the INCREMENTAL house

Senkata The rim of El Alto I went back to El Alto drawn to a city, an indigenous, self built city, that had served as a space of resistance against so many things wrong with the world. The now infamous gas wars, when Altenos prohibited natural gas destined for the US from leaving the Senkata Plant in 2003, brought down three presidents. There is an effective civic structure that can mobilize tens of thousands of people instantly. I saw it with my own eyes. But, I am not going to make it out to be the romantic notion of collectivity that I wish it was. It is not. Many people are aspiring, making money, figuring out this capitalism thing pretty well. Others are remaining poor, but trying to better themselves. Some people are financing all of this through the banks, and many others are doing it on their own. Class frictions are growing everyday, as some of these indigenous migrants are hitting a gold mine within urban commerce and real estate, while exploiting othe...

The new living room I had told Eloy that I would return in the evening to take a photo of his whole family in the new, almost finished apartment. I ran a little late, trying to catch up with everyone in the city. I caught a cab in El Alto, just because I was running late. It was the most beat up car I had been in a very long time. My window was entirely tape. You could feel every bump, it felt as if the engine was going to stop immediately, and then going over the speed bumps…..I felt them in my feet, scraping the underneath of the car, almost as if it was going to break in half. I think it even had an 8 track player. But, this guy didn’t give a damn. It was his livelihood, and he drove it just like a new one. I then piled into a minibus at Cruce Viacha. I still find these minibuses some of the most extraordinary parts of El Alto. I always like climbing in them. I always feel safer, and it is always a collection, of rough and tumble, hardworking people trying to mo...

Eloy and his family Current living quarters New house next to old house Eloy and his wife Dona Maria lived down the street and ran a store on the corner. I got to know them very well, as their store provided much needed staples such as yoghurt, bread, telephones, and chocolate. Half of the time, their two daughters, Erica and Pamela, when not in school, were running the store and listening to my phone conversations. During my time there, they were living out of basically two rooms. One room was the bedroom and everything else. Within that one room, all four of them slept along with Maria’s mother. The kids studied in there as well. Outside was the kitchen and a rudimentary toilet. They bought the plot of land in 1998 for US$10,000 and through the pooling of family resources, was able to buy two plots together (320 m^2). They moved from another part of El Alto because there were no real transportation options and places to run a business. He now belie...

When I first arrived back in La Paz , I was haggling with some cab drivers about the price to take me into the city. One finally offered me a lower price and I took him. As we were talking, I told him I was planning on staying in Senkata, and he told me he was building a house in there and he invited me to come and see it. It is on the outskirts of the city, right at the edge where the city buts up against the countryside. His lot is on a big plaza, but looking over the wall at the back of the lot, the country extends out in front, giving way to magnificent views of Illimani . The wind was strong and whipping through their lot, as there were few other buildings around to shield it. Leon and his wife, Adriana, bought their lot for $3,400 six month ago. They have one child and another one died three years ago. The three of them were living in one room with Leon ’s parents before they were able to find this space. Once they got the land, they built a small one room adobe...

I met another architect in Senkata the one day A guy was working on his bus in the middle of the street and I said hello. He said hello back and seemed pretty nice. We started talking a bit, I figured he was just another mechanic. But, he got really excited when I told him I was an architecture student. He said he was studying architecture at Universidad Publica de El Alto (UPEA). I didn’t even know they had a program there. I ran into him later and we shared pictures and designs and he showed me around his place. It had a nice intimacy and scale to it, things of which people here don’t really care that much about. But, I liked it. They had built an oven to make bread, but the competition increased and they aren’t able to keep up. Now that space essentially functions as storage. They have built half the wall on the front to eventually open up a new store. The bus that his father uses to earn money is just parked out in the street at night. It block...

One of my first nights in my room, I arrived after dark from La Paz . It is cold, windy, quiet, and sometimes seemingly desolate. Everyone had retired to the shelter of their walls. Nothing about such a place felt like home, and it was a completely different world. But, as I got out of the minibus, and started to walk down the street, a neighbor, Don Willy came flying by in his van, asking me how I was doing and where I was staying. His kids were hanging out the windows hollering at me. It was nice to see them. In the back was his wife sitting on top of a big bag of shoes. In the informal economy, Willy and his family sell used shoes. They pick them up from Chile , and sell them in markets in El Alto. I first met him when a health worker here took me out to the market to see if he had a room for rent. They were selling shoes. Later that day, as I was drawing some of the buildings in the neighborhood, I could see him using his courtyard space to wash and clean u...

The front of my home Fearless guard dogs Courtyard space Front Entry Second floor which will eventually become a restaurant I rented a room from a wonderful woman named Benigna. While the public space outside it is pretty dead and very little public/private interaction, it is much more complex and interesting once you get past the exterior walls. As Benigna was showing me around and introducing me to the neighbors (in her own plot), it was clear there was like a mini community there. Beniqna stays next to me with her daughter. Below her stays Casta. And on the bottom floor of the new building is Remejio with well, he couldn’t really tell me. Benigua said 10, as I looked through the crack and saw at least 4 kids peaking through, getting a peak at the gringo. Remejio said they had a squadron, and he never quite knew how many. Building at the back of the lot where my room was My building was on the back of a lot. This is where Beniqna stays next to me...

Suburban on top of Urban. El Alto Suburban on top of Urban. El Alto Suburban on top of Urban. El Alto Suburban on top of Urban. El Alto Suburban on top of Urban. El Alto Suburban . Zona Sur. La Paz Suburban . Zona Sur. La Paz There are a number of different housing typologies and sometimes they are hard to distinguish. But generally speaking, the lowest quality is in the el campo, or the Altiplano. It gets a little better in El Alto, as more economic opportunities are available. It could be argued that housing in the laderas is a step up from El Alto because of its location and proximity to Bolivia ’s main city, but it is very vulnerable. As you descend, the housing becomes better and more expensive until you descend into Zona Sur where the wealthiest people live, hardly distinguishable from many US suburban neighborhoods. One architect here described it as the “US Style” where people want to have a home that looks like it came from the US ...