The Scope of Prolonged Responsibility of the Architect in Incremental Housing: Based Upon Two Case Studies

Abstract

such communication would directly influence the outcome of the housing solution. In this regard, the architect should follow proposed phases before, during and after the design of the base house. The working template for before design of the base house proposes a set of tasks for the architect to perform in preparation for the design process. This preparation work of the architect aims to contextualize the design process and set a platform for a good cooperation between the family and the professional. The working template for during the design of the base house provides suggestions for avoiding design and organizational mistakes. These suggestions are based on findings from fieldwork conducted for seven months in Chile. Finally, the working template for after the design of the house enables the architect to support the customization process performed by the family. As a result, the proposed framework of incremental housing represents the shift from an organizational way of designing a house to stressing the importance of the individual perception of the house. It proposes dialog based on a design process embedded in the coexistence between the family and the architect. This proposed framework can serve as a foundation for future incremental housing projects in the developing world.

Incremental housing is a process of open-ended housing construction, which challenges current assumptions about the relationships between formal and informal, bottom-up and top-down housing development. It represents an inversion of the formal process of building and financing a house. Governments deliver low-income families the most basic features of a house, which can be upgraded later in accordance with the financial capacity of the families. This strategy of housing has become increasingly popular in developing countries that struggle with economic scarcity for supporting low-income families. Despite the promise of incremental housing in addressing the low-income housing in which roughly one third of the worlds population lives, the model in its current form has shortcomings. Its current structure restrains the participation of low-income families and creates an onerous living environment during the inhabitation of the initial house. This dissertation examines these issues in the context of incremental housing in Chile. In Chile, the incremental housing is an essential part of social housing policies. Under the aegis of the United Nations Human Settlements Program, the Chilean government has supported the self-building process of low-income families since the mid-twentieth century. This dissertation examines two case studies of incremental housing projects from the Santiago, Chile metropolitan area, Chile. Focusing on the Elemental Lo Espejo and Las Higuera housing projects, the examinee used qualitative methods such as observation, semi-structured interviews, photo-elicitation interviews, architectural drawings of houses, and surveys. Las Higuera is representative of the incremental houses delivered by the Chilean government, while Elemental Lo Espejo is representative of private efforts. This dissertation argues for the prolonging of the responsibility of the architect in incremental housing by reviewing two Chilean cases, while criticizing the conventional role of the architect as a key agency for the top-down approach in social housing programs. This is achieved by proposing the architect which is embedded in dialogue with low-income families, thus transforming the relationship between low-income families and professionals. This proposition is presented in the form of a working template, outlining the phases that the architect should follow for strengthening communication with low-income families