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A strategic Mind: Alejandro Aravena.

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There are two thing you should know about Alejandro Aravena.

First, he has built more than a thousand houses for Chile´s poor, with several thousand more under way; second, the CEO of COPEC, the Chilean oil company, sits on the board of his architecture practice.[⁄lang_en]

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For Santiago’s Poor, Housing with Dignity

A young boy plays unsupervised in front of a house that bears a small wooden sign, handwritten in marker: Se venden helados-ice cream for sale.

Behind this rather ordinary scene is an extraordinary story with deep Harvard ties. In this tidy development of row houses, 170 families who once lived illegally have become homeowners. Stay-at-home moms feel safe leaving their children in the front yard; some have started small businesses. It is a far cry from the lawless environment of the campamento, or squatter settlement, that sat on the same tract of land until 2004.

The development has transformed residents’ lives. It is also transforming notions of how to build housing for the poor. Similar developments are built or under way at a dozen other locations in Chile, and there are plans to replicate the project in other countries.

In these housing developments, the architecture firm ELEMENTAL departs from common practice in several crucial ways. Their pathbreaking work has won one international architecture award so far.

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Los proyectos de Elemental Quinta Monroy (Iquique) y Lo Espejo (Santiago) aparecen en la reciente edición especial de la revista brasileña aU “Jovens Arquitetos Latino-Americanos”

“ARQUITETOS PROPÚEM UMA NOVA MANEIRA OE OLHAR – E FAZER – MORADIAS SOCIAIS AO DEIXAR UMA PARTE DA OBRA SOB RESPONSABILIDADE DOS MORADORES. O RESULTADO SÃO MORADIAS QUE SE VALORIZAM COM O TEMPO”

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Thirty families from the “Vista Hermosa” shanty town in the Lo Espejo commune, received their own homes yesterday, after eight years of saving and organizing.They are the first social projects of the Government given under the new housing policy for families living in poverty.The houses built just meters away from the shanty town and that cost 10 million pesos, have an average area of 63 m2 with 3 bedrooms, a bathroom with bathtub, living-diningroom and kitchen.According to the old design for social projects, they provided only one bedroom, living-diningroom and bathroom with a maximum area of 36 m2.Each “buiilding” is composed of 2 houses, a one story unit on the first floor of 36m2 that can be extended through the patio, and a two story apartment of 36m2 with a maximum addition of 70m2.This new form of social housing implies “sacrificing” certain accessories such as exterior paint and vinyl flooring. But the interchange provides greater consistency, better finishings, aluminum windows with locks and two double outlet sockets in the bedrooms. (…)

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On November 7th, the inauguration of this project took place. Thanks to the additions subsidy added in the new policy, the houses were given to the famlies already enlarged.
The ceremony was attended by the President of Chile, Michelle Bachellet, and the Minister of Housing, Patricia Poblete.

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The Italian editor, ELECTA, has just published a monograph on Alejandro Aravena, part of the series Documenti de architettura. It is titled Alejandro Aravena, projettare e costruire, and is published in Italian.

In the book are shown the ELEMENTAL Iquique, Lo Espejo and Renca projects, as well as the Sede Social Tipo.

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