Dr Sandra Carrasco

Quinta Monroy is an award-winning co-designed settlement for 93 families on half a hectare of land at Iquique in northern Chile. Neighbors' complaints about the disorderly settlement peaked after the landowner's death and provoked untenured residents to seek government subsidies to redevelop the settlement. From 2003, a government social housing project was coordinated by the ¿Elemental¿ architecture firm with US$10,000 per household. With the resident's temporary relocation, 93 modular and interlinked apartments were built around a series of courtyards. These apartments, which were designed as ¿half-houses,¿ were subsequently co-opted by residents adding rooms in locations planned in advance by Elemental. Many households have since doubled the size of their apartment and reformed the settlement in ways not anticipated by Elemental. This paper details a spatial and ethnographic study of the Quinta Monroy settlement since redevelopment to identify opportunities and risks that accompany this type of social housing model. The study reveals evidence that residents' capacities to enlarge apartments commonly exceeds the architect's expectations and that unregulated expansions often compromise the settlement's livability. This research anticipates further opportunities for expansion in this semi-regulated settlement and investigates possibilities that another contested slum settlement may emerge.

In 2003, the Chilean architecture firm Elemental began to revisit the idea of partially completed housing harnessing the productive capacities of the informal process within a more formal framework. The Quinta Monroy project in the northern Chilean city of Iquique was the first such project and involved the in-situ replacement of an informal settlement. The desire of residents was for a middle-class house that was beyond the scope of their budget or the subsidy. The Elemental project at Quinta Monroy comprised 93 expandable houses designed in parallel buildings and organized in four courtyards aiming to promote community interaction and maintain neighbors' affinities. This paper investigates the process of housing adaptation through self-construction twelve years after the residents received their homes in 2005. The strategy to promote resident-driven expansions has been successful as 92 out of 93 households expanded their homes. The most significant concerns focused on the deterioration of living standards due to progressive and uncontrollable extensions which might have significant impacts on the settlement development. The findings from this paper focus on the neighbors' negotiations for housing extensions and the risk of the re-creation of precarious living environments evidencing limitations for unassisted or spontaneous incremental schemes of housing development.

Purpose: This study focuses on residents¿ perceptions of the permanent houses built by various implementing agencies on the Calaanan site as part of post-Typhoon Washi resettlement in the city of Cagayan de Oro. This research aims to make a comparative analysis of the communities¿ pre- and post-disaster situation, their satisfaction with the housing provided and the factors influencing housing modification. Design/methodology/approach: The paper analyzes the data obtained from a questionnaire survey of residents, interviews with stakeholders involved in resettlement, observation survey and graphic documentation between July and August 2014. Findings: The analysis of residents¿ perspectives revealed that their building of extensions to houses was a response to a lack of consideration of their needs and of local environmental and cultural patterns in the planning and construction of permanent housing. Originality/value: The findings are used to develop points to consider to gain a better understanding of residents¿ adaptation to their environment. These points may be useful in improving future resettlement projects in a country permanently exposed to disasters.