Dos paradoxos da informalidade à produção social do habitat

Abstract

Today, all over the world, we are seeing dissimulated forms of resistance to the current society. They are small initiatives that seek security, stability and control over their social situation. They are born out of scarcity, but they hold enormous value, both in their process and in the result of experience. They are a reaction to a trend and therefore, gain a resistance format. Regulators have placed these inhabitants on the other side of the abyssal line, eliminating any possibility of dialogue. The spontaneous network of oppressed actors forms then, a guerrilla urbanism where the inhabitants insert themselves in the porosity of the city, in an eagerness to maintain the invisibility of their actions. These popular initiatives claim, or act in favor of housing, culture, property, territorial control and independence. Despite their value, they are not a solution. They are mere alternatives. They are a consequence of the current paradigm, so they are intrinsically linked to the norm. Informal cities are born with severe shortages and unstable forms of control. They survive through the abysmal efforts of their stakeholders and take years to materialize their needs. They are the extreme of an abandonment scale. The difficulties that these phenomena face are intrinsically linked to their isolation. In order to move from an alternative to a solution, these urban phenomena must acquire a complementary format with the city and its mechanisms (government, law, technicians) and vice versa. Today architects have a greater role in their hands than just the design of the Habitat. They must catalyze popular processes and search for other forms of social and economic articulation. Since the current models of society do not allow an equitable future with resources and means available to the entire population, the technical staff must study and complement social practices based on a human scale, locally produced, one that is able to potentialize individuals pretensions (security, independence and control). Based on my experience in the city of Valparaiso, Chile and nurturing this knowledge with the study of other processes, this project intends to analyze the practices according to their ability of: multiplication, systematization and replicability; sustainability: economic viability of practices; articulation: with agencies, law and public resources.