To access the Letter of Declaration signed in the city of Cartagena by authorities and members of FPPA click here.

Manifesto of Cartagena de Indias.

At the Extended Executive Committee meeting held in the city of Cartagena on November 22, 23 and 24, we, the FPAA authorities present, agree and commit ourselves to generate concrete actions on these points.

It should be noted that this document has been based on the document "Territorio y Ciudad, página 28: Propuestas". "Territory and City, page 28: Proposals". Manifesto of the SCA (Colombian Society of Architects) in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.)

The Role of the States: 

1- Designing strong institutions related to environmental protection of the environment, territory and housing, with technical and financial autonomy with technical and financial autonomy capacity to develop medium and long term policies.

2- Create multidisciplinary teams with the objective of designing concrete medium- and long-term policies to address climate change, migration and sustainability of populations and territories. climate change, migration and the sustainability of populations and territories.

3- Strengthen the preponderance of high quality designs through the architectural competition. architectural competition, which allows for the qualification of public works, especially those of proven transparency, efficiency and quality. To this end, the civil liability of the professionals who sign the licenses as responsible for the architectural and engineering designs and construction will be individualized in accordance with the existing national standards..

Environment and Territory:

1- Include the measurement of energy savings, reduction of environmental impact and carbon footprint as an obligation in projects promoted, co-financed or receiving subsidies from the State, as well as those assigned by royalties law.

2- Promote the depoliticization of the regional autonomous entities so that they fulfill their objective of preserving the environment.

3- To maintain the spirit of integrality that must exist between the Land Management Plans and the environmental policies in charge of the Regional Governments.

The City:

1- Redefine the city pattern and promote a new model based on the construction of multiple autonomous centralities, with a mix of uses that make it possible to shorten the long distances to get to work or for the supply of goods and services (the 15-minute city).

2- Promote the recovery of historic urban centers and areas in deterioration by stimulating urban developments that avoid the excessive growth of the city.

3- Encourage interest in intermediate cities or towns, discouraging the attraction of large cities to avoid excessive and inconvenient growth.

Public Space:

1- To strive towards the achievement of a standard of public space and green areas per inhabitant in cities and municipalities.

2- To regulate the correlation that must exist between each dwelling built or to be built and the area and quality of the public space that supports it.

3- Encourage the use of alternative means of transportation, such as bicycles, to solve mobility needs. Establish means of mobility that enhance connectivity, the improvement of the urban spaces they occupy, the quality of services and, especially, the reduction of noise, air and visual pollution they generate.

4- Design public spaces to be safe and accessible safe and accessible to the entire population.

Urban Housing:

1- Reaffirm the adherence to housing development in locations clearly defined by the Land Use Land Management Plans, favoring the development of those consolidated areas of the cities with good services and strengthening the the neighborhood as a social, cultural and economic unit.

2- Facilitate access to housing and to quality housing and the city through concrete policies that respond to this fundamental human right.

3- To regulate the housing quality attending to urban, environmental, morphological and cultural particularities, improving comfort as an objective, Integrate the design process as a determinant in the construction value chain to guarantee comfort, energy savings, promoting sustainable construction methods and systems, as well as healthiness. health.

4- Establish design, construction and habitability standardsthat evaluate the quality of housing and its rational economic evaluation (without prioritizing only this last aspect), so that the population has access to decent and quality housing. decent and quality housing.

5- Regulate the cost of land with management tools to mitigate speculation and the incidence of land value.

6- Generate housing acquisition policies in historic and heritage centers, facilitating the access of populations for their habitability, urban, social and economic consolidation.

7- Structuring housing programs aimed at inhabitants located in at-risk or informal construction zones, which contribute to their formalization.

Rural Housing:

1- Develop specific programs with the creation of specialized institutions with resources to address this issue and with knowledge of the different realities of the territories and their populations.

2- Promote the search for alternative financing methods that will enable an increase in the construction of rural social housing.

3- Integrate the different government actors: ministries, agencies, local governments or others, with the objective of aligning goals for rural housing solutions.

4- Promote rural housing as a production unit that allows the development of agricultural activities.

5- Design agile policies for housing improvement.

6- To recognize construction techniques appropriate to the populations where the project is implemented, using local labor and simple maintenance of the constructions.

7- Facilitate and integrate housing, access to drinking water, sanitation, internet and energy based on the sustainability of the territory and the community.

8- Establish social policies for the insertion of these housing units that strengthen the sense of community and access to education and health services.

Equity and Gender:

1- We propose the development of the full potential of the female and male architects who are members of FPAA, betting on a change of paradigm where gender equity is a fundamental flag to be defended and valued.

2- Our organizations have not been oblivious to the invisibility of the role of women architects in the different areas of participation: academic, technical, project and work, competitions. That is why we must develop strategies from an equity and gender perspective, promoting areas of exchange, training and valuing the work of our colleagues.

3- We intend to to promote the exchange among the different guilds that are members of FPAA, highlighting members of FPAA, highlighting their current composition with a large presence of female architects as presidents.

4- Promote the generation of events with equal participation of exhibitors, advisors and/or jurors.

5- Generate events, competitions and participations with the objective of to make visible the professional practice with a gender perspective.

6- Promote the work in NETWORK, enhancing the progress made in different FPAA member countries, from the different commissions and groups.

Cartagena, November 23, 2022.