In 1945 the Lima had a population of
573,600 inhabitants. Twenty-five years later, the number had increased almost five
times to 2’541,300. Today, the area of Metropolitan Lima has a population of
more than eight million people. The history is not unfamiliar for big Latin
American cities, were the rapid growth of both large and medium-sized cities
have called into question the traditional systems of making cities.
At the beginning, immigrants occupied
the old neighbourhoods in the already developed areas of the city. The history
centre, for instance, had been abandoned and the wealthy families that used to
dwell on the area were moving south, to new neighbourhoods that were more
fashionable at the time. The large colonial houses, after a short period of
vacancy, were divided and reoccupied by numerous families, beginning thus a
slumming process.
Around 1945 Lima’s centre was
overpopulated, and yet new inhabitants of the city kept coming. Since neither
the government, nor private institutions could provide a solution to this
situation, the new citizens came up with an automatic answer: they became
builders of their own city. New environments appeared, from architecture
without architects, gradually growing from the requirements of its
users-inhabitants, who also become its constructors. During the next
decades, governments had quite permissive policies: either openly allowed the
illegal occupation of these territories or just tolerate them as the ultimate
alternative, since their current political and economic situation did not consent
a better solution.
As a result, the growth of Lima, as
many other Latin American cities, is marked by legal and illegal development (Calderón Cockburn 2003) : part of the city
grew according to the norms and urban layouts posed by the government while
other areas, occupying a much larger territory, developed out of self-made
huts, which turned into permanent structures short time later. The new
inhabited areas of the city received the early name of “barriadas” (squatter
settlements): a major alteration of the outskirts of the city. Later on, their
name, which implied pejorative connotations, was changed to “pueblos jóvenes” [1].
These are new urban spaces, illegally created in a place that had not been
prepared for dwelling, and lacking of every basic service, such as water,
electricity or public transportation (Nugent 1992) .
The invasions of what has been called the
first wave (1940s) used to dwell in the territory as completely as possible,
trying to use every little space for housing. Later on, though, the process of
occupation of the land became much more organised. These new occupants of the
city founded small settlements out of scratch, not only planning the limits for
their future houses, but also leaving room for public spaces, streets and
community centres for future developments.
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Considering that most of the occupied
areas were the flats desert zones of the periphery, and that the weather in
Lima is mild, with no rain, nor extreme temperatures, the occupation of the
territory could be organised taking the shape of a city, and with very
precarious structures, since there was no great need of protection from the
outside.
Sometimes this layout was more or less
directed by professionals but most of the time it was the work of the
communities’ own organisation, following patterns previously established by
other invasions.
Nonetheless, it is most common that families
chose to be the planers and constructors for their own houses, whether on their
own or asking for help from friends or extended family. For once because it is
believed that the cost of professional’s services largely surpasses the
people’s economic possibilities. Another reason is the strong belief that the
house is a flexible structure, which has to change shape and size in order to
host the family’s necessities through time.
This way of building, self-construction,
is mostly slow: looking at images of squatter settlements gives us always the
impression of an eternal construction site. Houses are rarely finished and
constantly transformed for lodging additional members of the family, small
shops and business or even tenants. Christien Klaufus refers to this attitude
as “salir adelante”, a popular expression referred to the constant improvement
of the family’s quality of life through the further construction and
development of the house. It is rarely in a final stage, but in the middle of a
constant process, there is always something to add, something to get better.
In Perú, Auto-construction or self made
architecture has been studied mainly from sociological, anthropological and
urban perspectives. Few studies have approached these building systems form
architecture’s point of view. Therefore the research team “Auto-constructed
Architecture: Huaycán” was born. The study, taking place during most of 2010,
aims to describe the developing in time of spontaneous architecture,
identifying patterns (divided in shapes and systems) and the way they change as
the situation of the families allows further construction of their houses.
Part II
Part II
[1] Literally “young
settlement”. Squatter settlement.
Dreifuss Serrano, Cristina (2011) Huaycán:
A Case Study on Spontaneous Architecture in Lima, Perú. In: Informality: Re-viewing
Latin-american Cities. University
of Cambridge, Feb. 18-19, 2011.
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