Heres some good news for social housing enthusiasts (like myself). You may recollect the Villaverde Social Housing scheme by Chilean Architects, ELEMENTAL, well the man behind the project and the firm has just released design files for four of their social housing projects to the public for open source use.
The 2016 Pritzker laureate Alejandro Aravena has announced that his firm, ELEMENTAL, has chosen to release four of their social housing designs to the public for open source use. Speaking in a panel discussion held by the Pritzker Prize earlier tonight titled Challenges Ahead for the Built Environment, Aravena stressed the need to work together to tackle the challenge of rapid migration that is taking place all around the globe, a message closely tied to the theme of the upcoming Venice Biennale which Aravena is directing. In this spirit, DWGs of these four designs – which offer the basic elements of a house at a low budget and encourage the residents to expand into an adjacent space as they find the money to do so – will be available for architects worldwide to learn from.
The drawings, including plans, sections, elevations, site plans and details of the firm’s Quinta Monroy, Lo Barnechea, Monterrey and Villa Verde projects, are available to download from ELEMENTAL’s site. In addition, the firm has produced a brief summary of the principles that underpin these projects.
To download the DWGs, visit ELEMENTAL’s website here and click on “Download 4 Projects’ Files Here.”