Inhabiting the Module

The project attempts to respond to the widespread housing problem. Contemporary lifestyles do not fit in with the prototype of housing that has been built in recent decades. New ways of relating to the immediate surroundings and to other users must be encouraged in order to achieve more humane and sustainable environments.

The main goal consists on reducing the rigidness of the living unit and making it adaptable to the changes their occupants may go through. The strategy works with a module, which is not only spatial, but also structural and constructive. \nThe use of a regulated and patterned system is not alien to the city of Santiago, as it is possible to find architecture in the historic centre that follows these logics and that configures the intermediate spaces between the interior of the buildings and the streets or interior courtyards. \nThe module that is introduced into the block is based on a 4x4m square in plan, the dimensions of which arise from the division in two of the predominant bay width in the area. This ensures a better adaptation of this new mesh in the context. \nThe buildings grow as the dwellings and other uses are organised. The slope of the land is used to introduce a semi-open basement with parking and storage rooms in the underground areas, which will be illuminated and ventilated by means of interior courtyards that will open up in the block with the largest surface area. \nThe coupling of these modules gives rise to a vertical configuration in which the building is "emptied" and where the terraces appear. These are the spaces of relationship with the exterior in the dwellings and that, on the ground floor, act as a preamble to the entrance to the dwellings. \nAlthough the dwellings are distributed along the lines of the module, they are all different and are distributed taking into account the different conditions of orientation and size of each one of them.\nThis proposed distribution can be modified by the user in a simple way, which is possible due to the clarity of the construction and organization of the project.\nIn short, flexible housing is proposed that can be adapted to the greatest number of users, favouring integration and interaction between the existing and future inhabitants. Through a revision of traditional strategies, such as the use of regulated elements or materials present in popular architecture, the aim is to offer a contemporary way of living without losing rootedness and awareness of the context.