Showing posts with label Huaycán. Show all posts

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

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

Findings

The first identified stage of spontaneous housing is quite similar in almost every invasion: it begins with the demarcation of the land and its initial occupancy with a precarious building made of “esteras” (a constructive system based on a wooden structure, woven straw fences and a prefabricated roof of corrugated metal sheets or plastic). The first structures, frequently built overnight in order to avoid trouble with previous settlers or the authorities, look more like tents, but short after they are replaced by square one-room structures.

When it comes to the occupation of not consolidated lands, it is essential to overcome this stage quickly in order to avoid a possible eviction by the authorities. Therefore it is a priority to replace the initial precarious structure with a more permanent one. However, when it comes to the occupation of the edges of an already established neighbourhood, this stage can have a longer duration. In the experience in Huaycán it was observed that in the zone Z, the most recent occupation, many houses are still made of this type of structure then years after the arrival of the inhabitants. Although villagers expressed a desire for improvement, it is not among their immediate priorities.

Contemporary to the delimitation of the parcels and the erection of these early structures, the settlers’ committee designs areas to be left empty in order to make room for future public services: the streets are drawn considering, when the terrain permits it, a wide section to host even a future two-lane avenue with a central divider. There is also left empty space for public parks or plazas, sport grounds, one or more parcels for the reunion of the local community, mother’s clubs and wawawasis (daycare centers). Often, at this early stage, there is also the presence of representatives of religious orders, who also claim land for the future installation of a small church.

Already at this early stage, when the resident no longer has the constant threat of a possible eviction, it often happens that he or she begins to acquire building materials for possible extensions and consolidations of their home with “noble materials”. We often see bricks stacked beside the main façades of the houses, bags of dry cement on the roof or even stones from the surrounding hills. This is the way of saving often preferred by the new dwellers of the city. Although now the municipal saving banks could give the residents mortgage loans, even if their income is low, this saving method through materials is still widely used.

A second stage in the process occurs with the consolidation of the ground floor: the initial structures are replaced by “noble” materials (brick and a concrete structure). In this stage the priority is to plan the house in terms of its flexibility and, above all, the potential for future developments. Therefore it is quite common to leave an important area on the ground floor available for a small business or workshop, and a free rear area intended for a staircase to the future upper levels.

Constructively, the roof of this floor includes a projecting cornice intended to extend the useful area of the second level; the ends of the iron structures of the cast concrete are left uncoated for it use in the construction of the second floor. The final outline of the building at this level rarely looks finished.

In the third stage of the process the occupation of the second level takes place. Sometimes it is similar to what happened in the first level, starting with a provisional precarious structure that will later be replaced by more resistant materials. When the family’s economic situation allows it, this structure would be replaced by brick walls with casted concrete structure and roof.

It is important to note that this occupation generally occurs at the time when the family has grown and new members have joined in. Hence this floor is often used as housing for grown-up children and their families.

Characteristic elements in this stage are the outside stairs, destined to give an independent access to this area of the house, and the construction of top elements such as fake sloping roofs over the windows or balconies on the façade. Even if the inhabitants intend to continue with the construction of the house’s upper floors, the construction of the second level often coincides with a concern for formal and decorative aspects of the structure: the walls are plastered and painted, decorative elements are introduced, improvements in the outer space are made, etc. On the constructive aspect, it should be noted that there are still many cases maintaining the uncoated iron structure, anticipating for yet other modifications in the house’s structure.

UCV 20 LOTE 53

In Huaycán, most homes, regardless of the zone to which they belong, aspire to this level of consolidation. However, we can identify some isolated examples where a third and even a fourth level are added to the structure.

In most of these cases, the family would occupy a smaller portion of the constructed area, and the rest would be devoted to commercial activities such as hotels or rental homes. In the first case, the formal aspects of the building are particularly important and carefully chosen, aiming for a recognisable image; in the second case, the inhabitants prefer more functional solutions to maximise the occupancy of the available area.

Based on these general guidelines, it is possible to see particularities in the auto-construction processes according to the different studied zone. Evidently not every unit will evolve at the same pace and the economy of the family is the main factor. Residents of Huaycán and of squatter settlements in general agree to perceive their homes – and the ownership of the land – as a future investment opportunity, whether it is just a house, or combined with business or workshop. Not everyone, though, has the resources, opportunities or management skills allowing a considerable economic growth that would reflect in a uniform development of the neighbourhood.

A second factor relates to external variables. For instance, the zones closest to the commercial centre in Huaycán (zones A and F), and amongst them, the houses placed nearer the main streets, have had the most accelerated evolution and can be found now in very advanced stages of consolidation. Consequently, the zone Z, even considering that its occupation is recent, has a much slower growing process in time.

To-do List

The study aims to show the patterns though which spontaneous architecture develops in time. These patterns will be later be classified in terms of form (physical interventions on the territory) and systems (ways of organisation and interrelation).

In the identification process of this patters we have outlines possible steps for this kind of research:

- Establish a set of priorities in spontaneous housing, according to the data gathered in the interviews and with the analysis of the houses.

- Identify the aspects preferred by the dwellers when choosing to build their own houses instead of buying/renting one. One of them, maybe the most important, is flexibility; the possibility to make business out of the land – sub-renting it, making a small workshop, having a store – is also important.

- Identify the environmental factors affecting house/neighbourhood dwelling. The proximity to commercial lands, the presence of nearby hills or quarries, the eventual construction of new roads, all of them are important factors in the development of the neighbourhoods. A useful tool could be the drawing of heat maps in order to show in which areas the consolidation process is slower as to establish determinants.

- Statistical analysis on consolidation levels, which percentage of the houses belongs to what stage of consolidation. This would allow us to focus not only in the general development of the neighbourhood, but also in the exceptions to the apparent rules.

Finally, it would be advisable to replicate this sort of experience in other settlements in the outskirts of Lima, in order to effectively check how similar this process is in other areas with different characteristics. This would lead to the establishment of general patters, which not only help us understand the phenomena of spontaneous architecture, but might also lead us to a more participative role in which the architect could propose dwelling projects for these areas, taking the particular processes of the inhabitants into account.

References:

Burga Bartra, J. El ocaso de la barriada: Propuestas para la vivienda popular. (Lima, Ministerio de Vivienda, Construcción y Saneamiento; UNI, Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Artes, 2006).
Burga Bartra, J. «Las urbanizaciones populares.» in Huaca, no. 1 (Lima, Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, 1987), pp 15-25.
Calderón Cockburn, J. «Los barrios marginales de Lima, 1961-2001.» in Ciudad y Territorio, Estudios Territoriales XXXV (Lima, 2003), pp 375-389.
Dreifuss Serrano, C. «El mercado arquitectónico del querer (pertene)ser.» in Arquitextos, No. 25, Globalización y resistencia. La inversión económica y su impacto en las ciudades, (Lima, 2010) pp. 14-17.
Figari, E. «Huaycán: Una experiencia de urbanismo popular.» in Huaca, no. 1 (Lima, Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, 1987), pp 26-30.
Ludeña Urquizo, W. «Lima: Poder, centro y centralidad: Del centro nativo al centro neoliberal.» in Revista eure, Vol. XXVIII Nº 83 (Santiago, 2002), pp. 45-65.
Miró Quesada Garland, L. «La realidad de nuestro crecimiento urbano.» in Huaca, no. 1 (Lima, Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, 1987), pp 31-36.
Nugent, G. El laberinto de la choledad. (Lima, Fundación Friedrich Ebert, 1992).
Tokeshi, J. «Arquitectura híbrida: el paisaje de la ciudad popular.» in Bedoya, S. Coloquio lo Cholo en el Perú. Migraciones y mixtura (Lima: Biblioteca Nacional del Perú, 2009) pp. 181-188.
Williams León, C. «Barriadas y pueblos jóvenes en Lima 1986.» in Huaca, no. 1 (Lima, Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, 1987), pp. 4-14.

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.

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

Introduction

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.

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

[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.