
74 HOUSING UNITS + COMMUNITY CENTER
Under construction
Location:
Renca, Santiago, Chile
Areas:
Land: 6.824m²
Initial house: 44.11m²
Expanded house: 66.39m²
Client:
Un Techo para Chile
Engineering:
Elemental
Urbanization and specialization:
Elemental and Juan Carlos Díaz
Construction company:
SIESCON
74 HOUSING UNITS + COMMUNITY CENTER
Under construction
Location:
Renca, Santiago, Chile
Areas:
Land: 6.824m²
Initial house: 44.11m²
Expanded house: 66.39m²
Client:
Un Techo para Chile
Engineering:
Elemental
Urbanization and specialization:
Elemental and Juan Carlos Díaz
Construction company:
SIESCON
74 HOUSING UNITS + COMMUNITY CENTER
Under construction
Location:
Renca, Santiago, Chile
Areas:
Land: 6.824m²
Initial house: 44.11m²
Expanded house: 66.39m²
Client:
Un Techo para Chile
Engineering:
Elemental
Urbanization and specialization:
Elemental and Juan Carlos Díaz
Construction company:
SIESCON
74 HOUSING UNITS + COMMUNITY CENTER
Under construction
Location:
Renca, Santiago, Chile
Areas:
Land: 6.824m²
Initial house: 44.11m²
Expanded house: 66.39m²
Client:
Un Techo para Chile
Engineering:
Elemental
Urbanization and specialization:
Elemental and Juan Carlos Díaz
Construction company:
SIESCON
In the last edition of Igloo, appears Elemental with the following projects: Chiguayante, Copiapo, Iquique, Renca, Temuco and the Pablo de Rokha and Aurelia Rojas schools.
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.
“Mira fuerte, habla fuerte, se ríe fuerte, alega fuerte. Es una mujer que pareciera que nació peleando, luchando, venciendo el destino que probablemente la esperaba. Tiene 40 años, tres hijos, un marido y una cruzada: lograr que la gente de los campamentos se organice y salga adelante, tal como ella y su gente lo pudieron hacer.
Está sentada en el comedor de su casa en la comunidad Antumalal, en una de las famosas casas Elemental, diseñadas por Alejandro Aravena, que han ganado premios y reconocimientos internacionales como viviendas sociales de calidad. Gracias al subsidio del Ministerio de Vivienda pudo obtener una de estas casas, amplias, aireadas, bien construidas, impecables desde que se traspasa la puerta y aparecen los muros claros, el piso de cerámica, los sillones beige de cuero, el comedor de madera cálida, y un bar al lado de la cocina. En el segundo y tercer piso están los dormitorios.”
“40 anni, direttore di Elemental (uno dei 55 studi selezionati da Aaron Betsky per la ricognizione sull’architettura sperimentale al Padiglione Italia alla Biennale di Venezia 2008) in Cile si occupa principalmente di progetti di edilizia popolare, tentando di raccogliere quelle che ritiene le sfide cruciali di un architetto: povertà, sviluppo, marginalità e segregazione. Ma tra i suoi ultimi incarichi figura anche la progettazione del nuovo gioiellino per la sede sociale Vitra a Weil am Rhein”
Nota del noticiario central de TVN que muestra cómo los propietarios de las recientemente inauguradas viviendas del proyecto Elemental Renca Antumalal, han ampliado y mejorado sus casa a poco más de un mes de su inauguracón.
Se destaca el ADN de clase media que tienen las viviendas, las cuales pueden llegar, ampliándose, hasta los 70m² y como los habitantes participaron de su diseño y conformación de los barrios.

En la edición correspondiente a los meses de Agosto y Septiembre, la prestigiosa revista MARK publica en este número un completo análisis de los proyectos Iquique Quinta Monroy, Lo Espejo y el recientemente inaugurado en Renca.

“Elemental -do thank in which the Giro País adviser Alejandro Aravena- inaugurated another of his innovative, social housing projects: 170 houses of 35 inhabitable square meteres, extendable by 28 square meters.
The project was conceived with the Fondo Solidario para la Vivienda by JUNDEP, Un techo para Chile and the Ministerio de la Vivienda.”
©Canal 13
The Photographic Bank of Chilean Architecture recently published photography of the Renca project, currently under construction.

“The two projects that we presented are part of the Elemental Initiative, a Doing Tank associates with the Compañía de Petróleos de Chile (Copec) and the Universidad Católica.We focus on designing and implementing urban projects of social interest and public relevance. In the realm of housing, at the end of 2007, we had built a thousand units in five projects and another two thousand underway. (…)”
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.
Article written by Gonzalo Arteaga.
In social housing, the quality of materials is not as determinate as the quality of the design. This assures that the extensions, that the proprietors will undoubtedly need to build do not affect the initial thermic efficiency.
With the motive of the signing Con of ELEMENTAL with Copec and the Universidad Católica as associates, teletrece explained the project, showing the example of ELEMENTAL Renca and interviewing Gonzalo Arteaga and Alejandro Aravena, who in turn explaing the focus of ELEMENTAL. The report notes the importance of this agreement as the possiblilty to create more projects like this one.
(…)
The new houses will be located in the Perla condominio Perla, of Renca. There are 170 families, provenientes from four slums of this commune that will receive a new home.
“For me, its a dream. My life’s dream is to have my own home. The my chilcren have their own room, and I my patio, my kitchen. Wonderful.” Expressed a future proprietor.
To acheive this dream, Susana sold bread and números de rifa. Her goal was to save 355 thousand pesos to obtain a subsidy. With this, her family was able to be among the beneficiaries that will live in the new complex…
Inhabitants are involved in the construction of their own homes.
It’s not necessary to win the lottery to change from a dirt floor shack to a middle class house with tree rooms and thoughtful architecture.
The Elemental project, together with Un techo para Chile, found an alternative for relocation without violence for the inhabitants of the slums to definitive dwellings.
The ELEMENTAL project of the Universidad Católica designed a solution for 170 families.