Emergency housing in Ecuador, a co-design didactic experience

The design is often considered as the crossroads of different disciplines. The designer has therefore played an increasing role as coordinator of different skills, assembler of semi-finished materials to be combined in new and specific configurations. In this context, the design of systems for the production of prefabricated systems for the emergency housing is one of the central themes in the global scenario of design industry and project co-operation. The didactic experience, which is shown below, was carried out within a collaborative program between the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Naples "Federico II" and the Technological University UTE Equinoccial Facultad de Arquitectura, Artes y Diseño in Quito. Within this joint program between the universities, a course of Technology of Industrialized construction process was established, oriented to design systems for emergency housing; the program saw the participation of teachers, researchears and students of both universities. The design activity has been directed to solve a real problem of emergency housing, located in the Ecuadorian reality, through the integration of advanced industrial technologies and local traditional techniques. Each group of Italian students was associated with colleagues at the UTE, which have provided the necessary knowledge of the actual local situations,and then have shared the concept, the design evolution and the representation. This collaborative workshop has been made possible by video conferencing connections that enabled an ongoing relationship between the components of the working groups, followed by a stage of collective seminars. Inside the ecuatorian reality three specific scenarios related to the concept of emergency housing have been specified. First, the condition of the so-called "invasiones", linked to the process of self-construction of settlements that characterizes the suburban areas of large cities such as Quito and Guayaquil. This situation is comparable to many of Latin American urban communities, commonly known as "favelas". The other two case studies, are those of specific geographical regions in Ecuador; the coastal area and the Andean sierra, where the living condition of the majority of the population, is characterized by a continuous emergency situation because of the precariousness of the buildings , result of a self-construction housing stock that fails to face permanently the climatic conditions and idro-geological and seismic risk factors. Beyond the specific sites location, the design activity has particularly tried to work on the edge between the use of innovative technologies integrated with local resources and materials. The results are mainly related to the use of bamboo and other vegetable fibers, such as Guadua or mimbre, for which we have sought an opportunity of integration, especially in the junction nodes, with industrial materials such as aluminum, steel and synthetic fibers . We believe that this experience may have reasons of interest, both in the innovative methodology of the training process, and for the results in the content-specific issue. This latter approach has been moving towards a concept of economic, technological and social aspects of the design process, finally free of any generality that we believe is the most interesting result of the whole didactic experience.