• informal settlement
• social fabric
• transit system
• public participation

Medellin has nearly half of its population living in informal settlements and unsafe areas. Located in a country with one of the highest rates of inequality in Latin America, the Social Urbanism renewal project, with the development of the PUI (Urban Integration Project), represented an important urban renewal process for improving the quality of life in the region. The Northeastern Urban Integration Project is a complex strategy of social urbanism by the City of Medellin in collaboration with architect Alejandro Echeverri and the government agency Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano (EDU) Medellin. In this urban design project, design is not a goal, but a means for the participation and empowerment of communities. The Northeastern Urban Integration Project in Medellín (Proyecto Urbano Integral, or PUI) was initiated by the City of Medellín in 2004 to harness opportunities presented by the MetroCable, a new cable-car project connecting three informal settlements to the metropolitan transit system. In concert with the MetroCable, the PUI has made a significant contribution toward improving the quality of life for approximately 170,000 residents experiencing severe social inequality, poverty, and violence. The PUI leverages the economic benefits of new mobility infrastructure to incorporate marginalized communities into the city. By reducing travel times to the city center from over an hour to less than ten minutes, the MetroCable has enhanced access to employment opportunities and eroded the boundary between the formal and informal city. Working with the community to conceptualize, develop, and construct new open-space networks, the designers of the PUI have sensitively integrated a mobility infrastructure of substantial scale with various civic, commercial, and institutional functions. The project demonstrates that designers can make a significant contribution toward the strategic goals of large and socially complex projects by developing processes that promote ownership by the community. The PUI is an exemplary strategy for civic regeneration where urban design is integral to the broad suite of tools for repairing the social fabric of the city. Such an outcome would not be possible without the financial and administrative support of a visionary institution like the City of Medellín.