Rethinking the city collaboratively: the case of the PlanCHA

Abstract

This article focuses the Master Plan for the Historic Center of Asuncion (PlanCHA),
Paraguay, by situating the area as a major locus of memory for the city and country, from a historical, cultural,
urban perspective. Instead of a traditional master plan, the winner proposal of the international competition
organized by the country’s National Government in 2014, is a master process composed of dozens of top-down
and bottom-up participatory actions, articulated by ten initial strategies. The text presents and discusses both
the proposal itself and its implementation process during the following three years: the historical, socio-political
context, strategies, steps implemented, and the main reasons that led to its interruption in 2017. In Madrid,
the winning office team was interviewed, as were, in Asuncion, the partner team of Paraguayan architects who
implemented the project locally, historians, members and former members of National and Local governments,
real estate agents, community representatives, cultural producers, residents, and academic researchers.