The example of Serbia

In 2014 the We are here together project was established in Serbia. The main goal of this NGO is to
improve the housing conditions of Roma people and their efforts resulted in a book of guidelines:
Housing models for substandard Roma settlements. Before applying these models a workshop
including municipality representatives and gypsies was organised and people could tell their opinion
and make suggestions about the models.

The housing solutions models found in this guidebook are divided into four categories:

1. Assisted self-build and improvement of housing conditions

This model concentrates on different forms of self-building. However families must be
assisted during the construction process by a professional, otherwise the result would be a
non-functional house. The family must legally own the land on which the house will be built
and this is also a pre-condition for obtaining a construction permit.
The price for this type of house will be 30-40 % lower than a ‘turn key’ type of construction
(about 150-250 euros/ m20).
Some Roma families may already have a house, but the living conditions are many times
undesirable. In the guidebook there is a section about how the present situation can be
improved. For example, some families expanded over the years and the house became too
crowded; the need for space can be met by adding one or two rooms, which can also be self-
built. Another important aspect is the sanitary facilities, it is suggested that families that do
not have access to sewage and running water should be helped to build their own
bathrooms.

2. Construction of social housing apartments

This model could be used for Roma people who are not able to build a house on their own or
who cannot afford to buy an apartment in an ordinary block of flats. The criteria for the
selection are: housing situation, monthly income, health condition, disability, size of the
family and vulnerability. There are two possibilities to acquire an apartment in a social
housing, either by purchasing it at a price below the market or by using a flat owned by the
municipality and paying a small rent.

3. Donation of a house

This model is intended for the most disadvantaged Roma people, who are not able to
provide any modest accommodation for themselves and do not have a stable monthly
incoming. A newly built, a prefabricated or a purchased house is donated by municipality,
but all the legal procedures are done in order to provide legal security to the beneficiaries.

4. New approaches

In the new approaches category two models that were not applied in Serbia, but can be
found in other countries such as: Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia, China, India, Mexico, were
analysed. These models are: the self-construction of unbaked brick houses and the sites and
services model of the step-by-step house.
Roma people were known for manufacturing bricks; this tradition can be revitalized and
used for producing their own building material and houses. Unbaked bricks are easy to be
produced, because they are made only of clay, sand, water and hay cut into small pieces.
After the blocks are shaped, they are left under the sun light to dry. The time to produce this
construction material is minimized; for example a married couple can produce the quantity
necessary for a 60 m2 house in 15 days.

There are a few disadvantages of using this material: inexistence of written recopies, lack of
quality assurance and the lack of possibility for the self-builder to build without a contractor.
However this approach for solving the problem of housing for Roma people is worth trying.

The second model, site and services, consists of offering poor families that lack adequate
housing, but have a certain funding a primary basis for the construction of a house – a site
equipped with communal infrastructure. The house can be raised step-by-step investing
gradually the workforce and financial resources.

Half a house builds a whole community – Alejandro Aravena

In 2003 Alejandro Aravena’s office, Elemental, was commissioned to design a settlement for
100 low-incoming families on the same 5000 m2 site that they illegally inhabited over the
past 30 years, in Iquique, Chile.

The site was situated in a high-value area; therefore its price was 3 times higher than the
one expected for a social housing development. This resulted in reducing the cost of
construction; each unit should not have cost more than 7500 $.

The idea of building isolated houses was eliminated from the start, because this typology is
inefficient in terms of land use. High-rise collective housing could have been a solution, but
the future inhabitants protested against this way of living.

The winning solution was to build row houses, but offering the residents the possibility to
extend their houses in the future. In this way the construction costs were cut and the
resulting houses have a great deal of flexibility. The initial house provides a supporting
framework which can be used for the expansion process. Difficult to build parts, such as
stairs, bathrooms, kitchens were designed by professionals.