http://www.designboom.com/weblog/read.php?CATEGORY_PK=&TOPIC_PK=2928
(...)
"Elemental's contribution to the canon of social housing came from an almost impossible question. In 2003 Aravena was asked to house 100 families in Iquique, a city in northern Chile, with just $7,500 per family in government subsidies to buy the land and build the houses. "We tested every single known typology available on the market," he says. "None of them solved the question." The families had enough money to buy the city-centre site or build the houses, but not both. "That's why social housing is two hours away in the peripheries," says Aravena. "That's the drama of Latin America."
"A standard answer might have been to build high-rises, but that wouldn't have allowed the families to expand. Aravena decided that since they only had enough money to build half a house for each family, that was exactly what they would do. "When you have money for half a house, the question is which half do we do?" he explains, before launching into what sounds like a Powerpoint presentation about budgets per square metre that he has refined to simplicity over countless recitations. "Let's do the half that the family would never be able to do on its own." Namely, the structure, roof, kitchen and bathroom. (((
*A developing country like Austin, Texas, for instance, which needs cheap student housing:
