In Latin America, social housing refers to low-income housing projects provided or subsidized by the state. This dissertation explores an approach for the design and conception of social housing incorporating open building, self-help, and participatory design applied to this geographical context. Moreover, it addresses the current role of the architect in the field. The study developed a theoretical analysis using two research methods; logical argumentation and case studies. Four representative projects from architects that have globally impacted the housing discourse serve as case studies for investigation: Maison Dom-Ino (1914) and Quartiers Modernes Frug?s (1926), by Le Corbusier; Villaggio Matteotti (1974), by Giancarlo de Carlo, and Quinta Monroy (2003), by Alejandro Aravena. The selection of the architects and their projects observed their influence on critical changes in social housing discourse. These changes occurred approximately every thirty years under a hundred and six-year time frame, from 1914 to 2020. These architects appear in literature as important figures whose ideas, theories, and projects historically influenced social housing production in Latin America. The case studies' examination followed two structured phases. Phase one focused on constructing the "macro" picture of each project, creating a matrix of categories and distributing the evidence amongst them, investigating the following aspects: historical context, site context, and architectural theory. Phase two concentrated on composing the "micro" picture: developing a project analysis and evaluation of architectural drawings and other artifacts through a soft & hard scale system, generating data displays that measured each case study's performance under a participation spectrum. Findings show the frame as a persistent element amongst the case studies that can serve as a vessel encompassing open building, self-help, and participatory design. Furthermore, the results suggest that architects must act as enablers, users as collaborators, and the frame as their mediator, composing three forces acting within the social housing design. This research's contributions include an adaptable framework to facilitate the collaboration between architects and users in a future project, and The Flex House, an experimental design output applying the concepts proposed in this research using a frame as its primary structural and organizational system.
In Latin America, social housing refers to low-income housing projects provided or subsidized by the state. This dissertation explores an approach for the design and conception of social housing incorporating open building, self-help, and participatory design applied to this geographical context. Moreover, it addresses the current role of the architect in the field. The study developed a theoretical analysis using two research methods; logical argumentation and case studies. Four representative projects from architects that have globally impacted the housing discourse serve as case studies for investigation: Maison Dom-Ino (1914) and Quartiers Modernes Fruges (1926), by Le Corbusier; Villaggio Matteotti (1974), by Giancarlo de Carlo, and Quinta Monroy (2003), by Alejandro Aravena. The selection of the architects and their projects observed their influence on critical changes in social housing discourse. These changes occurred approximately every thirty years under a hundred and six-year time frame, from 1914 to 2020. These architects appear in literature as important figures whose ideas, theories, and projects historically influenced social housing production in Latin America. The case studies' examination followed two structured phases. Phase one focused on constructing the "macro" picture of each project, creating a matrix of categories and distributing the evidence amongst them, investigating the following aspects: historical context, site context, and architectural theory. Phase two concentrated on composing the "micro" picture: developing a project analysis and evaluation of architectural drawings and other artifacts through a soft & hard scale system, generating data displays that measured each case study's performance under a participation spectrum. Findings show the frame as a persistent element amongst the case studies that can serve as a vessel encompassing open building, self-help, and participatory design. Furthermore, the results suggest that architects must act as enablers, users as collaborators, and the frame as their mediator, composing three forces acting within the social housing design. This research's contributions include an adaptable framework to facilitate the collaboration between architects and users in a future project, and The Flex House, an experimental design output applying the concepts proposed in this research using a frame as its primary structural and organizational system.
