Housing In Underserved Sites: A Case For Iterative Design

Jennifer T. Siqueira University of California at Berkeley

Low Cost Housing Conference, ETH Zurich 2016

ABSTRACT

Architecture as a profession has gone through a significant expansion towards

humanitarianism in the past decade. This growth is made apparent by the increase in the

number of museum exhibitions devoted to such projects, the recent streak of Pritzker prize

winners with a social agenda, the latest Venice Biennale coveted architecture curator position,

and the increased presence of such topics in popular architectural publications. Although the

profession is filled with well intentioned practitioners, providing architectural services to

underserved clients in sites that are socially and economically disadvantaged and foreign to the

architect depends on more than the traditional skill set required from a licensed professional.

In 2014, as the recipient of a one year traveling fellowship from the University of

California at Berkeley’s M’Arch program, I visited several countries in search of exemplary

humanitarian projects which involved the services of an architect. My travels brought me to

document over 300 homes in Haiti, Mexico, Brazil, Sri Lanka, and India, using post­occupancy

evaluation methods as well as sketches of floor plans and interior/exterior layouts of the current

conditions, use and appropriation of the homes by the occupants. My objective was to explore

the possible correlation between the successes and/or shortcomings in the design of single

family homes, and the level of involvement from the architect.

I assumed, prior to my travels, that having direct engagement from the architect with the

occupants would result in the best designed product. My experiences in the field complicated

my assumptions, bringing into question the training, literature, and credibility of architects

engaged in such nontraditional settings. In this paper, I illustrate how design expertise alone

does not lead to appropriate design solutions and how there is a nimble connection between the

involvement of the architect and the success of a project, and that such humanitarian

aspirations alone can result in negative and potentially harmful outcomes.

INTRODUCTION

Architecture as a profession has gone through a significant expansion towards

humanitarianism in the past decade. Although architects who aim at providing services for the

disenfranchised ­ either due to a natural disaster or human­created issues ­ have been around

for over a century , since the last economic bust of 2008, the profession in the west has 1

experienced a significant increase in the number of architects involved in such projects. This

growth is made apparent by the increase in the number of museum exhibitions devoted to

socially­driven design, (Small Scale Big Ideas at the NY MoMA, Design for the Other 99% by

the Smithsonian, among others), the recent streak of Pritzker prize winners with a social agenda

(Shigeru Ban, Alejandro Aravena, etc), the latter being the latest appointed Venice Biennale

architecture curator position. Popular journals such as Architectural Record, Architect,

Metropolis, Dwell, have covered many articles on the topic as of recent, as well as and the

increased presence of popular architectural publications solely devoted to the topic such as

1 Chun, Alice Min Soo, and Irene E. Brisson. 2015. Ground Rules in Humanitarian Design. London: Wiley.

Design Like You Give a Damn , Expanding Architecture , Humanitarian Architecture , Beyond 2 3 4

Shelter , among others. 5

These publications have served to “inspire” architects to reach for clients who are usually

overlooked by our profession. And while the profession is filled with well intentioned

practitioners, providing architectural services to underserved clients in sites that are socially and

economically disadvantaged and foreign to the architect depends on more than the traditional

skill set required from a licensed professional. Some schools and practitioners have carved a

path for those interested in the humanitarian realm of design. The first by providing hands­on

experiences in the building of a project, usually for a low­income community, which has its own

set of issues and repercussions. The latter, by establishing practices or organizations that are

tied to more established national or international humanitarian efforts, such as Architecture for

Humanity, Emergency Architects, Article 25, etc with links to humanitarian projects of the United

Nations, Habitat for Humanity, Red­Cross, and the like. Moreover, within the pool of

practitioners, there are also free­agents who provide architectural services to the client directly,

out of the purview of any larger entity. Imbedded in these three schemes are complicated issues

that arise, especially in a developing world context where codes and regulations are not always

enforced.

2 Architecture for Humanity. 2006. Design Like You Give A Damn. New York, NY: Metropolis Books. ———. 2012. Design Like You Give A Damn 2: Building Change From The Ground Up. 2 vols. New York, NY:

Abrams Books. 3 Bell, Bryan, and Kate Wakeford. 2008. Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism. New York, NY: Metropolis Books. 4 Charlesworth, Esther. 2014. Humanitarian Architecture: 15 Stories of Architects Working after Disaster. New York, NY: Routledge. 5 Aquilino, Marie J. 2011. Beyond Shelter: Architecture and Human Dignity. New York, NY: Metropolis Books.

In 2014, I was the recipient of a one year traveling fellowship from the University of

California at Berkeley’s Master’s of Architecture program. During that year, I visited several

countries in search of exemplary humanitarian projects which involved the services of an

architect and documented over 300 homes in Haiti, Mexico, Brazil, Sri Lanka, and India. Prior

to my field visits, I assumed that the closer the proximity of the architect to the beneficiary, the

better the outcome. On the ground, some of the projects I visited started to complicate my initial

assumptions. Following are a sample of projects that I visited.

PROJECTS

I. POST DISASTER EXAMPLES

UNOPS (United Nations Office for Project Services) ­ Port­au­Prince, Haiti

The Project: 16/6 (16 neighborhoods/6 camps) ­ Pilot project in Morne Hercule

The project is part of an initiative by the Haiti Reconstruction Fund in support of reconstruction

efforts in 16 neighborhoods and the consequential closure of 6 post­earthquake informal

encampments. United Nations Office for Project Services implemented the project and built a

series of apartments in a hillside settlement in Port au Prince in 2012, which I visited in 2014.

The construction team consisted of both Haitian nationals and foreigners. The nationals of Haiti

led the administrative and humanitarian efforts while UNOPS led the architectural endeavors.

The Design

Located on a steep site in an informal settlement in Morne Hercule, the design consists of a

multi­family 2­story housing complex, with 2­story apartments. Apartment occupancy varies

depending on size of apartment. The first story of the apartment is connected with a stair to the

second floor where there’s a single room with a balcony. The apartments open to a walkway

that’s only wide enough for circulation. Some apartments have an outdoor space directly outside

of their wall which were frequently in use for personal chores (washing clothes, dishes, etc) or

leisure (people watching, receiving guests, etc).

Appropriations

The head of a household lives on the second floor of an apartment unit with his sister. He’s an

artist and makes a living selling his artwork. He rents the second floor of unit which is owned by

another family that lives on the first floor. The 2nd floor has its own private entrance, however, it

doesn’t have a bathroom he and his sister collect their bodily excretions in the room and throw

them out on the neighboring lot. He and his sister are not the only ones renting second floor

units in the project.

2. FRENCH HOSPITAL ­ Port­au­Prince, Haiti

The Project

The French hospital foundation funded a multi­family housing project in Port­au­Prince.

The project was designed in France and the construction documentation and administration

were executed by a Haitian architect, one of the few who actually got to participate in the

reconstruction efforts. This Haitian architect who got selected to be the project's architect was

also the Former President's beach house architect. The same day that I went to visit the

housing project in the slum, I went plumbing fixture shopping with Madam President as the

architect's assistant for the day.

The Design

The project is located within 2 miles of the Cite du Soleil, within the periphery of the capital.

The project consists of seven two­story apartment buildings. Each apartment unit consists of

2­stories and each unit has access to the ground floor, with each unit having 2 stories. On the

ground floor, the living room, bathroom and kitchen. On the second are 2 rooms generally

designed for sleeping purposes. The units were the width of the building allowing the unit to

have 2 entry points, both opening to a covered walkway. On one side where the kitchen is

located (and intended to be the front of the apartment) has an outswing door and at the back,

there was a sliding glass door. The second floor has operable glazed windows.

The Appropriations

Since the designed kitchen is indoors and a large majority of Haitian households use

wood­burning stoves, the covered walkways are lined with tarps covering up their make­shift

outdoor kitchens. The fully­equipped designed kitchen is used as storage. The back walkway is

used for cleaning and washing pots and pans and laundry. Buckets line the walkway with water

from the well to be used for the washing. The faucet is rarely used because there's no running

water. The kitchen door is always closed to prevent smoke from coming into the house from the

wood burning stove. The upper story is very hot as the walls and windows are under full sun

exposure. The building was designed to be air conditioned but in a place where running water

is a luxury, air conditioning is not an option.

3. CRATERRE ­ Cap Rouge, Haiti

The Project

After the earthquake, VEDEK, an organization of farmers in the small rural town of Cap Rouge

located 10 km from coastal town of Jacmel, counted 500 damaged houses, and half of them

were completely destroyed (caritas). VEDEK in partnership with PAPDA (Haitian Platform to

advocate Alternative Development) hired CRaterre in order to rebuild 100 homes.

CRaterre, an organization specializing in earth­based construction, deployed architects and

engineers to the site in order for them to learn local building techniques and help local builders

improve their designs by implementing seismic strategies upgrading their homes to sustain

another series of earthquakes.

The Design

Historically, Haitian homes were constructed of timber, as it was plentiful throughout many parts

of the country as well as craftsman who were knowledgeable of timber and earthen

construction. The design was based on the design of existing homes within the town, whose

floor plans and elevations had been developed overtime from Gingerbread house typology of

the region. The interior spaces are used primarily for sleeping and storage, and these spaces

open up to two very ample outdoor spaces: the front as an area for receiving guests and light

food prepping, and the back for cooking, often using a wood burning stove. The front is where

sleeping usually takes place, while back rooms are used for food storage or harvest.

The Appropriations

The original goal of training builders of the area was to create a group of locals who would not

only build seismically sound homes, but would serve to informally control and enforce sound

building practices in the area. Although aesthetically the newly built homes were very similar to

the pre­existing ones, there were minor variations. Some of the most noticeable differences

were in the detailed and unweathered coat of concrete finish on the exterior of the home. In

visiting the home, I realized that it wasn’t a VEDEK built home due to the lack of seismic bracing

that’s visible in the other homes. Those were the only visual and uncovered queues signaling

potentially hazardous construction.

4. SHIGERU BAN ­ Post­Tsunami Kirinda, Sri Lanka

The Project

Shigeru Ban acted as the architect for this project. He's a prominent figure in not only his private

work, his practice has also been awarded numerous times for its humanitarian efforts. Most of

his projects in the humanitarian realm have been awarded for the innovative use of paper tubes.

However, when dealing with the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, he opted for a permanent

design. A financial institution hired Shigeru Ban for his design services and built 75 single­family

detached homes in a fishing community that had been critically affected by the tsunami.

The Design

The homes were built out of compressed earth blocks imported from Indonesia. The

photographs that I had seen of the project prior to my visit highlighted three essential qualities:

cross ventilation, natural light and flexibility. The floor plan is tripartite: with 2 enclosed areas for

either sleeping or storage ­­ connected by an open porch in the middle. Some of the homes still

had some of those qualities, those porches allowed for some less private activities to take place

in a shady and well ventilated space. The porch also allowed natural light into the sleeping and

ancillary spaces. Most of the users were families of 4 or 5 members: husband, wife, and

children. Often, members of the extended family were included as part of the nuclear family.

The men of the village are mostly fishermen and the women stay at home taking care of the

house and children.

Appropriations

Since it lacked privacy, most of the homeowners enclosed the central porch that was originally

designed as a breezeway. The homeowners enclosed it with materials that were available in the

vicinity: brick, concrete masonry units, tin and/or plywood. Once enclosed with solid walls, the

house became very dark and blocked any potential cross ventilation. One of the two other living

areas is frequently used as a kitchen and most homes have a wood burning stove. Although the

stoves have a chimney, the lack of air circulation caused the smoke to remain indoors, creating

a hazard for the occupants.

II. URBAN EXAMPLES

5. SOLUCOES URBANAS ­ Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Project

This series of projects have been executed by the group Solucoes Urbanas under the program

Arquiteto da Familia (Family Architect) which deploys architects to individual homeowners living

in the hillside community Vital Brazil, in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro. The projects consist of

renovations and rehabilitations of homes as they relate to the improvement of the user's’ health.

The program is sponsored by the Vital Brazil Institute, a public health research organization,

which after the second world war, donated land to its workers so they could build their homes.

Since a majority of these homes were built informally, numerous safety issues arise in urgent

need of being addressed.

The Design

The design varies according to the conditions of the home and the needs of the homeowner.

Once approved, the homeowner receives various individualized consultations with the

organization’s architect, who will then prepare the drawings and documents necessary for the

execution of the project. Projects vary from the introduction of preventive measures to repairs,

and will include additions, structural remediation required due to erosion, inappropriate

construction, etc. Other reparations may be necessary due to leaks, mold and moisture control

issues, low indoor air quality, lack of natural lighting, or proper sanitation. Or perhaps a change

in the family, the addition of a family member or the loss of one.

The Appropriations

The client Seu Josue’s home was built in 1970’s and had mold and structural issues. Since it

was located on a steep hillside, the home has been on a slow downhill movement since it was

poorly built. Prior to the remodel efforts by Solucoes Urbanas, the home had cracks on walls

from settling issues, the roof and walls were concaving and mold issues were getting worse.

The work of the Family Architect involved reparations to those issues as well as others such as

lack of lighting and natural ventilation. The architect raised the roof and added windows.

6. IN­SITU ­ Poona, India

The Project

The project stemmed from an initiative by the central government of India, in partnership with

local authorities, non­governmental agencies, and planning and architecture firms, to eradicate

shacks in some of the largest slums in the country and replace them with safer homes and

improve living conditions for their residents. In some of the slums, as in Yerwada, the slum

upgrade was implemented “in­situ,” where homes were built in the same location as the original

shack. While undergoing construction, beneficiaries relocate temporarily to an extended family’s

home or a neighbor. Larger community participatory meetings, smaller group consultations for

programmatic development and individual family consultations took place with the assistance of

Mahila ­­ “Women Together" in Hindi — a decentralised network of poor women's collectives

that manage credit and savings activities in their communities.

The Design

Since each plot of land has very unique site conditions, each home is designed on an individual

basis. One of the architectural firms I visited was responsible for the design and construction of

200 homes in the Mother Teresa Nagar of Yerwarda, executed in a period of 5 years. Although

clients were individually consulted for the design of their home, there was an apparent

discrepancy between domestic practices the design provided. Although now living in an urban

settlement, many of the occupants still cook food on the ground as is done traditionally in homes

in the countryside. However, the kitchen deployed in all of the newly constructed homes had a

modern kitchen with modern appliances and barely any floor space for the actual cooking to

take place. Eating traditionally happens in a floor that’s raised and vertically separate from the

rest of the house. This was also omitted from the design.

III. PERI­URBAN/RURAL

7. ECHALE A TU CASA ­ Campeche, Mexico

The Project

Francesco Piazzesi reassured me that his website was correct and that the organization

deployed architects to each of the sites so that each family would receive a home designed for

their needs. When visiting with the architect from the town of Escarcega, the reality was not in

line with his claims. In shadowing the architect, her main duties included construction

documentation and administration as the design for the homes had already been established for

efficiency in execution.

The Design

There were mainly two floor plan layout that each family could choose from. In the town of

Escarcega, the older homes from the 1960s were designed as an orthogonal version of the oval

Mayan homes of the area. The Mayan design worked with the area’s climate, construction

material availability and local skilled labor. This involved the use of high gable roofs for

ventilation, doors and windows across each other for cross ventilation, the use of timber for

large spans and flexibility of the interior use of space, especially for the use of hammocks in

multiple configurations.

The Appropriations

Some of the homeowners have added rooms to their homes, others have to make due with the

heat, lack of natural ventilation, and extremely small rooms which can barely fit one hammock

without touching the ground.

8. MUJERES DE ARCILLA ­ Oaxaca, Mexico

The Project

The architect Juan Santibanes is known in Huajuapan for his designs utilizing the most

abundant material in Oaxaca: earth. In 2009, a group of 15 women approached Santibanes due

to his affiliation with the church of the small town of San Miguel de Amatitlan in Huajuapan,

Oaxaca so he could help them build a home for each of their families. Juan Santibanes

suggested the use of adobe bricks as this was the most abundant construction type in the town.

Material and labor had been a cost barrier preventing many in the town from owning a home, so

adobe blocks would make their goal possible.

The Design

The design was inspired by the arches of the town’s central church as a request of the women.

Each home, built with 2000 bricks per home, each fabricated by the hands of the 15 women,

consisted of one large space structurally spanned by the arches, subdivided in three equal

parts. Two parts on each end used for sleeping and one in the center as a transitional space

with a bathroom.

The Appropriations

The dropped ceiling below the clay tile roof made of a bamboo screen had become the nest of

rats and I was told later that I was luck no rat fell on me while sleeping. The unfinished interior

side of the adobe brick walls have the perfect condition for scorpions which are abundant in the

area. Most of the homes were not finished in anyway and so they all have to deal with these

issues.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the projects briefly described in this paper illustrate design flaws and

successes of the resettlement projects I visited in five developing countries, showcasing a

variety of ways in which architects have engaged in such projects. I assumed, prior to my field

visits, that direct engagement between the architect and beneficiaries would result in the best

desired outcome, however, in the field, these assumptions proved far too simplistic to explain

the successes or failures of the homes.

My experiences opened up four main questions. Firstly, the homes I visited show how

design expertise alone may not lead to appropriate design solutions and how these projects

suggest a more nimble connection between the involvement of the architect and a successful

project, and that such humanitarian interventions can result in negative and potentially harmful

outcomes. Secondly, research on resettlement projects for post­disaster recovery efforts or

those affected by myriad social, economic and political reasons suggest that, in most cases, the

housing solutions given reflect the ideals of the providers (state, donors, and designers) rather

than the true needs of the displaced and their culture. Some of the cases I present reflect this 6

6 Oliver, Paul. 1976. Shelter and Society. London: Barrie & Jenkins. Oliver, Paul. 2006. Built to Meet Needs: Cultural Issues in Vernacular Architecture. New York, NY: Routledge.

claim as true in non­disaster contexts as well. However, the assumption that centrally controlled

projects result in less successful ones formulates an unproductive binary.

Thirdly, my experiences bring to question the training, literature, and credibility of

architects engaged in nontraditional settings. Within the last decade, there has been an

increase in articles covered in popular publications that circulate within the realm of architectural

practice, and these praise form and imagery over potential social and cultural implications.

Museum exhibitions and design expositions decontextualize those forms as well as the needs

and circumstances of the beneficiaries. While traditional practice generally aims at serving

within ethical lines, codes and regulations are also measures protecting occupants against

inappropriate design solutions. However, in contexts where codes and regulations aren’t

enforced, and even the most basic guidelines such as the United Nation’s human rights

requirements for adequate housing are overlooked, less privileged occupants suffer design and

architecture malpractice quietly. In the absence of regulations, the architect is the single most

neutral agent acting on behalf of his/her clients. Further, design expertise, although necessary,

will not lead us to improve our services to underprivileged communities alone.

Lastly, the cases I present in this paper are not replicas of the vernacular ; these are 7

new homes built with new materials and economic and social processes available to those

involved in the production of these homes at the time these are produced. However, it is visible

in the daily activities of the occupants that there’s a discrepancy between the activity being

performed and the space designed and provided in support of those activities. In studying these

Davis, Howard. 2006. The Culture of Building. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 7 Glassie, Henry. 2000. Vernacular Architecture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

homes, especially those situated in urban sites inhabited by occupants with strong ties to more

traditional practices prior to moving to the city, the discrepancy is even more apparent.

Although guiding principles and post­occupancy evaluations are useful tools guiding the

design and execution for many of these projects, there’s a need for a more substantive and

critical ­­ both socially and formally ­­ tool to capture nuances that have often been overlooked in

our work thus far in humanitarian design. For now, perhaps we should rely on the myriad of

examples already existent within our profession’s overall portfolio of humanitarian projects, their

failures, successes, and most essentially, the architectural lessons present in the user’s

appropriations, repairs and mitigations of our own work . 8

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