Vargas Social Housing (Phase 1)

As part of the "Mission Vivienda” project, initiated by the Venezuelan Government’s plans to solve this problem, SUMMA company was handed over 200.000 square meters of land in the city of ‘Catia la Mar’. SUMMA was asked to convert this area, previously used as a parking area for long vehicles and machinery, into a settlement of 1488 housing units, with social and infrastructural services, in a period of nine months. It was in this scope that SUMMA contacted us, the architects, and we began working on the project in January 2011 in Venezuela. 

Despite the great and urgent need for housing in the Bolivar Republic of Venezuela, the "Mission Vivienda” does not compromise on its Bolivarian socialist principles and adopts an analytical approach to new settlements and social housing projects. The actors involved in developing the projects are not limited to architects, engineers, clients and investors, but also include the well-commuted neighbourhoods of the Bolivarian socialist regime. Our initial contacts for the project were the Ministry of Housing and the Municipality of Vargas, who brought us together with a neighbourhood council following our first site visits. This was an exceptionally interesting encounter for us as designers. While the client for a social housing project is usually the state itself, in this case, the Bolivarian Republic shared this role with the future inhabitants of the project, and consulted their aspirations regarding the sort of settlement and environment they would prefer.

Our meeting with the neighborhood council, and their presentation of a model they had prepared together provided us designers a significant chance in understanding the user profile of the project. Both the neighborhood representatives and the government officials expressed that the project’s social facilities were as important for them as the housing units themselves, and informed us on how they desired the schools, nurseries and hospitals to be designed.

Following the meeting, during our continuous contact with the architects from the ministry of housing, we were advised to develop three different housing types of 1+1, 2+1 and 3+1 rooms. Discussions on building techniques led us to decide on low-rise blocks (ground floor + three storeys). Resting on collected data, three different housing types were developed in the form of four storey blocks withan outdoor central stairway leading to four units on every floor. The housing demand for the site called for an inevitably dense use of land, however this was natural for the people living in a climate that enjoys summer all year round. Social gathering in narrow and shaded outdoor spaces is a very important part of community culture in Vargas.

Design Criteria was based on:

- Creating an ecological and sustainable environment
- Creating sufficient social facilities and social areas by consulting the inhabitants, in accord with the social understanding.
- Keeping schools and kindergartens within walking distance, especially for little children.
- Providing sufficient sports grounds.
- Creating pedestrian areas free from vehicular traffic.

Transportation routes were located in accordance to plan decisions of on a larger scale, and took the form of roads crossing the site from the East-west and north-south axis.

The effective use of given data, has provided a chance to enrich and refine the project, despite the fact that housing types were pre-determined. The variety of social facilities has offered a particular asset in enriching the uniformity of housing types and building material. 

The housing groups have been arranged in sets of sixteen clusters, with each set separated from the other with cul de sacs. In order to take advantage
of the relatively larger scale of the 3+1 housing blocks, two of these blocks have been placed at the starting point of each housing set, thus forming a courtyard layout. These courtyards provide safe and well-defined outdoor activity areas and gardens in which inhabitants may socialize and children can play, thus fulfilling a requirement emphasized by the neighborhood councils. The courts have direct access to a pedestrian route that runs along the northern- southern axis of the site, thus forming a transition of public-semi public-private spaces.

This pedestrian route also acts as a main artery connecting the community centre, nursery, polyclinic, children’s playground and sports areas. These social facilities, all designed to suit the local climate, have entrance spaces which also offer use as communal areas or outdoor activity areas. As the high school, primary school and polyclinic are intended to serve neighboring areas as well, they are located on the main streets.
This new urban project, which will house five thousand inhabitants, marks a success of re-accommodating families who have left rather harsh living conditions behind.

No doubt the biggest share in this success is that of the Venezuelan Government, whose initiative and determination made it possible to achieve this goal. SUMMA company, highly-acknowledged for its successful overseas projects, has not only fulfilled its contract under demanding circumstances, but also provided the architectural design team with all necessary support in producing the project at its best.