Project material
- Category
- Affordable Housing
- Typology
- Priority Social Housing
- Partner
- Arq. Santiago Mazabel
- Year
- 2012 - 2015
- Area
- 6.596 m²
- Program
- 120 apartments
- Location
- Bosa, Bogotá
- Neighborhood
- Bosa
- City
- Bogotá, Cundinamarca
- Status
- Portfolio
Brick-by-brick design
El Porvenir is a priority-interest social housing project in the Bosa district of southwestern Bogotá. It sits on the residual lots of six blocks —from 13 to 18— and consolidates their edges to raise six affordable-housing buildings around courtyards.
The central courtyard is the starting decision: it orders each block, opens a shared place for neighborhood life and, at the same time, ensures every apartment receives natural light and cross ventilation.
Housing of this kind is capped at seventy-five minimum wages per unit, and that constraint defines the method. El Porvenir was designed brick by brick: modulating the building system to optimize quantities and reduce waste to a minimum. The same brick resolves the aesthetics —latticework and two brick tones on the facade— at no added cost.
Before construction, the behavior of the homes was verified with simulations of natural lighting, cross ventilation and energy use, which confirmed the intended hygrothermal comfort. On the ground floor, a commercial unit accompanies the life of the street.
More about the project›
El Porvenir is an affordable housing project built on leftover block lots in the Bosa district, in southwest Bogotá. The proposal consolidates the edges of each block to create central courtyards that build community and improve the homes' habitability by letting in natural light and ventilation.
In Colombia, projects like El Porvenir belong to state-backed home-purchase programs, so they may not cost the buyer more than 75 minimum monthly wages (SMLMV). That constraint is a real challenge for designers and developers, adding a significant degree of difficulty to making the project economically sustainable and viable.
The economic and budget conditions of affordable housing are among the greatest limitations for designers, builders and developers. The project therefore used a brick-by-brick design and detailing strategy that optimized the system and the quantities, and reduced material waste to a minimum.
Constructive elements were developed that carry aesthetic value at the same time, through the composition of brick lattices and the use of two brick tones on the facade.
The morphology of the towers, arranged around a central courtyard, enables bioclimatic strategies of natural ventilation and lighting, giving the homes hygrothermal comfort and healthy conditions for their occupants:
From the sketch to brick by brick
The project began by asking how to fit decent homes into the leftover strips of six blocks in Bosa. The answer was to draw from the smallest unit —the brick— upward: modulating the wall, the lattice and the slab so each piece performed to the fullest within a tight budget. That drawing, repeated and refined block by block, ended up ordering the courtyards, the two-tone facades and the bioclimatic simulations that confirmed the comfort of each home.
- 01 / 16
The project sits on the residual lots of six blocks in Bosa; the table distributes the 120 homes across blocks 13 to 18 and checks the construction and occupancy ratios.
Enlarge - 02 / 16
The central courtyard organizes each block: it opens a shared place for the community and guides cross ventilation and sightlines from the street toward the heart of the block.
Enlarge - 03 / 16
Natural lighting simulation: the light levels of each space are compared with recommended ranges to ensure well-lit living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens.
Enlarge - 04 / 16
Cross-ventilation simulation: air moves through the apartment from facade to courtyard, renewing the interior without relying on mechanical means.
Enlarge - 05 / 16
Week-long energy simulation: the indoor temperature stays within the comfort band despite the swings of Bogotá's climate, with minimal thermal gains.
Enlarge - 06 / 16
Systems breakdown: prefabricated structure, water networks with greywater reuse, natural-ventilation ducts and registrable installations to ease maintenance.
Enlarge - 07 / 16
View of the complex: six stories in two brick tones and latticework, with a ground-floor commercial unit open to the street.
Enlarge - 08 / 16
On site, the brick-by-brick detail: the exposed-brick walls and columns rise piece by piece alongside the hoisting system.
Enlarge - 09 / 16
The same working front at height, with the brick bond and the bracing between load-bearing walls.
Enlarge - 10 / 16
The junction between the brick column and the concrete slab, resolved and finished by hand on site.
Enlarge - 11 / 16
Detail of the same structure-to-brick joint, where the seam against the upper slab is carefully handled.
Enlarge - 12 / 16
Elevated view of the works: the brick walls already define the homes around the courtyard before roofing.
Enlarge - 13 / 16
The exposed-brick walls, freshly raised, trace the openings and circulations of the homes.
Enlarge - 14 / 16
Progress of the structural brick masonry, with the window openings already defined toward the facade.
Enlarge - 15 / 16
Pouring a slab: the crew places pumped concrete over the reinforcement grid and the networks already laid out.
Enlarge - 16 / 16
Another slab-pouring day, with concrete pumping and the coordinated work of the crew on site.
Enlarge
