Casa Alegre 97

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Casa Alegre 97

Firm

J Ovando Cid, arquitectos

Type

Residential › Private House
Government + Health › City Hall

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2021

SIZE

0 sqft - 1000 sqft

BUDGET

$0 - 10K

Casa Alegre 97.

Prototype and management model for low income senior housing.

The increase in the number of elderly persons has been such that, in 2018 there were more people over 65 than people over 5, making the elderly the fastest growing segment of the population. It is estimated in 2050 one out of six people in the world will be over 65. United Nations, 2019. World Population Prospect. The same is true for Latin America and the Caribbean, with an estimated 25,1% of the population being elderly in 2050. In Chile however this increase happens even faster, with the elderly accounting for 32%, or 6.430.169 people in 2050. CEPAL, 2019. Estimaciones y proyecciones de población a largo plazo 1950 a 2100. According to the data provided by the Chilean inquiry CASEN (Encuesta de Caracterización Socioeconómica Nacional) in 2017, 41,7% of Chilean households include a senior, whereas 18,9% of all Chilean seniors live on their own. That number is increasing. On the other end, 22,1% of the Chilean elderly are low income and experience multidimensional poverty.
The work in question is located in the city of Paine, Santiago, Chile, and deals with the particular case of a vulnerable older adult, Mrs Francisca Córdova. The house stands on a piece of land on Alegre street, number 97, which has been inherited by several members of the same family. Even though this is an urban setting, it is close to old agricultural areas where poplars and acequias (traditional irrigation ditches) can still be found.

Francisca suffers from a series of diseases that limit her mobility, and make her moving around inside the old emergency house (built in the aftermath of the 1985 earthquake) difficult. That space she has inhabited for over thirty years doesn’t fit her needs. On the contrary, it presents a great deal of issues that amount to complete inhabitability.
Since the beginning of the project, we set up a public-private agreement, using government funding, through the so-called Programa de Habitabilidad de Chile (Chile’s Habitability Program) as well as the City of Paine; as well as private funding, provided by construction materials companies, the architecture office and the construction company. What we did here was joining forces and creating a “commonwealth” of sorts in order to address and solve all the issues of a house in a comprehensive manner, even when resources are scarce. In that context, the following companies were invited to the project: CHC, Pinturec, Decomimbre, Mundo Social, Pucoyam and Winhouse.

The design of the house connects it in part with those pieces of that agricultural world we mentioned earlier: the use of wood in the structure, on the railings, the raw finishes, and the use of eucalyptus sticks. We also made sure to involve local woodworkers in the construction.

We went for ample spaces, in order to fulfill the universal accessibility requirement, and height, on the porch and in the dining room-kitchen-living room, as a way to prioritize those rooms.

Even though the design is specific to one particular house and case, we carried it on with the goal of making it a prototype and a management model that could be applied to help and improve the reality of many other individuals.

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Casa Alegre 97

Casa Alegre 97

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