LO BARNECHEA

INCREMENTAL HOUSING
Project Details
◦ ARCHITECT : ELEMENTAL, led by Alejandro
Aravena.

◦ BUDGET: Cost of each house is $37,800,

including land and infrastructure.
◦ LOCATION : Lo Barnechea, Santiago, Chile.
◦ PROJECT COMPLETION YEAR : 2014
◦ CONTEXT: The 1.5-acre site of a former informal
community in an expensive district in metropolitan
Santiago.
◦ CATEGORY : HOUSING
What is the project?
◦ Lo Barnechea is a housing project focused on
providing adequate, quality housing to Santiago’s
largest informal settlement; a total of 880 families.
◦ The project is located in the Lo Barnechea
neighborhood on the Mapocho River, one of
Santiago’s highest income areas. Land is
expensive in this area, as it is in close proximity to
jobs, schools, health care, grocery stores and open
green space.
◦ The housing project replaced 770 informal housing
sites in 4 phases so that families would not be
displaced. The first phase, Lo Barnechea I houses
130 families.
The goals of the project
◦ The main overarching goal of the housing project
at Lo Barnechea is to replace all the shanty towns
which are dotted throughout the region with low-
cost, structured social housing.
◦ In order to maintain the highly prized social
networks of the region, the majority of the
government funding was invested into the land – a
commitment was made to supply low-cost social
housing in a prime position.
◦ The Location of the project was deemed to be
critical; rather than investing in an additional
square metre of house, they invested in a better
square metre of land.
Project Outline
◦ The project works on the concept of
Incrementality.
◦ According to the architect, Alejandro Aravena,
There are 3 main things that we should make sure
to balance. i.e; Low-rise High density, without
overcrowding and with possibility of expansion
(from social housing to middle class dwellings)
◦ The Lo Barnechea housing project aims at
providing 150 individual housing units of initial
floor space of 40 square metres and a community
centre on 25,195 sq.m block of land.
Planning Process
◦ OUTLINE: As the funding per household was
extremely limited in the region, there was a
need for decisions to be made as to what to
include and exclude from the dwellings.
◦ This came down to what was defined as a
‘necessity’.
◦ The goal was to involve the stakeholders to
ensure the production of a product which
meets the users requirements, which was
achieved by participatory design.
◦ DECISION MAKING: The process of deciding
what was a necessity was based on interviews
with prospective occupants.
◦ A list of options was produced and a tree
diagram of decision making was put forward to
the occupants.
Planning Process
◦ The options included, choosing between :
“Installation of a bath in the bathroom OR A gas-fired
hot water heater.”
◦ To the initial surprise of the project designers,
100% of the occupants interviewed opted for the
inclusion of a bath over a hot water heater. A
perfect example of the participatory design
approach.
◦ UNTIL, we understand the occupants mindset, we
can not understand what is of real value to them.
◦ Coming from the slums, the option of being able
to wash/bathe indoors in privacy was a priority as
they previously were washing in a bucket outdoors.
◦ Gas-fired hot water heaters also cost money to run,
which isn’t supported by the meagre and sporadic
income which is the norm of the occupants.
 Execution of the design
◦ Site Plan of Phase I: The units are arranged in
clusters of 12, each of which surrounds a
communal outdoor area.
◦ These were mostly small kiosks built as small
family businesses.
◦ Recreational areas to the left in the photo provide
areas of play and access to green space.
o Public transportation including local bus routes and
the metro are within a 10-minute walk of the site.
o The project utilized confined masonry, reinforced
concrete walls and wood beams (structure), wooden
panelling and gypsum board (interior) and galvanized
corrugated steel (roofing). The interiors are extremely
modest with bare-bone basics.
Execution of the design
◦ Housing is designed around semi-private/public courtyard areas that
have transformed into parking/landscaped/built-out entrance areas.
◦ Residents throughout the housing project have constructed fencing
around their properties to define personal space and I might assume
for the feeling of safety.
◦ The units were designed so that families could expand upward.
Ventilation is provided on each upper floor through cross-ventilating
windows. The units have the ability to total 3 bedrooms at the end of
expansion.
◦ Each unit has 2 main levels with a 3rd half level. The housing
concept, described by ELEMENTAL as the “bracket wall house”, has a
structural wall every 1.5 meters, which provides enough space in
width for the living spaces. The units measure 6 meters in depth.
Execution of the design
◦ A lack of adequate infrastructure exists at the
entrance of the neighbourhood, forcing drivers to
use a one-lane road for two-way traffic. Other low-
income housing projects and informal settlements
neighbour Lo Barnechea.
◦ The project is located far east of Santiago’s city-
center. Lo Barnechea II was built in 2014 and is
located around the corner to Lo Barnechea I- with
the same design concept.