2018 | ELEMENTAL | ABC of Housing
Category: Company Review
Industry: Architecture
Location: United States/ Chile / Portugal / Switzerland / Mexico / Russia / Iran / Germany / Mongolia / Panama / Italy
Related to: Public space / Housing / Transportation / Infrastructure / Social Housing
Reviewer: Logan Kurtz Larkin /BFA Parsons School of Design
Company: ELEMENTAL
Website: http://www.elementalchile.cl/en/
About:
Founded in 2001, ELEMENTAL is a Do Tank firm created by Alejandro Aravena, Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddó and Diego Torres. By working closely with the public and its users, ELEMENTAL aims to provide work that is effective in all of its urban undertakings. ELEMENTAL released four of their social housing designs to the public for open source use in 2016 in hopes to tackle the rapid migration taking place all over the globe. The four concepts offer the basic elements of a house at a low budget and offer residents to expand into the adjacent space as they find money to do so.
Releasing the ABC of Incremental Housing, ELEMENTAL designed 4 open source social housing projects that received 40,000 downloads in its first year of being available. The popular half-house design is an attempt to fix the problem of rapid urbanization. By focusing on the most difficult parts of construction that could not be completed by a “non-expert” individual, the Incremental Housing Plan ensures the common good in the future.
Working on their first project “Quinta Monroy” in Iquique, Chile, a typology was designed to accommodate one hundred families in 93 homes, using a subsidy of $7,500 dollars that allowed up to thirty-six square meters of built space in a 5,000 square meter site. After a year each property was valued beyond $20,000 dollars. Another example of their efficient design was the construction of “Villa Verde” in Constitución, Chile. In this project, ELEMENTAL built a new style of housing at the request of Arauco Forest Company to support 484 employees and contractors. With the availability of more resources on this site, ELEMENTAL was able to deliver higher unit standards incrementally, thus increasing building growth from 57 m² to 85 m².
The other two open source designs exist now as 213 units and 2 community centers in Lo Barnechea, Santiago, and 70 units in Monterrey, Mexico.
ELEMENTAL recognizes that due to the ever-growing population in cities that around 2 billion people will be living under the poverty line by 2030. In hopes to create a social impact, ELEMENTAL aims to provide a solution to people in a city with a $10,000 dollars per family budget. Their open system hopes to be a part of the solution, while also recognizing scarcity of resources.
To follow more ELEMENTAL housing project’s click here.
