Knowing how to grasp the power of the place The project for the metropolitan centrality of the Bajos de Haina in Santo Domingo

Abstract

Population concentration and metropolisation processes caused by uncontrolled and unplanned urban growth have generated an enormous demand for infrastructure and services, as well as having an impact on the environment that can lead to imbalances in social development.To promote sustainable growth, it is necessary to plan a fair distribution of services throughout the development of the city and an efficient infrastructure system. Our answer is a competence building project, which holds the social and ecological function (in the etymological sense) of the city capable of restoring safe environmental conditions. The actions of theproject focus on: environment, health and quality of life, its results are in sustainable production. The project, therefore, deals with physical interventions, bio-sustainable innovation of supply chains of local agricultural products, and project of a robust civic image of common and public space.
This means including the current crisis of the metropolitan city in the process of change, starting from an investigation regarding the possibilities of an invention. We are looking for new relations among the parts of the city through a mobility project to transform the times of the city; the identification of suitable places for the production of a modern and clean circular economy; and the selection of areas of urban regeneration to rediscover and renew the identity of the metropolitan
city; all these will be our aims.
Theme: Economic development based on local intelligence and social cohesion. In particular, from the circular economy we define an integrated model, linked to sustainable development objectives. The urban regeneration is related to the reactivation of a local economic system, to the innovation of agricultural products. Ad hoc training engages the local community to work on the real product, really including it in the regenerated territory, which becomes a "common good". The case study presented in support of this research hypothesis is the Bajos de Haina metropolitan centrality project in Santo Domingo; in Bajos de Haina the most important sugar cane refinery, the "Ingenio de
Río Haina", is not being used and is being dismantled. The research project starts from the structures of the old sugar mill, which now belong to the memory of the place, creating a new pole of attraction to contribute to the rebirth of the area. The intervention strategy consists of building a system that takes into account the infrastructure network, green spaces and water.