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

Image Credit:  Luke W. Perry & Fernando Bellia

As you can see, the buildings and neighborhood continues to evolve to meet the needs and desires of those living there.  Some changes are cosmetic with lots of new colors and coats of paint.  Other changes are more substantial where families have expanded their homes into the dedicated expansion space.  It continues to grow, adapt and change, as was the plan and intention all along.

But what about in the last 5 years?  I did a little more searching and was able to find some photos that showed numerous additions both horizontally and vertically that were outside of the dedicated expansion zones.  These photos are from an article about incremental housing written by Amiee Groundwater published in 2015.

https://architectureau.com/articles/a-case-for-the-incremental-quinta-monroy/

https://architectureau.com/articles/a-case-for-the-incremental-quinta-monroy/

https://architectureau.com/articles/a-case-for-the-incremental-quinta-monroy/

I also came across some other research from Chile that is looking at this project with a more critical lens. This article highlights a number of challenges that have arisen, in particular, the last few years:

1. Given the demand for housing in this area and the success of this particular project, many families are receiving offers to sell.  However, it would be hard to find comparable housing in the area if they were to sell their property.
2. The public spaces are increasingly seen as spaces of conflict, as individual property encroachments are reducing the actual amount of space and staking ownership for themselves.  This includes dedicated areas for parking as well as house extensions beyond the allotted space.
3. Additional additions (vertical and horizontal) and poor construction beyond the allotted spaces for each unit have resulted in a deterioration of the architecture and quality of space of the community.

The photos and reflections above  are particularly interesting as they point to the face that the project has become a victim of its own success.  The whole idea was to create a new community, without displacing any residents that also provided and regulated the construction quality and access to public space (community interactions, light, air, etc.).  Now, there appears to be displacement, poor construction quality and encroachments into the public space, which force us to ask some hard questions of the project:  Can the desires and lifestyles of the inhabitants continue to work within the frame provided by the architects?  Or, put more bluntly, can the architecture survive the people?  Should it have to?

https://invi.uchilefau.cl/la-otra-mitad-de-la-quinta-monroy/

Quinta Monroy before redevelopment:  photo by Tadeuz Jalocha, Cristobal Palma

Urban context around Quinta Monroy:  photo by Luke W. Perry

Human nature, activities, desires and the larger socioeconomic impacts will continue evolve and change.  The idea that housing should designed to change and evolve to accommodate these impacts is crucial.  However, we can only truly understand the lessons of these projects through critical analysis that occurs 5, 10, 20 years (and so on) after they are completed.  I hope there will be as much information and analysis in the years to come about the successes and failures of this project after 10-15 years of use as there was after 2 years of use.  Then, we can really celebrate it for the pioneering project that it is.  It just may be in a different way than was imagined.