Ralf Merten Modolell

Edges is a multi-scalar response to the microcosm of fragments that construct an urban node around the informal settlement of Viejo Veranillo. Edges is an opportunity for investigation within this ‘micro-Panama’, enabling potential responses to be extrapolated to the myriad of edges that constitute the physical and intangible fragmentation that defines the urban morphology of Panama City.

Edges focuses on the relationship between the formal and the informal city, developing responses to both the existing and future conditions of the city. The project develops a series of architectural proposals which seek to address the existing conditions of Viejo Veranillo and its relationship to the city. It then observes the typical response to the informal growth of cities which tends to occur a posteriori, inserting missing infrastructure which often displaces residents. Thus, the proposal considers the inevitable and predicted growth of informality and proposes a priori infrastructures which enable informality to grow within, whilst sustaining social, economic and environmental resilience. Locally specific incremental housing and civic infrastructures are proposed, which sit within a larger ambition of redirecting the current trends of urban growth towards a compacted and polynuclear model for Panama City.