AGROHabitat: Reconnecting Housing, Agriculture, and Landscape at Bogotá’s Urban–Rural Edge | Bachelors Design Thesis

Site Context

The project is situated in Bosa, on the southwestern edge of Bogotá, at the point where the unfinished Avenida Longitudinal de Occidente (ALO) intersects with consolidated social housing developments and remaining agricultural land. This area is characterized by high residential density, limited public space, food insecurity, and the gradual disappearance of productive soil within the Bogotá Savanna—one of the region’s most fertile ecological systems.

Rather than extending the logic of expansion, AgroHábitat intervenes within this fragmented edge condition. The program combines mid-density VIS/VIP housing (approximately 350–500 units per hectare) with productive landscapes, community gardens, and a research and cultivation center dedicated to urban agriculture. Circulation corridors, camellones, and public spaces organize the site as a continuous urban-productive system, linking local cultivation to neighborhood supply networks. The intervention operates at both architectural and territorial scales, proposing a new model of containment that integrates housing, infrastructure, and food production within the urban edge.

Design Process

The design process began with a territorial analysis of Bogotá’s southwestern edge, focusing on the unfinished Avenida Longitudinal de Occidente (ALO) and its impact on the locality of Bosa. Mapping exercises identified key tensions: high housing density, deficit of public space, fragmented agricultural land, food insecurity, and flood-prone areas near the Bogotá River. These layers revealed the edge not as a limit but as a condition of conflict and opportunity.

The second phase involved theoretical and precedential research, examining concepts such as the urban edge as an active transition (Garden City), housing as “artificial nature,” and agriculture as urban infrastructure. Case studies, including Urban Hybrid (MVRDV) and Agrotopia, informed strategies of mixed typologies, productive integration, and vertical program stacking.

From this framework, spatial strategies were developed: reinterpreting the edge as a productive system, organizing the site through camellones and ecological corridors, and embedding agricultural spaces within housing typologies. Iterative massing studies and environmental analyses (sunlight, circulation, density) refined the proposal into a coherent urban-productive system integrating housing, research, and cultivation.

Final Outcome

The final outcome of AgroHábitat is a mid-density urban-productive housing system that transforms Bogotá’s southwestern edge into a space of coexistence between dwelling and agriculture. The project consolidates approximately 350–500 housing units per hectare through flexible VIS/VIP typologies that integrate patios, terraces, and productive thresholds, allowing domestic life and food cultivation to occur simultaneously.

At the urban scale, the intervention restructures the fragmented territory through ecological corridors, camellones for water management, and public spaces that connect existing neighborhoods with new productive landscapes. A research and cultivation center anchors the system, linking local agricultural practices with education, innovation, and neighborhood supply networks.

Conclusion: Rather than proposing expansion over fertile land, AgroHábitat demonstrates a model of urban containment that integrates housing, infrastructure, and food production. The project ultimately redefines the urban edge as a regenerative system—one where architecture becomes an active participant in ecological cycles, social cohesion, and local food resilience.

[This Academic Project has been published with text and images submitted by the student]