elemental chile

2000

2002

2003

Identify the EquationHarvard / UC

Fondef / Conicyt Funds

World Competition

AntofagastaCopiapoSantiagoValparaisoConcepcionTemucoValdivia

Quinta Monroy, IquiqueChileBarrio.100 units

New Projects

New PartnershipsTecho para Chile + Billiton Mining Co.10.000 units x year

Lo Barnechea / Juan Pablo II San BernardoLo EspejoRenca 1.000 units

PatentsSeismic isolators/ E-House x Retailers

The CITY as equity source400 fairsMetropoitan PromenadeNew Center for Santiago: 2 Million People

ELEMENTAL begins

2005

Is a Doing Tank that ispromoting the city as a

source of equity 2006

Fond

ef

David Rock

efeller / H

arvard

Fond

ef

ChileBarrio

Fondef

ChileBarrio

TV 13 / COPEC Chilean Oil

What is our point ?We already know how to produce coverage = Quantity of units. Can we, without reducing quantity, have quality as well ?

Yes.Re-define quality:A house is not a car; it should be able to increase it’s value over time.

Social Housing should be seen as an investment, not as a social expense.

chile 2 million people livng in precarious conditions (15 % of the population)U$ 10 billion of Government Investment in the next 20 years.

latinoamerica 200 milion people livng in precaroius conditions.Caracas 40% , Mexico City 60%U$ ? Billion of investment.

In ELEMENTAL we have identified a set of design conditionsthat if followed, improve the chances of a property to gain value over time, a of a family to abandon poverty.

100.000 vouchers s x year,US$ 500 millon budgetUS$ 7,500 ( to pay x site, infrastructure and architecture)

FRAMEWORK: Housing Policy

Income ( US$ )

“Private Scheme”Gov Subsidy + Family Savings + PRIVATE BANK LOAN

$ 0

US $ 5000

“Competitive Fund”

Gov Subsidy + Family Savings + SELF CONSTRUCTIONApplication by groups with a specific project/site

U$7.500 US$300 No DebtNew Developments

Lot Subdivision /Densification

Used UnitsMobility / Rehabilitation

ARCHITECTURE and URBAN DESIGN

ENGENEERING and BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

COMMUNITY and SOCIAL WORK

Despite very bad living conditions, families had a survival network in the city around them, consisting of jobs, education, health facilities and transportation.

It was highly desireable to maintain that network and radicate the families where they were.

But the problem was that the cost of the site, was 3 times more than what social housing is normally able to afford.

+ good location in the city (close to the opportunity network)

+ introduction of the collective space ( extensive family as an economical and social unit)

+ able to develop harmonically over time( avoid the impoversihment of the neighborehood and of the

house typical of progressive building)

+ middle class DNA(instead of small house give half of a good house)

+ maximum flexibility / minimum technology(voids big enough for decent rooms but small ehpugh to

facilitate low tech expansions)

+ structural design for final scenario

E Q U A T I O N

= all x US$ 7500 x family.(site, services and architecture included)

To do what a family, individually, will never do.

Which are those conditions that can increase the value?

Dense enough to pay for expensive well located sites

20 to 30 families

Conquer the corner of the lot / alternate voids for expansions

72 m2 /4 bedrooms of 3x3, livingof 3x6, bathroom far from entrance,

with tub not shower, parking

3 m.

Partition walls for the final house.

This type is very inefficient in landuse, so the market tries to make land cost as close to zero as possible. Those pieces of land are far away, in the periphery of cities; in this case in a stigmatized town outside Iquique.

If to try resolve the equation we use 1 house = 1 family = 1 lot…

32 units

We fit just 32 units

But even if we had enough money to pay for this site, this isolated type is unable to take some responsibility on selfconstruction (50% of the final built

environment at least). The given units are normally swallowed by expansions producing a very bad urban environment, once again.

If we use a more dense typeLot width = House width = Room width…

60 units

The problem with this Row House type, is that whenever families expand, they block previous rooms’access to ventilation and light, and compromise privacy.What we get then, instead of efficiency in landuse, is overcrowding.

We fit 60 families.We do better, eventhough still not enough.

100 units

If we build in height…

We fit all the 100 families

But ( besides the fact that families threatened us with a hunger strike, if we even consider giving these blocks as a solution), building in height blocks expansions.

Alfonso Montero

Tomas Cortese

So, instead of doing the best possible $7.500 dollar unit and repeating it a 100 times, we went for best possible $750.000 dollar building which could host a 100 families and their growth in time.But we knew, buildings block expansions…That’s true except in the first and last floor; So, what we did was a $750.000 dollar building that had just the first and last floor. With 2 properties one on top of the other, we doubled the efficiency of landuse, before even ging into the design.

So, this First-and-Last-floor-Building, had a 6x6 meters House in a 9x9 meter Lot in the 1st. floor. With an horizontal partition wall on top of them Then 3 duplex apartments, 6 meters wide each. With direct access to the collective courtyard. So this is what we gave in the stage Zero And this is how we expect it to be occupied, arriving up to 72 m2 in the final stage, both the House and the Apartment .

1. Dry automatic unarticulated Boxes and Formsto counterbalance selfconstruction

2. Alternate voids avoid overdose of uncertain3. Loos/Tzara windows to achieve scale4. Square lot inefficient but flexible to rotate

The First-and-Last-Floor-Building, wrapped around to form 4 collective courtyards of 20 families eachSquare 9 x 9 m lots for the house, allow to fit better the irregular shape of the site. Form matters.

Meanwhile, families began to be prepared for the new life they were about to begin.They had to begin to think about the new houses, so they were asked to draw and write about…

Juana Zeballos 59 years

PAA Lagos 37 years Sergio Avendaño 59 years

The Houses

The Facades

Expected expansion

The Growth

This is what you normally get while building for $7.500, 45 minutes away from the city, in a stigmatized periphery

For the same money we did this, in the same place where they have lived for the last 30 years, paying 3 times more than what social housing has ever paid for the land.

First 50% = US$ 7,500 Second 50% = US$ 750

US$ 7,500 + US$ 750 = US$ 20,000

Welcome to the Quinta

The Courtyards

www.elementalchile.cl