Medellin Experimental Social Housing

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Every year the population of Medellin grows by about 30,000 due to a flow of people from the countryside and into the city. These people usually settle in self-built houses on the mountainside, expanding the city limits in an informal and uncontrolled manner. To relocate a part of this growing population, it was proposed a contest of ideas in the matter of housing.
We propose to regenerate the city through a hybridization of uses in the historic downtown area. Currently, the centre of the city is mostly given tertiary use (office buildings and commerce). This project revolves around implementing new residential use and reformulating the adjacent public spaces in a way that includes housing.

The proposal revolves around the creation of a flexible structure that can evolve and adapt according to the changing needs of the users. The building consists in a concrete structure that contains basic residential units that can be expanded from modules and certain parameters.

This type of progressive architecture means that the community is highly flexible and adaptable. The building is an open community, so there are public components on several levels.

The ground floor is almost completely open to the public space, here are located the shopping areas. At the same time, a public space that connects and extends various surrounding areas is created.

These modules can be constructed by the users. Mobile light divisions can produce multiple configurations for each unit.

The basic residential units (modules) are especially versatile. The interior consists on a single space that can be modified to produce multiple configurations thanks to movable light divisions. Kitchen, bedroom, living room and dining room are the same space.
Each house can add or give these modules, extending or reducing its space if it is needed as long as the module is available.