HOUSES FOR CHANGE

N E I G H B O R H O O D V I L L A
A link between the urban life and
the current social housing market.

The intense constructions of social housing without planning in Mexico, has generated a huge damage in the quality of life of the population in Mexico. Nowadays, the excessive growth is the main cause of the problems in urban infrastructure and social problems.
The biggest damage so far of this kind of construction is the creation of a collective conscience in favor of horizontal housing and the search for an individual piece of land, forgetting about the benefits of a well-organized city, of densification and public space, causing that any collective house proposal is difficult to accept from the market and society’s perception.

The lack of housing is no longer an issue in Mexico, there are, currently, 5 million units of abandoned homes in the country. The repetition of a typology focused in a family is usually the only choice in the market. Besides, there is no diversity in typology, density, nor necessary uses for the creation of a healthy and dynamic environment.
The improvement of the urban context depends in the acceptance for living in spaces with density and sharing common places.

The proposal suggests a link-up between the high and low-density housing. The ensemble of 6 organized houses in one volume using a third of the land normally used for 6 social houses (630 square meters vs. 255 square meters), which makes it more feasible to obtain smaller pieces of land closer to the city. The usual green areas of a social house is around 30 sq. meters between the frontyard and backyard, Neighborhood villa come up also with terraces in four different areas (183 sq meters) which are useful spaces for the people’s circulation and coexistence. The typologies could attend the different needs of a population, also providing the spaces to generate a community sense.