Social Housing and the Citizen Architect

• In Event: The Transnational City: Architecture and Identity Interweaving Urban Dialogues in the Modern City 

Abstract

This paper proposes a discussion surrounding architecture and democracy in relation to social housing. Using Brazil as the field for analysis, the study begins with an exploration of the contribution of the architect within the production of social housing, considering how the intricate liaison between designers, government, financial institutions, and policies played a powerful role in establishing a pattern of operation that shaped built environments throughout the country. The harmful consequences of this relationship for the citizens have been largely documented by research, serving as undeniable sources and revealing a priori conditions that compels for a provocation, arriving at what this study calls as a moment of transition, where designers are posed with a new dynamic towards the optimization of the current model for envisioning, designing, and building social housing. This brings to light not only the autonomy of the environment for the clients but also fairness in the way architects and users can combine and take advantage of their technical knowledge and incremental capacity. Important concepts that are celebrated in literature relating architects and enablement, such as open building, participation, and autoconstruction are proposed as key factors leading the relation between democracy and habitat beyond the poetics of the space, in search of achieving a theoretical and feasible way for establishing a methodology that can result in improved housing, healthier cities and consequently, equality.

Authors

• Livia Catao Cartaxo Loureiro, Texas A/M University

• Davi De Lima Vaz Xavier, Texas A/M University