Also, it is
remarkable that the Traditional City Design in Lima Downtown is by no means traditional in the peruvian sense but instead, carries european
(spanish and french in particular) influences everywhere.

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SYSTEM CITY DESIGN PREVI emerged in 1965, when the Peruvian Government and the United Nations invited
British architect Peter Land to design a strategy for mass housing as an alternative to
the massive informal settlements that were dramatically taking place in Lima during that
period.
PREVI (EXPERIMENTAL HOUSING PROJECT)
Peter Land design the base plan for PREVI and 26 architects took part of the
design of housing following a distinct and experimental criteria. The principal
focus of this project was the growing house concept. Indeed, PREVI was
designed as a platform for expansion, flexible growing, and idea also shared
by Metabolists.

As a matter of fact, Kisho Kurokawa and Fumihiko Maki, members of the

Metabolist movement, participated in the design and construction of PREVI,
using a genetic strategy. You can also see the application of the growing house
concept in the Quinta Monroy, a project by recent Pritzker winner, Alejandro
Aravena. Ideally, people is meant to extend their living space according to their
needs.

What also makes PREVI part of the systems city is that 26 architects –among
them Aldo Van Eyck, Christopher Alexander and James Stirling– took part of
the design. Multiple visions were combined and interacted, the way nature
does.

Sources:
http://www.architecturalpapers.ch/index.php?ID=91
http://www.scielo.cl/pdf/arq/n59/art16.pdf
KAHATT, Sharif. Utopias Construidas. Las Unidades Vecinales de
Lima.Lima. Perú. 2015

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TRADITIONAL CITY DESIGN Lima Downtown is full of architecture extracted from european tradition . After the
conquest of Perú, tradition has not extisted besides the own spanish architecture. Two
of the places that prove that spanish and european tradition is the key to Lima Downtown
are Plaza San Martín and Plaza de Armas.
LIMA HISTORIC DOWNTOWN

(Source: http://www.diversionenlima.com/plaza-de-armas-de-lima-plaza-mayor-de-lima/)

If you could image the City Beautiful Design by Daniel Burnham, you could also imagine a place like shown in this
picture. Plaza de Armas is a place that ilustrates and captures such paradigm. This kind of design and spatial
organization can be found in Lima Downtown. Of course, there are other places that could be compared to Plaza de
Armas, but if you ever go to Lima Downtown, you will definitely be transported to the Daniel Burnham dimension. In
Perú, there are other places influenced by such model, and most of them can be found in the capitals of every region.
The weather nor the topography matters, you will always find a square with european, traditional influences.

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MODERNIST CITY DESIGN San Felipe Housing Complex was designed and built around t he same time as PREVI.
Since then, nothing like these two proyects have emerged. It seems as if we are stuck
in time, living in the past, remembering ancient glories. Now, we face the growing Lima
without soul only with high rises that offer no social life to the citizens.
SAN FELIPE HOUSING COMPLEX
The San Felipe housing complex proves to be
everything that Le Corbusier and all Modernist
giants wanted. The tall buildings where people
live, separated to maximize sunlight, the green
spaces in between, everything in this design by
peruvian architect Enrique Ciriani, is evidence
of the influence of the Modernist paradigm in
peruvian lands.

Large public spaces are also part of the

Modernist scheme. Even if the height of the
buildings is different from time to time, there
are always spaces for people to live in
community. However, this design, in my
opinion, commits the very same crime that Le
Corbusier committed: taking to much space for
parking and cars. Nevertheless, and exemplary
design, and of the best housing complex in
Lima, Perú.

Sources:
http://arquitecturacontemporanealima.blogspot.pe/2012/01/122.html
http://www.tvperu.gob.pe/novedades/sucedio-en-el-peru/la-residencial-san-felipe-cumple-50-os
https://habitar-arq.blogspot.pe/2009/05/residencial-san-felipe-i.html

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