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Landscape architecture. Case Study: Malecon 2000

Geoconda R. Dillon, Ruth M. Hidalgo, Manuel E. Montaño, Corina E. Naranjo, Robert

W. Ponce and Kerly D. Quimí

Architecture and Design Faculty, University Catholica de Santiago de Guayaquil

Technical English

Catherine Cabanilla León, MTEFL

January 07 – 2022
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Abstract

Urban regeneration brought benefits to the city of Guayaquil because it transformed the

degraded areas that were in a process of abandonment of commercial activity and private

investment, one of these regenerated areas was the public space known as the old Simón Bolívar

Malecón, today named Malecón 2000. The conception of this project aimed to create a

sustainable development of the city through certain urban policies and constituted it as an ideal

intervention plan to achieve a coexistence in which it includes the economic, social dimensions,

and environmental (sustainability), but instead of the project promoting economic, social and

environmental improvement, it had a negative effect of gradually annihilating public space

through control and surveillance policies, leading to the privatization of this space. The purpose

of this research is to develop an architectural proposal that promotes and improves public access

to the contemplation, interpretation, and enjoyment of the landscape, also to recover the

landscape values while maintaining the natural landmarks and most characteristic urban settings

of the city in relation to the urban edge, taking as visual references the Guayas River and

representative views of the viewpoints or tours of the landscape.

The methodology implemented in this research will be qualitative, it will be supported by

a bibliography of references, search for facts in newspapers and previous research, field research

will also be carried out such as public survey and citizen opinion related to the Malecón 2000,

focused on proving how the transformation the result of this heritage property is a private

appropriation of the public space.

Keywords: urban regeneration, public space, privatized spaces, urban landscape.