Identity and Sense of Neighborhood Belonging in Relation to Current Administrative Boundaries: The Case of Villa Luro

Abstract

The neighborhood of Villa Luro, part of Commune 10 of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, has the particularity of including an east-west axis generated by road barriers, which has determined a north-south sectorization reinforced by centralities at its opposite ends. This problem provides the basis for the research project entitled “Diagnosis of the Incidence of Land Communication Routes, as Barriers or Centralities, in the Sectorization of Neighborhoods: The Case of Villa Luro.”

The particular objective is to recognize the current situation in order to address the identity and sense of belonging of residents and their relationship with existing political-administrative boundaries.

Through a development that presents foundational historical-urban data and current situations arising from the interpretation of official graphic documentation and fieldwork, the study seeks to arrive at conclusions.

A first basic survey, carried out as an exercise in the course Architectural Design, Planning and Urbanism II, fifth year, Civil Engineering, UTN-BA, yielded results that, in some way, validate the disconnection between the sense of neighborhood belonging and the political-administrative boundaries of Villa Luro.

The intention of this paper is to show the existing divergences between the configuration of political-administrative boundaries and those recognized by residents, understanding that neighborhood identity and sense of belonging do not arise after the delimitation of political-administrative boundaries according to governmental criteria, but rather from human relations and temporal circumstances that contribute to the formation of social spaces materialized in urban spaces known as neighborhoods.