[One of the five sites for OPPTA’s 2012 competition, “El Monton”, “an accumulation of stratified waste classified as public space” by the city of Lima, in the impoverished riverbank neighborhood Márgen Izquierda del Río Rímac; images via OPPTA.]

OPPTA, the “observatorio panamericano”, is holding an international ideas competition under the theme of “emergency interventions”, looking for “technical, territorial, architectural, or infrastructural” responses to both “natural and anthropic” disasters on the American continents.  Five sites have been identified:

Petropolis. State of Rio de Janeiro. Brazil.
How to repopulate and reforest, respectively, an informal urban grid and an environmentally protected area, both under threat.

Puerto Saavedra. Región Araucanía. Chile.
How to recycle an urban grid which is under threat of natural disasters.

San Cristobel. Bolivar Department. Colombia.
How to manage the integral development of habitability in a territory affected by floods linked to climate change.

Chimalhuacán. State of Mexico. Mexico.
How to regenerate an urban grid resulting from accelerated processes of irregular settlement.

Cercado de Lima. Lima. Peru.
How to regenerate a non-planned settlement threatened by anthropic risks.

Registration for the competition is open now, and proposals are due April 16th; more information, including details on each of the sites, is available at the OPPTA website.