Quinta Monroy: A Victim of its Own Success?
My visit to Quinta Monroy in 2008 convinced me that incremental housing was a viable approach to helping solve the problems of housing affordability, quality and availability in many parts of the world. This project, designed by ELEMENTAL, reminded me that sometimes the best architecture is less architecture. The beauty of this project is that it is designed to change over time, and it is doing just that. And maybe even a little too much. One of the community leaders of the Quinta Monroy project (which I highlighted in 2008) put me in touch with the Brazilian photographer Fernando Bellia, who was putting together images of the project for an exhibit. We were able to share some images and he provided me with some updated photographs from 2013. I was able to place them next to images I had taken in 2008 to show how the project has continued to evolve incrementally. Image Credit: Luke W. Perry & Fernando Bellia Image Credit: Luke W. Perry & Fernando Bellia