Huancayo Metropolitano

Huancayo Metropolitano, the Central Peruvian social and economic urban center, changed from a small village of indigenous communities to a vibrant agglomeration of 424,000 inhabitants—within a period of just over 100 years. The major growth occurred since the 1980s, as the city benefited from its socio-economic strategic location as well as from the favorable physical setting. The present city profile traces the area’s change from a peasant settlement to a major mountain city that is now undergoing major restructuring by globalization-driven processes. Huancayo Metropolitano’s emerging middle class demands environmental amenities and exclusivity. Real-estate firms are responding by developing peri-urban gated condominiums in a vernacular landscape shaped by remittance architecture. As social-cohesion declines due to socio-spatial segregation, peri-urban growth represents a real challenge that is not sufficiently taken into account by urban planners and policy makers. Yet—as privatization diminishes the influence of public planning on peri-urban areas—these are the actors who need to implement the urban-development plan’s objective of public participation in order to reach socially inclusive and sustainable development in the emerging Peruvian mountain city.

► Huancayo changed from a peasant settlement to a mountain city of 424.000 inhabitants. ► Peri-urban condominization drives socio-spatial segregation and privatization. ► Condominization weakens social cohesion and complicates inclusive urban development. ► New lifestyles and socio-spatial segregation cause socio-ecological problems.