Huaycán: A Case Study on Spontaneous Architecture (C. Dreifuss) II

Part I

Case study

The auto-construction process goes beyond a precarious situation in which there is a lack of the financial means to complete the construction of the house. The evolutionary process of these units shows particularities in the daily life of the people, in the forms of resource management, social dynamics, formal preferences and other aspects, which show a much more complex process responding to many factors.

Being a long-term evolution, to get data on this process would require a continuous monitoring process over a decade or two, since the first settlers set up the initial huts until the final shape of a consolidated area with many-story permanent structures. Although such studies exist in other cities of Latin America, in this particular case we did not have the time or the resources for a long-term surveillance.

Therefore, in order to get a glimpse of the entire process, as accurate as possible and in a short period of time, an alternative method was developed: it starts with choosing a somewhat autonomous “pueblo joven” – having few external influences such as highways or more developed neighbourhoods nearby – with areas showing different levels of development in their buildings.

The project intends to put together a profile of the genesis and development of a self-constructed area, through a survey of timely information concerning housing and its construction process

The chosen area was the self-governing community of Huaycán, a peripheral neighbourhood in Ate Vitarte, a district east Lima, with an approximate population of 70,000 inhabitants. It was founded with the transfer of illegal invasions from Pariachi gorge to a nearby area that was unoccupied at the time. This is one of such settlements firstly established by the cooperation of professionals and a group of future inhabitants, and now it is still growing on its own accord. This process takes place mainly by the slow occupation of the peripheral areas, which get assimilated into the more consolidated neighbour settlements.

The area, whose first settlements were established in 1984 (Figari 1987), is now a large neighbourhood in continuous growth, with very different levels of development and consolidation. We find, thus, recently constructed housing in precarious materials, intermediate stages of consolidation in neighbourhoods that have not yet been provided with services such as paved roads or public transportation; and buildings (both housing and commerce) completely settled. The area is still developing and even as recently as this year new invasions have occurred in the few remaining unoccupied areas.

Being inside a geographic gorge, the community has received little influence from other districts or nearby roads, so its development has been mostly autonomous. Thus, for the purposes of our study, it is a sort of microcosm in which we could get the samples needed for monitoring the evolution of the dwellings.

One of the particularities of Huaycán is that it preserves a system for the population’s organisation, established at its initial stage by the first settlers. The area is divided in zones, and each zone in several UCV (Unidad Comunal de Vivienda, Community Housing Unit). Each UCV covers approximately one hectare and hosts 60 houses, and serves both as a social administration and as a representative unit for decision making in the entire area of Huaycán. This system has been copied in the newly occupied areas so that each new house build in the peripheral lots has to be assimilated to the adjacent UCV until reaching a number of new units big enough to constitute an independent UCV.

For the purposes of the described study, after an initial recognition of Huaycán, three areas were selected:

-          Zone A: founded in 1984, presents buildings in an advanced level of development: houses, commerce, services and small industry. The first visit allowed us to observe that the vast majority of buildings in this area were houses of two or more floors, built with so-called fine material (brick and concrete) and plastered walls. Because this is one of the areas designed by the architect E. Figari, there are many public space areas, small and medium-sized, although only in very rare cases they are taking care of by the population.

-          Zone F: laid out also in the 1980s, but occupied in the first half of the 90s, it is an intermediate moment of the progression, with homes in their process of consolidation and some small-scale trade. Most of the residential buildings are also build in brick and concrete in their first floors, but more often the upper levels are made of precarious materials. The streets in this area are not paved and public spaces are increasingly scarce.

-          Zone Z: an area invaded ten years ago, it is area in an early stage of the process of housing evolution. The vast majority of buildings are small structures of precarious materials and the public area is almost nonexistent, except for concrete slabs designed as sport areas, made by past majors as part of a populist policy. It should be notes that this is the most deserted zone in Huaycán, because trade is fairly low and there are no productive activities.

Huaycán, 2002. Zones A, F and Z.
(proyectozona06.blogspot.com)

For the collection of information a team was formed of 18 architecture students, organised in several smaller groups, which were assigned to the three mentioned areas. Students were tasked to compile information regarding housing, and to research on the history of each unit and their building processes. We sought to emphasize in the reasons behind decision-making and the factors influencing the composition and constructive aspects of the building.

Data was taken through interviews with the occupants of the houses, in situ photographs and subsequent drawing of evolutionary diagrams. All information was presented on pre-designed tabs, one for each analysed house. The information to be gathered by the students was presented as follows: (1) General data (composition of the family, location); (2) Formal aspects: façade, volume, relationships with the street, decoration, growth process in time; (3) Constructive system: materials, structure; (4) Functional organisation; (5) Ornament and meaning: analysis of decorative elements and composition; and (6) Additional data on the stories of the family.

In a second stage of the study, still in process, the data on the tabs is analysed in order to identify recurring elements and patterns, processes in the evolution of housing, similarities and variances according to the different zones and their characteristics. 

Part III

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.