Current solutions to the housing problem in Latin America

Abstract

The powerful and greatly developed technology of the productive consumer society is increasing the gap between rich and poor daily. In the sphere of housing, the idea of «development for the developed» has generated and promoted a prestigious stereotype of conventional housing with advanced technology: («key in hand»), for those who can afford it, which, without the shadow of a doubt, hinders the urgent execution en masse of what is practicable, leaving the essential needs of the bulk of the population to a hypothetical future of abundance and splendour. Adequate technology requires designing the building process in such a way that it is possible for people to take part in it. It also implies making it possible for this process to be centred on the integrated Objective, in the Housing and Promotion Plans: Group Organization in the construction of housing and the neighbourhood, leading to an affirmation of the family and self-administration for the community. The search for adequate interdisciplinary technology for these plans presupposes travelling down a long road of research, experimentation and evaluation in uninterrupted cycles. This is the central theme which the Asociación Vivienda Económica (AVE), (Economic Housing Association) in Córdoba, Argentina, has arrived at. One of the Housing and Promotion pilot plans, carried out by this Institution, is described as an example.