Government Social Housing in Santiago

The focus of the study is social housing residents and low-income neighborhoods in Santiago, Chile called poblaciones. The location of Santiago, Chile is selected based on the ability of the government to provide housing solutions to the urban poor. Chile reduced its housing deficit by more than half in just fifteen years. It was the first Latin American country to do so, financing and constructing two million social housing projects between 1990 and 2004. Chile’s recent history of housing provision makes it one of Latin America’s leading models for reducing urban poverty. The effects of the physical planning of these housing solutions are sought in finding the functions and deficiencies of the Chilean model, giving way for other developing countries to use what is applicable to them in improving solutions to urban poverty.

The research question is how residents physically and socially access urban amenities and services such as transportation, commerce, and recreation in relation to quality of daily life. The methodology for the project is primarily field-based. The scope of fieldwork covers six neighborhoods, one month per neighborhood, in three distinct geographic regions of Santiago. The research methodology employed consists of observation, visual documentation, surveying, interviewing, and living in a social housing unit. Data from residents including usage of, distance from, time spent and activity at each type of amenity or service is stored in a series of matrices. In total, 120 residents or about 60 families are interviewed and surveyed for the study. The numbers give representation on the similarities and differences amongst peripheral regions of the city. Most interviews are compiled in video format and were exhibited along with photographic documentation in Santiago, Chile December 10, 2007. The exhibition also served as a public forum, to create a medium for university students, residents, municipality and government employees, and non-governmental organizations to gather and discuss issues raised by the project.

The positive aspects of the Chilean housing model include provision of housing for the majority of the urban poor population along with guaranteed subsidies, thus making housing affordable. In Chile at least, families have their basic shelter needs met. What the model fails to accomplish is a consistent level of housing and planning quality to appreciate property value over time. Part of the cause of the low value of social housing property is in its location. The location of social housing units in low-cost peripheral land segregates these areas from the rest of the city and makes them undesirable. In designing solutions for this problem, value of land and proximity to transportation services is ideal for integrating lower income populations with the rest of society. The fundamental concept of social housing to provide for all in communal living inhibits itself by isolating low income populations from the start. The approach should not be one out of compassion and provision of finances but rather an approach of allowing these populations to coexist with others and providing educational and work opportunities to earn what they need and want.

The main physical conclusion found from measuring distances and frequencies of use of amenities, is that residents overwhelming use amenities within one or two blocks of their house. The locations of mini-markets within one hundred meters reveal residents using them two to four times per day to buy small items and converse with other residents. The results of amenities more than five hundred meters from housing location are in dramatic contrast. These amenities including the super-market, stores, restaurants, and the municipality are used on average once per month. The further away the amenity, the less it is used. Transportation services reflect the same effect with higher use of buses in areas four kilometers away from the nearest metro station and a higher use of communal taxis in areas with infrequent buses. It can be argued that residents have neither the time nor energy to participate in other kinds of activities even if they were in closer proximity. But the question is about giving options to residents who voice that they want a variety of choices. The economic solution might involve allowing more residents to manage different types of businesses within their communities since the majority of working residents state they want to work closer to their homes. Design opportunity creating spaces for commerce integrated with housing could be one solution. There is also a need for designing and organizing activities that promote education, recreation, and artistic interests. Incorporation of these venues in the design process of housing could start to change the stigmatizations associated with poblacion neighborhoods. Essentially, the design process must encompass both architecture and planning simultaneously. Currently, the governmental departments of housing and planning remain separate and work separately. The overseeing bodies of government need a closer working relationship in order to carry out actions that embody all the directions needed to solve complex environments.

The project informs designers and planners about their users. In the design process, sometimes the most critical voice lacking is that of the user. This study seeks out that voice and gives it back to the designer and planner directly, informing them of the needs and desires of the urban poor. As an architect, the driving theory behind the study is the impossibility of designing before understanding practical realities and putting oneself in the client’s position. Urban planning theory and even architectural theory echoes this principle, from Jane Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities to Michael Sorkin’s article in Harvard Design Magazine 2007, The End(s) of Urban Design. New directions of city morphologies and approaches to urban design are presently unclear. The importance of this study is to erase preconceived notions of formal design and return to the fundamentals of understanding human life, in a time critical of evolving design methods.