Territory Ordering Plans (TOP), urbanism and architecture. Producing public space in urban tissue

This article deals with two seemingly distant themes: the first explores the possibility of generating public space in the midst of built urban tissue using the Law 388 of 1997 and the second one by how to construct the discourse that will help the concerned citizen to proactively and synergically engage himself in the process of designing his/her territory. The case of the Tomás van der Hammen reservoir in Bogotá shows the two themes share a profound dialectical relationship. The exercise presented here proposes to keep the are free of humans, while, at the same time, peryphe-rically generating the habitational densities that will allow to keep it unoccupied, through partial plans and/or issuing zones, or recipients of construction rights in contiguous areas or in other urban sectors. But urban design is a consensual issue, therefore, a discourse must be set up. The numerical, pictorial and cartographic display of alternative scenarios, such as those developed in this text, are the basis of a powerful architectural methodology to educate and inform citizens, generating appropriation, legitimacy and better participation, which is the best defense against corruption.