In many Latin American cities, like Medellín, the food distribution system has an apparent irrational structure. The case is that food is distributed first to the city centre and from there redistributed towards the periphery with a concentrically raising price. This becomes most clear if we look at the informally built settlements that are mostly located in the outskirts of the city adjacent to surrounding rural area. These settlements mainly started to grow from the 1950s on. Until the 1970s the city of Medellín prospered economically. This prosperity leaded to an immense growth of the city, as in most of the other Latin American cities. It was round this time that the expansion limits of the city were reached as well. Next to the growth of industrial centers, proliferation of squatter settlements took place. This resulted in an increasing differentiation between the formally and informallu built parts of the city. The informally built neighbourhoods on the slopes around the city covers the whole ring surrounding the metropolitan area in all possible directions. A clear example of this differentiation is the food distribution system that was not equally developed throughout the city. Ever since the introduction of the Mayorista (central wholesale market) in 1971 no public markets were added to the network. Instead private developments took over, from the 90s on mainly supermarkets, and big vacuums emerged in the supply network. This imbalance causes increasing food prices for the people in lower social classes (mostly living in informally developed areas in the periphery). Next to that it creates an undesirable dependence on big scale centralized systems and organizational structures. There is a big contrast between the systematics of the informally built neighbourhoods and the (food) logistics system. The informal as a counter to the formal system is developed in a decentral and adhoc manner. The informal systematics work just like the slums themselves namely from the bottom-up. This decentral character of the informally built structures is not reflected upon in the (spatial) structure of the food distribution network in Medellín (and other Latin American metropolitan areas). The hypothesis is that this issue becomes most clear there where we can see exchange between the formal and informal. For this reason this will be the area of focus. In order to develop strategies that are complimentary to the projects that are done in the past years in Medellín the research and project that will follow from this is focused on food. The issue of food (in)security is not widely covered within the upgrading projects as they are proposed up till now. By addressing the theme of food we start at the foundation of the Maslow pyramid. We could say that without proper nutrition one is not able to develop further as a person. It makes possible that people will go to libraries, study and go to school. In more than one way it forms the basis of life. Within the process of segregation the dichotomy of formal versus informal practices plays a major role. Spatial segregation goes hand in hand with the social stratification process taking place in the urban society of Medellín. In order to tackle this dichotomy the concept of analytic borderlands (after Saskia Sassen) is introduced within the debate. The socio-economic phenomenon of informality has a big influence on the spatial reality of the city, from the emergence of informally built neighbourhoods all the way to the ambulant vendors appearing on the street. The informal can be seen as a counter to the formal system, but is as well complementary to it. It is developed in a decentralized and adhoc manner. The decentralized character of the informal is largely ignored within the contemporary spatial systematics of the city. The centralized strategies as used by the conquistadors, (formal) urban planners and food distributors have one thing in common. What they have in common is that they are not capable of dealing with the entire city as a complex (decentralized) heterogeneous system. The metropolitan food distribution in Medellín, like in a lot of other Latin American cities, is immensely centralized, which has an enormous impact on the issue of food security. If we look upon the role of the borderlands as they occur in Medellín, we see that they are as much spatially disintegrated as most of the other areas in the city. One of the main reasons for this spatial segregation is the ongoing social stratification of the urban society. On the other side we can see that the borderlands play a major role as the facilitator of exchange between what are supposed to be formal and informal systematics. If we look into the flow of commodities, in this case food distribution, than we see that these systems are not at all separated, but are fully interwoven. Next to that the necessity to reconnect demand and supply of food products will be taken in account. This results in the concept of introducing a hub that reconnects the formal and the informal, both with regards to architectural spatial aspects as well as with regards to demand and supply of food. The borderland thus plays a big role in the urban (food distribution) system, mostly in the socio-economic sense. The spatial framework that will be worked with treats the borderland as mediator between formal and informal structures. The borderland consists of a spectrum reaching from absolute formal to informal. We should take in account that there where formal elements appear in the city, the city is not fully formal. At the same time informally built pirata developments (organized informal land occupations) are not through and through informal as they can be legalized. This heterogeneous representation of the city is reflecting the urban reality more sincere and appropriate than the dichotomous view does. The conclusive urban strategy states that there is a necessity to introduce additional food trading hubs in the city. This is mainly a reaction to two specific results of the currently followed strategy. The first being the emergence of a large area that is not covered by these centrally acting distributors.The second are the homogenization attempts by the various markets in the city, mainly the Mayorista, that are not sufficiently working. Although they succeed (up to a certain extend) to keep informal activities outside their own perimeter, they are not able to do so with regard to informality in general. Informal trading emerges just next to the market, also since the two are largely depending on each other. With regards to the working of the urban distribution network an alternative is presented in the form of an decentralized hub network. Additionally to the proposed decentralized (cross dock) hubs new connections in the road network need to be introduced. One of the main objectives of decentralizing the food distribution system is to cut some of the intermediaries that are now needed, since all products (have to) pass through the Mayorista. Based on the docking station logistic system food can find its way directly to the several hubs. The food products will get closer to the consumer and this with less resale points, making a lower price possible, mainly for the people living in the (lower social strata) periphery. Additionally these hubs will be locally integrated as architectural objects within their direct context. Central to the idea of the heterogeneous borderland is the concept of hybridization. The hybrid is where the formal and the informal come together and form a hybrid cityscape. This term the hybrid cityscape will be defined based on the theoretical framework, based on the borderland and the assemblage theory (after Manuel DeLanda). Theories on hybrids, in-between worlds and an emerging third world are wide spread. From Popper’s Third World, to the Third World of Bhabha all the way to Foucault’s Heterotopia. All of these theories try in one way or the other to pose an alternative to the (then) leading concept of the dichotomy as a way to perceive the world. Although on several levels (scientific, cultural or spatial) they all aim at the same, they fill the gap that is left by the dichotomous world view. Or as Foucault puts it: “they have a function in relation to all the space that remains”. The hybrid is thus not the space that is left between the two outer poles, but forms the connection, the relation between the two. It is the middle of the spectrum between formal and informal where the hybrid cityscape emerges. Within the project the hybrid cityscape is dealt with as a product of the borderland. This is about integrating informal elements within a formal scheme. It is chosen here to work with the grid, as a representation of the universal. But instead of using the grid as a tool of homogenization it will be used to offer room for the spontaneous.