Housing low-income populations as a Cold War geostrategic tool. The case of the Instituto de Credito Territorial’s Ciudad Kennedy in Colombia

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article demonstrates how two different, but related processes converge in the Ciudad Kennedy neighbourhood, built by the Instituto de Credito Territorial (ICT) on the outskirts of Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, at the beginning of the 1960s. The ICT, the Colombian state agency responsible for building low-income housing, sought various means of addressing a housing crisis that had been exacerbated since the 1950s by significant rural migration into the country's urban centres. In this context, the ICT collaborated closely with the Inter-American Housing and Planning Center (CINVA). In tandem, the U.S. government approved budgeting for the programme Alliance for Progress. This programme for foreign aid and regional cooperation cemented the U.S. effort to consolidate its influence in Latin America as part of its Cold War geostrategy. Housing being one of the Alliance's primary means of achieving its goals, Ciudad Kennedy represented the measure by which the success of American foreign policy in Latin America could be assessed. By considering housing produced by the ICT in Colombia as a geopolitical tool in the 1960s, Ciudad Kennedy illustrates how the U.S. enhanced its relationships with Latin America through U.S. technicians and foreign aid programmes, such as the Alliance for Progress.KEYWORDS: Ciudad KennedyColombiaAlliance for ProgressInstituto de Credito TerritorialICTCINVAself-help housing Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Del Real, “Building a Continent”; Benmergui, “The Alliance for Progress and Housing Policy”; Renner, “Housing Diplomacy”; Gorelik, “Pan-American routes,” Offner, “Homeownership and Social Welfare in the Americas.”2 Hernández, Bhabha for Architects, 15.3 Schoultz, Beneath the United States, xv.4 Escobar, Encountering Development, 34.5 The possibility to buy land in Techo was already discussed in a board meeting in 1955. ICT, Board of Directors, “Minute 725,” 0274; “Minute 18,” 0143.6 Instituto de Crédito Territorial, Una política de vivienda para Colombia.7 Instituto de Crédito Territorial, La demanda de viviendas en los programas del ICT, 27.8 Escala, “Ciudad Kennedy,” 8–17.9 Rudell, “Community Development in Ciudad Kennedy,” 8.10 Mendes Ferreira and Gorovitz, A Invenção da Superquadra.11 Instituto de Crédito Territorial, Ciudad Kennedy una realidad, 17.12 Perry, The Neighborhood Unit; Sert, Can our Cities Survive?13 Gaitán Cortés presented the concept to the board of directors. ICT, Board of Directors, “Minute 325,” 744–6. On Sert and the Pilot Plan for Bogotá, see: Schnitter, José Luis Sert y Colombia.14 High-rise buildings for multifamily housing populate the plans, projects, and ideas that the agency intended to realize since the mid-1940s. ICT, Board of Directors, “Minute 237,” 502. Instituto de Crédito Territorial, Vivienda.15 Instituto de Crédito Territorial, Ciudad Kennedy una realidad.16 ICT, Board of Directors, “Minute 21,” 274.17 ICT, Board of Directors, “Minute 8,” 0778.18 Caballero Argáez et al., Alberto Lleras Camargo y John F. Kennedy, 156.19 Williams, Understanding U.S.-Latin American Relations, 201.20 Caballero Argáez et al., Alberto Lleras Camargo y John F. Kennedy, 157, 163.21 Atkeson, “Aid for Latin American Housing.”22 Kennedy, President Kennedy speaks on the Alliance, 5.23 Alliance for Progress, Resumen de la ayuda de los Estados Unidos a Colombia.24 United States and Robinson, Aided Self-help Housing, 22.25 https://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHP-1961-11-14-D.aspx (Accessed July 9, 2021).26 Benmergui, “The Alliance for Progress and housing policy.”27 Caballero Argáez et al., Alberto Lleras Camargo y John F. Kennedy, 162.28 Mcbride, “Description of Proyecto Ciudad Techo,” 10.29 Atkeson, “Aid for Latin American Housing.”30 ICT, Board of Directors, “Minute 27,” 1053; “Minute 28,” 1056; “Minute 5,” 0124; Mcbride, “Description of Proyecto Ciudad Techo,” 16.31 Committee on Foreign Relations, Survey of the Alliance for Progress, 10.32 United States and Robinson, Aided Self-help Housing, 16.33 According to the thesis developed by W.W. Rostow in his work The Stages of Economic Growth and cited in Benmergui, “The Alliance for Progress.”34 Solow, “Urban Progress in Latin America.”35 United States and Robinson, Aided Self-help Housing, 16.36 Atkeson, “Aid for Latin American Housing.”37 Alliance for Progress, Resumen de la ayuda de los Estados Unidos a Colombia.38 Organización de los Estados Americanos, OEA, “Acuerdo entre la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, el Instituto de Crédito Territorial y la Unión Panamericana.”39 A comprehensive study on CINVA in Rivera Páez, “El CINVA.”40 Solow, “Urban Progress in Latin America.”41 United States and Robinson, Aided Self-help Housing, 3.42 Mcbride, “Description of Proyecto Ciudad Techo,” 9; Gómez, “Evaluación Socioeconómica,” 6; Centro Interamericano, “II Curso de Adiestramiento en Autoconstrucción,” 78, 79, 84.43 Instituto de Crédito Territorial, Vinculación de la industria constructora.44 ICT, Board of Directors, “Minute 92,” 224.45 Committee on Foreign Relations, Survey of the Alliance for Progress, 3.46 Instituto de Crédito Territorial, Programa de Vivienda de Interés Social, 10.47 Committee on Foreign Relations, Survey of the Alliance for Progress, 5.Additional informationNotes on contributorsVictoria Eugenia Sanchez HolguinVictoria Eugenia Sanchez Holguin holds a B.S. and M.S. in Architecture (Diplom Ingenieur), with emphasis in Urbanism, from the Universität Stuttgart, Germany, 1995. She worked as an assistant Professor for Professor Dipl. Ing. Franziska Ullmann, Institut für Innenraumgestaltung, Fachgebiet Räumliches Gestalten, Universität Stuttgart, (Institute for Architectural Design, Stuttgart University) from 1995 to 1998. She has worked as a professor in the areas of urban and architectural history and theory, urban and architectural design and urban planning in the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, UPB, School of Architecture, Medellin since 1999. She pursued her PhD studies at the University of Texas at Austin from 2013 to 2018. Her thesis focuses on the work of the Colombian state agency Instituto de Credito Territorial. After completing her PhD she resumed her position as a researcher and professor at the School of Architecture of the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, where she now leads the studio on housing at the undergrad level and the research group GAUP (Grupo de Investigacion en Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Paisaje) at the School.