The second, Los Pinos, (and the site in which I volunteered) is located on the edge of Quito, on land owned by the Mines try of Agriculture. At 13h it is a large site for its current 62 families living onsite however an estimated 312 families are on a list waiting for their plot.
The current occupiers are from the highlands and the coastal areas of Ecuador and have moved to Quito for work; mostly in security or construction. They commute from Los Pinos to Quito by bus which can take 2hours one way, some children travel up to 3hours to attend high school. Those not living onsite tend to rent in Quito but this is expensive and they want to own their own land, outside of the city, where they can cultivate and sell.
The history of Los Pinos is unique as land is not often found without an owner. In earlier occupations (1980s) the land was considered unsuitable for urban use. An invasion happened approximately 7years ago with over 300 people occupying the plot at once. Back then people would construct 'over-the-night-shacks' in order to prevent eviction, rare but several new conditions emerged for illegal occupiers.
This time, the 'residents' of Los Pinos consider themselves Planners; first, they divide up the plots, with only a percentage of the families living on-site from the beginning, these houses are built immediately through Mingas (a local term for community work where the community comes together to do work for the neighborhood; i.e. the access road to Los Pinos was constructed by Minga, by the people of Los Pinos.)
The current occupiers have a very strong position against densification as they do not want to duplicate the extremely pre-cautious conditions experienced by the earlier 1980s occupiers. They have organized an Improvement Committee, electing their own representatives every 2years. Slowly, over time, they build other houses along with the upgrade of services. The new occupants have a different relationship with the government than earlier; in order for them to stay on the land (gaining legal occupation), and be able to apply for some kind of regularisation, they have to prove they are not only occupying the land but actually making it productive.
Their aims and how they wanted us to help surrounded their need for a development plan, but we were not there to plan the land for them. This is where participatory design comes in, where residents can contribute through analysis, diagnosing, dreaming, developing, and defining with the help of our knowledge of design and architectural experience. The plots are currently random and only allow for 62 families plus cultivating. Important factors were to be included such as a community hall (with discussions on market places and shops facing the main road), family units (addressed through typologies), allotments, and social spaces such as a park, football, and volleyball courts, services, and access. However, there are planning rules to work with, i.e. the restriction of construction within 15m of the creek, etc.
