La questione abitativa in Colombia. Aspetti normativi e proposte progettuali

The housing problem in South America and in Colombia is an issue that, along with the poverty of a large portion of the population, helps to increase the socioeconomic and cultural segregation of the people. Many citizens, taking the risk of their own health and life, live in unhealthy land portions, often with geological risk, in constructions realized with harmful building materials. Insufficient incomes and the “Desplazamiento Forzado” lead people to an exodus towards the cities. As a result, informal tissue portions take place within the urban territory. These urban tissues are characterized by the absence of basic services, by small spaces for housing and by the lack of public spaces for socializing. These features are the result of whether illegal occupation or speculative, legal or not, housing development. On this topic a research group has been formed with an international agreements between the University of Roma Tre and the Universidad de Boyacá in Colombia. The research path started from a socio-economic analysis of informal urbanization in the territory of Tunjaup to propose the design of a building system suitable for the construction of housing units, flexible, prefab and selfbuilt. The research activities were conducted in Italy and Colombia, through surveys and dialogues with local technicians and researchers, as well as with the inhabitants of marginal areas. These activities allow to deepen the building regulations for social housing constructions and to understand which rules or standards are lacking in the Colombian State in order to avoid the proliferation of the informal urbanization and the low quality of the buildings.