the INCREMENTAL house

  Driving down US-19 from Bryson City to Cherokee, NC, there exists a campground that is unique even for Western North Carolina.  While it is not uncommon to see RV's with permanent roofs built over them, this particular campground in the small community of Ella was extraordinary because so many of the structures, as well as the community itself, had become permanent. Most campgrounds of this sort provide summer havens for people from the deep south.  In the summer, they can bring their homes up to the cooler mountains, and then in winter, they can take them back where it is warmer.  However, many people now live in this community permanently, as they have found a way to exand their living space while not having to pay the high costs of land and materials typicaly in many houses in Western North Carolina.

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 ...

For my last stint in South America, I returned to the outskirts of La Paz , Bolivia , to the sprawling city of El Alto . I decided to rent a room in the neighborhood of Senkata ($30 a month, no bathroom) and get to know the built environment and people a little better than I had on my previous visit ( http://incrementalhouse.blogspot.com/2008/10/bolivia-la-paz-and-el-alto.html ). I was really curious to better understand the built environment of a city that has been termed the ” Rebel City .” Because on the surface, there seemed to be nothing rebellious about most of the housing. It was a bit of tense time, as the country almost fell into chaos, after Bolivia’s own ‘9-11’, when almost thirty people were killed in a clash between supporters and detractors of President Morales and his attempts to shift revenues from the wealthy lowlands to poorer highlands. For background, see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/world/americas/15bolivia.html?scp=1&sq=bolivia%20ma...