Living Between Desires and Possibilities

Living between desires and possibilities

[RE] visiting and [RE] envisioning the self-help house in the ‘consolidated’ low-income settlements of Lima, Peru

Olga Peek Master of Human Settlements 2012-2013

Promoter: Dr. Viviana d‘Auria Co-promoter: Dr. Michaela Hordijk Local promoter: Arch. Liliana Miranda Sara Reader: Prof. dr. ir. Bruno de Meulder Reader: Prof. Dr. Kelly Shannon Living between desires and possibilities

[RE] visiting and [RE] envisioning the self-help house in the ‘consolidated’ low-income settlements of Lima, Peru

Olga Peek Master of Human Settlements 2012-2013

Promoter: Dr. Viviana d‘Auria Co-promoter: Dr. Michaela Hordijk Local promoter: Arch. Liliana Miranda Sara Reader: Prof. dr. ir. Bruno de Meulder Reader: Prof. Dr. Kelly Shannon 1 Abstract

Keywords: Lima, self-help housing, spontaneous urban development, home space

A 60 per cent self-build city1 Lima is characterized by spontaneous urban development, in which the user and the constantly growing, transforming and adapting homes are shaping the urban environment. Lima’s city making is characterized by this inverted planning process from the small to the large scale. The old barriadas changed from rural squatter settlements to urban neighbourhoods and single-family homes transformed into collective, multigenerational or rental homes.

Various decades after the formation of the barriadas, it is questionable whether the self-help-housing models promoted by John Turner in the 1960s2, are still fit- ting the current population living in the now ‘consolidated’ barriadas. After the 1980s the characteristics of the population that had to be accommodated in the city shifted from migrants coming from the countryside to second generations that grew up in Lima3. As Peter M. Ward argues, no one had foreseen nor imagined “the second- and third-generational complexities that might evolve”4. Today the city is confronted with a second, third and upcoming fourth generation that are still in need for housing.

The self-help housing model has reached its limits and homes are not always able to adapt to changing social structures and characteristics of the extended families. It can be assumed that there are more factors involved than Turner initially showed. Furthermore the spontaneous process of city making, initiated by individual actions of home transformation has its constraints in shaping a qualitative urban environment. The presented thesis will reflect on the issues of spontaneous city making in Lima that starts off at the home space, using an empirical study based upon on-site fieldwork carried out in the neighbourhood Pampas de San Juan, a low-income settlement in the southern periphery of Lima.

1 SÁEZ GIRALDEZ, Elia; GARCÍA CALDERÓN, José; ROCH PEÑA, Fernando, “La ciudad desde la casa: ciudades espontáneas en Lima”, in: Revista INVI, 2010: p. 79. 2 TURNER, John F. C., “The Squatter Settlement: An architecture that works”, in:Architectural Design, Architecture of Democracy, August 1968, pp. 355-360. 3 See article: DRIANT, Jean-Claude; GREY, Carlos, “Acceso a la vivienda para la segunda generación de las barriadas de Lima”, in: Boletín del Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos, 1988 (17) 1, pp. 19-36 4 See article: ARD,W Peter M., “Self-help housing policies for second generation inheritance and succession of The House that Mum & Dad Built.”, In: Habitat International, 2011 (35) 3, pp. 467–485.

2 3 Acknowledgements

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people who have been contributory in the successful completion of this project.

I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my promoter Viviana d’Auria and co-promoter Michaela Hordijk for their useful comments, remarks and engagement through the learning process of this master thesis. I can’t say thank you enough for their tremendous support and help. I always felt very motivated and encouraged every time we met.

Furthermore I would like to express my gratitude to my local promoter Liliana Miranda for her guidance during my stay in the field, her engagement and for introducing me to current realities of low-income settlements in Lima. Without her input I would never have been able to get insight into the local context as I did now.

This thesis moreover would not have been materialized without the help and participation of the families of Pampas de San Juan. I am very grateful to all of them for their openness, warm-heartedness and willingness to share their, very personal, life stories and for participating in the documentations of their home space.

I am especially grateful to Nora Jesusi and her family for accommodating me in Pampas during the six weeks of intensive fieldwork and ensuring my personal safety. A special thanks goes to the children and grandchildren of Nora for making my stay pleasant and joyful, making me feel at home in Pampas.

Nora moreover was a key informant in the field and deeply committed to my studies. My sincere gratitude goes to her for al her time, help and support.

I also would like to thank Roberto, who lives in Pampas and works for the local municipality, for showing me other parts in the three ‘cones’ of Lima, and his view on the current situation in Pampas de San Juan.

Furthermore I would also like to acknowledge with much appreciation the crucial role of Juan Tokeshi, who is deeply committed to the topic and with whom I had the pleasure to meet and discuss my findings with, also in our continues email sessions after I left Lima.

Another special thanks goes to Peter M. Ward, meeting him was very encouraging and inspiring to continue my work.

I am very grateful to all my dear friends and family, for always encouraging me and giving me confidence, and for all their love and support on the way.

My studies of the Advanced Master program of Human Settlements at KU Leuven moreover would not have been possible with the financial support of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Stichting de Fundatie van de Vrijvrouwe van Renswoude and Stichting dr Hendrik Muller’s Vaderlandsch Fonds.

4 Chapter 1 - Introduction and Methodology 5 Table of Contents 1968-1980: The fundamental reforms under military rule 44 The reproduction of the barriada 45

01 [Re] visiting Pampas de San Juan 1980-1990: The barriada in the ‘completing’ stage 45 Land access after the 1980s 46 Problem Statement 14 Three generations of barriadas 46 Aims of the research 15 1990-present: A third generation growing up 50 Thesis structure 15

Research Questions 16 PART V - Conclusions 52 Conceptual Framework 17 Hypotheses 18 03 A journey from the house to the city and back Research Methodologies 19 PART I - A journey from the house to the city and back 58 60 years of self-help housing practice in Lima 58 The house and the family in a changing setting of 02 The history of Pampas de San Juan 64 modernization and democratization in Lima Terminology 66

PART I - Self-help housing: the debate and the practice 30 PART II - The house along the street: types and trends in home space 68

1 - The visionary house - Sra. Nora 70 PART II – Theories on self-help housing 32 2 - The courageous house - Sr. Aleman 76 Who decides? 32 3 - The steady house - Sra. Sandra 82 The three stages of housing 33 4 - The faltering house - Brenda 88 Accessing the housing market 33 5 - The expeditious house - Sra. Vacilia 94

PART III - The self-help housing debate 34 6. The modest house - Sra. Cristina 102 Defining the concept 34 7 - The amiable house - Sra. Julia 108 The emergence of self-help housing 35 8 - The progressive house - Sra. Justina 114 The conceptual shift and need for housing 36 9 - The garden house - Sra. Cita 120 Critiques on self-help housing 36 10 -The ambitious house - Sra. Rufina 126 Empirically grounded reflections on Turner’s theory 38 PART III - From the house to the city via the street 132

PART IV - Self-help housing in practice: the case of Lima, Peru 39 Spontaneous city making 134 The development and consolidation of the classical barriadas 41 The straw house as a ‘strategy for city making’ 135

1940-1954: From bridgeheader to consolidator 41 From the house to the street 136 1954-1968: The barriada in the ‘developing’ stage xx

6 Chapter 1 - Introduction and Methodology 7 Changing social realities 137

Conclusions 139

PART IV - Living between desires and possibilities 144

Family size, changing household compositions and home consolidation 146 Financial resources and home investments 152 Tenurial conditions 158 Future aspirations and social consumptions norms 159

04 The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement

PART I - The consolidated self-help settlement 164 The paradigm shift 165

PART II - [Re] visiting the self-help house 168 ‘Que vivienda han construido?’ 168 Reflections on ‘the house that mum and dad built’ 174 ‘Other realities’ 178 A local perspective 182 The gap between desire and possibility 186

PART III - [Re] envisioning the self-help house 188 Conclusions 189

Appendices Construye para crecer más arriba - Construye para crecer, Housing Competition Ministerio de Vivienda Peru Bibliography

8 9 [01] [Re] visiting Pampas de San Juan

10 11 © By Author, 2013 Author, © By John Turner’s three stages model of barriada development, The Squatter Settlement: An architecture that works, 1968 12 13 [ RE ] Visiting Pampas de San Juan acteristic in the process of becoming a city)4, hypotheses. Chapter 2 describes the theoreti- highly influence the spontaneous process of cal and historical background that will lay the shaping the environment and not always re- foundation of the empirical study presented sult in a qualitative urban neighbourhood. This in Chapter 3. In the final chapter theoretical brings us to the second statement: models are critically evaluated and discussed with respect to the contemporary discourse 2. The spontaneous process of city making, and the results of recently published longitu- starting from home space and individual ac- dinal studies. tions, has its constraints in shaping the urban environment and lowers the spatial quality of The second chapter deals with issues of the the neighbourhood. house and the extended family in the barriadas of Lima in the changing setting of mod- Aims of the research ernization and democratization. The debate This empirically grounded study has three on self-help housing that started from the aims. The first aim is to document and analyse 1940s, when Jacob Crane first introduced the Problem Statement the practice of self-help went on, housing processes of home consolidation and adap- term5, related to theories on self-help housing Within the changing context of moderniza- the children and grandchildren of the original tation, as well as multigenerational growth, developed by John Turner are examined in this tion and democratization in Lima, the rural invaders. Hence the time has come to evaluate in order to gain insight on the interrelations section. Subsequently the theory is brought in squatter settlements transformed into urban on previous models of self-help related to the between the development trajectory and relation with the practice of self-help housing neighbourhoods and the characteristics of current situation in Lima’s barriadas in order physical characteristics of the house. in the context of metropolitan Lima. the barriada residents shifted from a migrant to see if they are still accurate and on which population from the Peruvian countryside to aspects the model needs to be re-envisioned. A second aim is to show and understand the In the third chapter ten in-depth case studies an urban population of second and third gen- This leads to the following problem statement: effects of spontaneous development, in which developed during fieldwork in Pampas de San 6 eration citizens that were grown up in the city. users are shaping their environments, firstly Juan are presented. The study describes and For years self-help was seen as the most viable 1. The self-help housing model in metropoli- at the scale of the home and secondly at the critically reflects upon the process of home solution to house the urban poor and today tan Lima has reached its limits and homes are level of the neighbourhood. transformation and adaptation in relation to the majority of the city dwellers still live in the not always able to adapt to changing social The final aim is to relate the main findings to changing social structures and characteristics peripheral self-help settlements, in Peru re- structures and characteristics of the extended the broader debate on self-help housing strat- of the extended family and their consumption ferred to as barriadas. Despite many critiques, family. egies and spontaneous urban development norms. Furthermore this section of the thesis the self-help housing model, in which the and reflect and critically evaluate upon previ- addresses the process of home transformation users are constantly changing, transforming Furthermore the inverted exercise of spon- ous theories and models of self-help housing. in relation to the broader scale, reflecting on and extending their homes, has been proved taneous city making, has proved to generate Whether these models are still accurate in the homes within the changing social fabric and a successful strategy in the past12. From the different types of tissue3, in this study referred current situation in low-income settlements how individual actions, when cumulated, have nineteen eighties onwards it remained quiet to as social tissue, productive tissue and envi- and on which aspects self-help housing mod- an effect on the spatial quality of the neigh- around the debate on self-help housing, while ronmental tissue. Reflecting on homes within els need to be revised and can be improved bourhood. 1 As Peter Lloyd argues: “The barriadas, though the broader scope of the neighbourhood are major interrogations. seen by the administrator or planner as a ‘problem’ are a shows that under certain conditions these ‘solution’ to the urban poor”,after which he explains the processes are moderated and lead to other Thesis structure 5 Jacob Crane was head of the International success of the barriada: LLOYD, Peter, The ‘young towns’ of The thesis consists of four chapters. Following Office of U.S. Housing and Home Finance Agency between Lima: Aspects of urbanization in Peru, Cambridge University realities. The increase of both population and 1947 and 1954 and used the term ‘aided self-help’ for the Press, Cambridge, 1980: p.140 social differences, the rising social insecurity the presentation of the research method- first time in 1945 talking from his experience in Puerto Rico 2 Also Chambers summarizes the successes of the and the shift from a community oriented soci- ologies and related research questions and were in 1939 an early experiment of ‘sites and services’ barriadas: “The barriadas in fact have provided millions of ety to an individual society (that are all char- was carried out. See: HARRIS, Richard, “The Silence of the cheap homes […], allowed an early escape from inner city 4 As described by Massey, Allen & Pile, “The Experts: ‘Aided Self-help Housing’, 1939-1954”, in: Habitat slums and enhanced the value of real-estate in Lima […]”, 3 See article: ÁEZS GIRALDEZ, Elia; GARCÍA particularity of the city is that it concentrates differences International, 1998 (22) 2, pp. 165-189. CHAMBERS, Bill, “The barriadas of Lima: Slums of hope or CALDERÓN, José; ROCH & Peña, Fernando, “La ciudad through its density of people and lived spaces […].” 6 Pampas de San Juan is a low-income settlement despair? Problems or solutions?”, in: Geography, 2005: p. desde la casa: ciudades espontáneas en Lima”, in: Revista (Massey, D.; Allen, J. & Pile, S. (1999). City worlds: in the urban periphery of southern Lima. The area is part of 221. INVI, 2010, 25 (70), pp. 77-116 understanding cities. Psychology Press.) the greater district San Juan de Miraflores.

14 Chapter 1 - [Re] Visiting Pampas de San Juan 15 How are home investments made by users Research Questions over time? What are main physical character- The content of the thesis will be articulated istics of the house as it is encountered today? around two research questions that either focus on the scale of the house or the scale of Subsequently the social dimensions will be the neighbourhood. The first questions is as considered according to the following ques- follows: tions:

1. To what extent are homes able to adapt 1b. What is the social composition of the to the changing social structures and charac- house? How do different generations and teristics of the extended family and what are users share the house and make use of the the main factors that influence the process of different spaces? home consolidation? 1c. What ‘use values’ does the home space In the question it is assumed that there are have and under what circumstances does more factors involved in the process of home ‘sharing’ result in either creative solutions or transformation than Turner originally showed conflict? in his model of self-help housing.78 This major interrogation is broken down into sub-ques- Thirdly the interrelations between spatial and tions: social dimensions, the related factors involved that influence the process of home consol- First, in order to understand the house’s phys- idation and what this means for the future ical structure, the spatial characteristics of the of both house and family will be explored home space and the consolidation process of through the following questions: the home are looked into. 1d. What are users’ main priorities and moti- 1a. How did the house grow progressively? vations in the process of transforming and improving their homes and how does this relate 7 The model referred to here is Turner’s ‘three to their future aspirations? stages of housing’ including the incipient stage, the developing stage and the completing stage: Turner, John F. C., “The Squatter Settlement: An architecture that works”, Subsequently the process of home transfor- in: Architectural Design, Architecture of Democracy, August mation is discussed in relation to the broader 1968, pp. 355-360. context, reflecting on homes within the chang- 8 More recent research in self-help settlements, ing social fabric. This leads to the following founded on empirical data obtained through several visits to the area, already show that not all Turner’s expectations research question: became true. See the work of Peter Ward in Mexico and Michaela Hordijk in Lima, Peru. 2. To what extent and under what circum- WARD, Peter M., “Self-help housing policies for second stances homes and individual actions con- generation inheritance and succession of The House that tribute to the aggradation of the urban tissue Mum & Dad Built.”, In: Habitat International, 2011 (35) 3, pp. 467–485. and how do these have an effect on the spatial quality of the neighbourhood? HORDIJK, Michaela, “Nuestra Realidad es Otra: Changing realities in Lima’s peripheral settlements: a case study The issues and problems related to sponta- from San Juan de Miraflores”, in: The production, use and neous development that occur at neighbour- dissemination of Urban Knowledge in Cities of the South, BRUNFAUT, V.; d’AURIA, V.; DE MEULDER, B.; MORETTA, L.; hood level will be analysed and evaluated SHANNON, K. (eds.), Brussels, N-AERUS, 2010, pp. 361-374. according to two sub-questions:

16 Chapter 1 - [Re] Visiting Pampas de San Juan 17 of the extended family, are not always syn- to the place, their future aspirations and of owners, tenants and sharers which contrib- 2a. How does the individual process of home chronized processes. While two families grow prime concerns and motivations to invest ute to the feeling of defensiveness and fear of consolidation determine the formation of -ur in a comparable way, the house may respond in the house are the key factors that either the other that in the worst case leads to social ban tissue and what conditions either intensify in two very different ways.9 stimulate or inhibit the transformation and detachment; (2) increasing social insecurity (3) or moderate this process? adaptation of the house. the shift from a community-oriented society 2. The financial resources available to house- to an individualistic society. 2b. What does the individual process of home holds do not necessarily influence the process Home transformation and adaptation primar- consolidation mean for the afterlife of the of home investment and consolidation. The ily depends on the abovementioned factors. 7. During the home consolidation process neighbourhood of Pampas de San Juan? What process depends on other factors related to If the user is not planning to stay in the future residents appropriate parts of the public are the opportunities and threats regarding user behaviour and their consumption norms. or does not feel attached to the home or space, transforming them in green areas and the future of self-help housing? the neighbourhood, he will not be willing to thereby contributing to the aggradation of The financial resources of a household, related contribute to home improvement. The same the environmental tissue. Simultaneously the employment type and involving both mutual applies if the prime concerns and motivations process is moderated due to the same factors Conceptual Framework income and additional income, do influence for investment lie in something other than the as presented in hypotheses 6. The key variables and the expected relations the process of home investment and consol- house. between them are arranged in the conceptual idation; nevertheless the two are not inter- This means there is potential for spontaneous framework presented on the previous page. dependent. A third factor has to be included The following hypotheses relate to the second development to form intermediate places The three key variables in the research are the that shows the priority and motivation of the research question and show the assumed for interaction and green spaces. To a certain users, their individual actions and the home user to invest either in the home or in other affect of how the process of home consoli- extent this is already happening, though this space. commodities. dation can contribute to the aggradation of process is under serious threat because of the urban tissue (accumulation of small scale the three indicated factors that moderate this Subsequently it is presumed that the process 3. The tenurial condition of users sharing a urban tissues generating larger scale urban process. of home consolidation initiated by the user house does influence their individual willing- tissues) and what conditions either intensify and influenced by individual actions, interre- ness to invest in the house and contribute or moderate this process. The aggradation of Research methodologies lates with the broader context including the to home improvement, though the process the urban tissue is identified along three sub- The empirical data on which this thesis is theoretical and historical background. equally depends on other factors related to categories, namely the productive tissue, the based was gathered during an intensive field- both the spatial and social structure of the social tissue and the environmental tissue. work session carried out in the neighbour- Time is another factor that has an effect on home. hood of Pampas de San Juan in Lima, Peru for the expected relations. Both the variables 5. Within the process of home consolidation 6 weeks. Prior to this experience literature as well as the interrelations between them The different status of tenure, people owning productive and commercial spaces are assimi- review was used qualitatively to design the re- change in time. The context wherein this hap- the house, sharing the house or renting it, lated in the residential spaces that contribute search’s theoretical backbone. To achieve the pens also undergoes several transformations has an affect on the process of home consol- to formation of the productive tissue and are research aims and answer the research ques- and radical shifts in time. idation. The owner of the house will be more amenities for the neighbourhood. The process tions, mixed methods were used that rely on willing to invest in his house than someone of aggradation is intensified by the increasing both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Hypotheses who rents it. This does not necessarily mean level of consolidation of the homes and the For the data collection household surveys The expected relations between the variables that renters and sharers do not invest in the corresponding densification. were conducted incorporating open inter- presented in the conceptual framework result house. Home investment also strongly de- views and closed questionnaires. Additionally in the following hypotheses: pends on the relations between the users and 6. The process of home consolidation starts personal observations and drawings carried to what extent the spatial composition can from a human scale that allows for a favour- out in the field are used to triangulate and 1. The size of the family and changing house- provide independence and privacy. able relation between the house and the confirm findings. The data analysis is founded hold composition do not directly affect the street. It serves as an intermediate space on qualitative techniques using different visual process of home consolidation. 4. Social consumption, the user’s attachment linking the private and the public, thereby ethnography methods. contributing to the formation of qualitative The way in which homes grow, adapt and 9 See also: WILLIAMS, Susana M., Young Town spaces of interaction. This process is inhibited Literature review are transformed by the owners in relation to growing up: four decades later: self-help housing and upgrading lessons from a squatter neighborhood in Lima, by several external factors: (1) social diversifi- The reviewed literature, which lays the theoret- changing social structures and characteristics Master thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005. cation, resulting in an increasing diversification ical and historical foundation of the empirical

18 Chapter 1 - [Re] Visiting Pampas de San Juan 19 study, was selected according to relevance ing. in the complex processes of self-help housing. built versus open space, construction mate- regarding the central issue self-help housing These recently published longitudinal studies Peter M. Ward and researchers from LAHN16 rials used and level of finishing of rooms. To and barriada settlement in Lima. Initially, in also helped to reflect on the earlier debate used this methodology in a comparative case further identify quantitative and qualitative order to understand the debate that took and historical context and evaluate how valu- study that was completed across various Latin data (such as number of inhabitants, private place on self-help housing and grasp its ori- able original theories on self-help housing still American cities. The methodology incorpo- versus common space area, the development gins, the most influential writers on the issue are for today’s generations. rates mixed methods and different scales of trajectory of the house and the process of were selected. The work of John Turner was research. In the LAHN comparative case study home investment) household surveys were a seminal reference, especially the writings in Data-collection methods the first level of research involves general held. which he develops his theoretical models and The data collection for the case studies is data collection and selection of settlements. elaborates on his expectations of the self- based on six weeks of on-site fieldwork car- Secondly surveys where held among a broad The household surveys help house in the future10. Subsequently the ried out in February and March 2013 in the audience in the selected settlements and addi- To determine a wider range of characteristics main critiques on Turner’s ideas expressed by neighbourhood of Pampas de San Juan in the tionally a ‘third level’ of “casos a profundidad” of the house and the users of the extend- other authors were analysed, including Rodd southern ‘cone’ of Lima. Ten households were (in-depth cases) was added in order to get a ed family households, a set of interviews Burgess’ and Peter Ward’s influential critiques documented in that period and interviews closer understanding of home consolidation were held with various members of the of the model.11 with local inhabitants were held across three in relation to changing family characteristics. family (mainly the family members living in generations in the extended families. The ten This allowed to triangulate between findings the house and where possible also second Secondly, to address the key problems in the cases were selected to present a relevant and from the more general and broader surveys generations who moved out). The surveys are barriadas and get insight in the specific issues representative range in respect to the neigh- and from the more in-depth cases. based upon both semi-structured and informal of Lima’s urban development, a combination bourhood. Divergences, convergences and a In my own empirical study this ‘third level’ interviews to determine specific quantitative of reports was analysed ranging from authors representation of the widest range of consol- was carried out. These findings were com- data concerning the house and family (size, framing the problem in a broader context such idation levels were criteria used to select the pared with broader findings from publications financial capacity, tenurial condition) and as Alan Gilbert12 to publications from local most viable and interesting material to further in the discourse, including the longitudinal qualitative information concerning attitudes, authorities and local publishers, with the most develop the analysis. Furthermore the amount study of Michaela Hordijk that was completed aspirations and social change. important being DESCO13. Finally a selection of cases was previously determined as realistic in the same area, Pampas de San Juan.17 of ‘revisits’ was reviewed to position my own number to be studied over the 6-week period. Indeed questions related to their individual empirical study in the broader contemporary For fieldwork preparation some additional The documentation of home space actions and norms of consumption were asked discourse on the ‘afterlife’ of self-help hous- literature was reviewed including Davies’ book Different techniques were used for the docu- in open interviews in order to gain insight in on Reflexive Ethnography14 that helped in mentation of the home space. As a first step the users’ motivation and priorities in home 10 TURNER, John F. C., “The Squatter Settlement: define ethnographical research methods and personal observations and drawings were investment and their future aspirations and An architecture that works”, in: Architectural Design, Architecture of Democracy, August 1968, pp. 355-360. And prepare related techniques such as interviews, made in the field. These were first used as a attachment to the house and neighbourhood. TURNER, John F. C., Housing by people: Towards autonomy questionnaires and photographic material. quantitative technique to distinguish the char- The respondents were arranged in three focus in building environments, London, Boyars, 1976. acteristics of home space evolution relevant groups corresponding to their age and gener- 11 WARD, Peter M. (ed.), Self-Help Housing: A to the study, such as size, spatial composition, ations: the originators of the neighbourhood, critique, London, Mansell, 1982. In-depth case studies the children of the founding fathers and the 12 GILBERT, Alan, The Mega-City in Latin America, 16 The Latin American Housing Network (LAHN) is The specific method concerning intensive case grandchildren. In some cases the households London, Russell Press, 1996. “casos a profundidad” a research network focusing on third generation housing 13 DESCO, Centro de Estudios y Promoción del studies or is described policy issues in ‘consolidated’ low-income settlements in also included renters and additional family 15 Desarrollo has long experience in Lima and has published by Peter M. Ward. This detailed method for Latin American cities. Peter M. Ward is the coordinator members. They are arranged according to many influential books. In the thesis mainly the work of analysis is crucial in order to closer understand of the network. The main goals of the LAHN is to develop their age. In total 38 people were interviewed. Gustavio Riofrio and more recent work of Juan Tokeshi and contextualize the findings. It allows for the ‘third generation’ housing policies in order to meet The conversations took place in the case study is used. Two key publications of DESCO of significant the uncovering of additional factors involved not only the needs for the original homeowners, but by relevance in this study: documenting the evolutions of the self-help settlements, house itself and the majority of the cases are RIOFRÍO, Gustavo; DRIANT, Jean-Claude, ¿Que vivienda han 14 DAVIES, Charlotte Aull. Reflexive ethnography: A unravelling the new demands of the second and third based upon various visits to the family. An construido? : nuevos problemas en viejas barriadas, Lima, guide to researching selves and others. Routledge, 2008. generations. For detailed information see the LAHN overview of the respondents is provided in Centro de Investigación, Desarrollo y Asesoría Poblacional, 15 WARD, Peter M.; JIMENEZ, Edith; VIRGILIO, webpage: www.lahn.utexas.org table 2. 1987 Mercedes, “Methodology for the Intensive “Interesting” 17 HORDIJK, 2010, op. cit: pp. 361-374. HORDIJK, ZOLEZZI, Mario; TOKESHI, Juan; NORIEGA, Carlos, Case Studies (Casos a Profundidad) in Monterrey, Michaela, Of dreams and deeds: the role of local initiatives Densificación habitacional: Una propuesta de crecimiento Guadalajara, & Buenos Aires.” LAHN, 2009. Retrieved from for community based environmental management in Lima, Personal interviewing has a certain limitation, para la ciudad popular, Lima, Desco, 2005. the LAHN webpage: www.lahn.utexas.org Peru. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam, 2000. since it consists of subjective in-gathered

20 Chapter 1 - [Re] Visiting Pampas de San Juan 21 information, moreover captured at a certain moment in time. The relation between researcher and respondent also plays a part. Sometimes the life-stories of the families are very personal, sometimes even traumatic, something not easily shared with a ‘stranger’. For this reason I held frequent conversations with the same person in order to gain their trust and took time to explain the aims and intentions of the research in order to inform people how the information would be used. Furthermore the way in which people express themselves may not always exactly reflect their real intentions. Sometimes people do not have a clear opinion or might interpret the question slightly different then was intended. ‘Testing’ different sort of questions helped to get the most viable answers. Drawing was another very helpful tool to verify information with people.

In addition to the interviews with residents, several interviews were held with local experts and key informants. Several conversations took place with architect Liliana Miranda Sara, director of the Cities for Life Forum in Lima. An in depth interview was held with Juan Tokeshi, local architect and influential writer in the field of in situ improvement of the barriadas. Several meetings also were set up with local neighbourhood leaders local municipality staff of San Juan de Miraflores.

Data analysis methods Mixed methods are used for the data-analy- Location of documented cases sis using visual ethnographic methods as the main tool in which drawings, and photography are combined to illustrate the empirical data and evaluate the case study. The mixed methods research is chosen to ensure triangulation. In triangulation the findings are reflected upon and confirmed by using different methods of data-collection. Through this ‘double-check- ing’ the validity of the findings in question will increase. Written text supports the visual material and is used in the final part where the

22 Chapter 1 - [Re] Visiting Pampas de San Juan 23

Table 2: List of respondents Table 1: List of cases

Case Users (first generation) Users ( second generation) Users ( third generation) Generation focus group Respondent House Date of interview Neighborhood  Interviewed ☐ in-‐laws Moved out A: (50-‐80) originators (age) male -‐ female Related to case:  Informal interview ☐ no interview ☐ second-‐line family  with own family B: (15-‐40) children founding fathers ♫ Recorded ☐ outsiders / in-‐laws / second-‐line family  Wilberto Anchelia (60) father  Karin (34) daughter son Janet C: (0-‐15) grandchildren (1) Casa Nora ☐ Facundo (3)  Nora Jesusi (58) mother ☐ Stev (33) son  [wife-‐1child]  ☐ Nayen (0) daughter Janet A01 01. Wilberto Anchelia (60) m (1)  23-‐02-‐2013 Asentamiento humano  William (31) son  [wife-‐2children]  02. Nora Jesusi f (58)  03-‐02-‐2013 20 de Mayo A02 (1)  Janet (30) daughter  [husband-‐2children]  10-‐02-‐2013

 Margarita (29) daughter  [husband-‐1child]   A03 03. Señor Aleman (72) m (2) 01-‐02-‐2013  Yoseph ( 27) son ♫ 06-‐02-‐2013 ☐ Elisabeth (25) daughter   06-‐03-‐2013  Sharon ( 16) daughter A04 04. Señora Flores f (69) (2)  07-‐02-‐2013  Lesly ( 16) daughter  06-‐03-‐2013  Señor Aleman (72) father Jacqueline (46) daughter Angel (14) daughter Henry (2) Casa Aleman ☐ ☐ A05 05. Sandra Medina f (53) (3) ♫ 07-‐03-‐2013  Señora Flores ( 69) mother ☐ Henry (42) son  [wife-‐3children] ☐ Diego (13) son Henry Asentamiento humano A06 06. Señora Vacilia f (65) (5) ♫ 18-‐02-‐2013 ☐ Lucia (37) wife Henry ☐ Claudia (4) daughter Henry ♫ 20 de Mayo 01-‐03-‐2013 ☐ Robert (39) son  [wife-‐1child]  ☐ Angy (6) daughter Amanda A07 07. Cristina f (51) (6)  24-‐02-‐2013 ☐ Patricia (40) daughter  [husband]  ☐ Lady (4) daughter Amanda ♫ 28-‐02-‐2013  Amanda (37) daughter  [husband-‐3children] Camila ) (1 daughter Amanda ☐ A08 08. Julia (58) f (7) ♫ 21-‐02-‐2013 ☐ Edmundo (42) husband Amanda  Melanie (13) daughter Julia A09 09. Justina f (60) (8) ♫ 23-‐02-‐2013  Julia (36) daughter  [husband-‐2children] ☐ Andrès (7) son Julia ♫ 01-‐03-‐2013 ☐ Wilmer (37) husband Julia ☐ Daughter Eduard (6 ) A10 10. Cita f (56) (9) ♫ 12-‐02-‐2013 ☐ Ricardo (33) son  [wife-‐2children]  ☐ Daughter Eduard 4) ( ♫ 16-‐02-‐2013  Alexander (31) son ☐ Son Eduard (2)  ☐ Eduard (30) son  [wife-‐3children] A11 11. Feliciano m (54) (9) 16-‐02-‐2013 ☐ Wife Eduard (29) A12 12. Rufina (58) f (10)  04-‐02-‐2013  Yilisa (24) daughter ♫ 21-‐02-‐2013 ☐ Cecilio Flores Cueva ) (55 ☐ Magaly (29) daughter  [1child] ☐ Luciana (5) daughter Magaly A13 13. Julia f (54) -‐ ♫ 17-‐02-‐2013 (3) Casa Sandra father ☐ Samuel (25) son A08 14. Señor Poemape m (56) -‐ ♫ 17-‐02-‐2013 Asentamiento humano  Sandra Medina ( 53) mother  Ruth (15) daughter  20 de Mayo B01 15. Karin f (34) (1) 08-‐02-‐2013 ♫ 09-‐03-‐2013 ☐ father  moved to Pamplona  Brenda (30) daughter  [1child-‐expecting baby] ☐ Giordana (3) daughter Brenda (4) Casa Brenda 16. William m (31)  24-‐02-‐2013 ☐ mother  past away ☐ Sandra (28) daughter  [husband-‐1child]  B02 (1) Asentamiento humano  ☐ Juli (20) daughter  B03 17. Janet f (30) (1) 10-‐02-‐2013 20 de Mayo  09-‐03-‐2013  Señora Vacilia ( 65) mother Jaime (39) son  [wife-‐1child]  (5) Casa Vacilia ☐ B04 18. Margarita (29) f (1)  10-‐02-‐2013 ☐ Husband 1   Wilbert (37) son Asentamiento humano B05 19. Yoseph m (27) (1)  03-‐02-‐2013 ☐ Señor Marcelo ( 64) father ☐ Bertha (36) daughter  [wife-‐3children]  El Paraíso  10-‐03-‐2013

☐ Marcelino (34) son B06 20. Sharon and Lesly (16) (1)  10-‐02-‐2013

☐ Ana Cecilia (22) daughter  24-‐02-‐2013  Sebastián (18) son B07 21. Amanda (37) f (2) ♫ 13-‐02-‐2013  Cristina ( 51) mother Jaime (27) son  [wife-‐1child] daughter Jaime and Katrin (1) (6) Casa Cristina ☐ ☐ B08 22. Julia f (36) (2)  07-‐02-‐2013 ☐ Meli sister  [5children]  ☐ Katrin (25) wife Jaime Asentamiento humano B09 23. Alexander m (31) (2)  10-‐02-‐2013  Miguel (24) son 1 de Junio 24. Yilisa f (24) ♫ ☐ Marilou (18) daughter  moved to Arequipa B10 (2) 06-‐02-‐2013  06-‐03-‐2013 ☐ Bernard (23) nephew  25. Ruth (15) f ♫   Julia (58) mother  Cesár (24) adopted son Julia B11 (3) 07-‐03-‐2013 (7) Casa Julia ☐ Husband 1   [wife-‐expecting baby] B12 26. Brenda f (30) (4) ♫ 10-‐03-‐2013 Asentamiento humano ☐ Husband 2 ☐ Girlfriend (22) wife Cesár B13 27. Wilbert (37) m (5)  18-‐02-‐2013 1 de Junio ☐ Niece (22) niece  Julia [2children]  B14 28. Sebastián (18) m (5)  24-‐02-‐2013

B15 29. Miguel (24) m (6)  28-‐02-‐2013  Justina ( 60) mother ☐ David (42) son  [3children]   Rubén (11) son Liz (8) Casa Justina B16 30. Cesár (23) m (7) ♫ 06-‐03-‐2013 ☐ Liz (31) daughter  [1child] ☐ daughter Sandra (6) Asentamiento humano 31. Alberto (42) m  24-‐02-‐2013  Alberto (42) nephew ☐ daughter Sandra (4) B17 (8) 1 de Junio  Sandra (31) temporary renter ☐ daughter Sandra (3) B18 32. Sandra (31) f (8)  01-‐03-‐2013  Cita ( 56) mother daughter (26)  B19 33. Sergio m (22) (9)  16-‐02-‐2013 (9) Casa Cita ☐  Feliciano ( 54) father  Sergio ( 22) son B20 34. Elida (34) f (10) ♫ 20-‐02-‐2013 Asociación de vivienda  26-‐02-‐2013 El Universo B21 35. Octavio (30) m (10)  21-‐02-‐2013  Rufina (58) mother  Elida ( 34) daughter  [2children] ☐ son Elida (5) (10) Casa Rufina 36. Mariela (28) f  20-‐02-‐2013 ☐ father  past away ☐ Wilfredo ( 31) son ☐ daughter Elida (4) B22 (10) Asentamiento humano  Octovio ( 30) son son Mariela (7) C01 37. Melanie (13) f (2)  06-‐02-‐2013 Laderas de Villa ☐  Mariela ( 28) daughter  [2children] ☐ son Mariela (5) C02 38. Rubén m (11) (8)  01-‐03-‐2013

24 Chapter 1 - [Re] Visiting Pampas de San Juan 25

[02] The house and the family in a changing setting

of modernization and democratization in Lima

26 27 © William Mangin, Dwelling resources in South America, Architectural Design 8, August 1963: p.366 Design 8, August Architectural in South America, resources © William Mangin, Dwelling The global and the local discourse

28 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima 29 PART I - Self-help housing: the debate and the practice © CAMINOS; TURNER; STEFFIAN, 1969. By author, 2013. author, 1969. By © CAMINOS; TURNER; STEFFIAN, The self-builder vs. outsourced construction

For the vast majority of the urban poor living his self-help theories in the housing policies. While the debate on self-help became less in- This paper aims to reflect upon self-help as in developing countries, self-help has been the In the case of Lima self-help even became tense after the 1990s, the practice of self-help a housing strategy in metropolitan Lima. It is principal and often the only way to gain access the prime strategy to provide housing for the and autonomous construction in Lima went on hypothesized that the self-help housing model to housing. From the beginning of the 1940s urban poor during the 1970s. resulting in a contemporary situation in which has reached its limits, heavily influenced by cities were confronted with the first rural to the major part of the city is characterized by the changing setting of modernization and urban migration flows that accelerated further When John Turner and William Mangin pub- spontaneous urban development, in which the democratization in Peru. In order to prove in the 1960s. Parallel to the increasing (largely lished their early seminal work in which the user and the constantly growing, transforming this, the pioneering ideas of John Turner and poor) population and the rise of a serious squatter settlements were depicted as “an and adapting homes are shaping the urban critiques on his vision are discussed first. After large-scale housing problem, the concept of architecture that works” 2, they set off a con- environment. Lima’s barriadas changed from which I will reflect on the self-help housing self-help housing emerged in the debate. ceptual shift in the attitude towards the slum, rural squatter settlements to urban neighbour- theories in the Limean context, where self- either neglecting or accepting them. Turner hoods and single-family homes transformed help was for decades predominant in the One of the probably most influential writers developed his ideologies further into theories into collective, multigenerational or rental process of city making. on self-help housing is British architect John on self-help housing; a model based on user homes. In the city that is now confronting a Turner, of many of whose ideas originated control of the housing process. second, third and upcoming fourth generation in the Peruvian context where he worked in search for a place to live, it is disputable if in the squatter settlements between 1957 Subsequently there has been an intensive the Turnerian model developed in the 1960s is and 1965. When Turner arrived in Peru, yet debate on self-help housing that reached its still accurate in the current urban situation of an intensive intellectual debate on housing peak in the 1980s with Peter Ward publishing metropolitan Lima. Hence it is time to reflect policies was going on amongst Peruvian urban the book “Self-Help Housing: A critique” in upon Turner’s self-help housing model. theorists, Fernando Belaúnde, Pedro Beltrán 1982 and Rod Burgess expressing his opposing More recent empirically grounded studies by and Carlos Delgado1 (who all sooner or later ideas is various articles3. Peter Ward, Michaela Hordijk and the Lime- were involved in local politics as well). Besides 2 The most influential early works of Turner nean urbanist Gustavo Riofrío already show that there were also local authors and social referred to here are: TURNER, John F.C., “Dwelling that, though Turner’s thoughts were right to a resources in South America”, in: Architectural Design, 1963. scientists active in the studies on the squatter TURNER, John F. C., “The Squatter Settlement: An certain extent, today’s reality in the self-help settlements and the in situ barriada develop- architecture that works”, in: Architectural Design, 1968: pp. settlements turned out to be different to what ment, including anthropologist José Matos 355-360. Turner envisioned4. Mar. For John Turner these were all favourable 3 BURGESS, Rod, “Petty Commodity Housing in: WARD, Peter M. (ed.), Self-Help Housing: A critique, circumstances to develop and later integrate or Dweller Control? A Critique of John Turner’s Views on London, Mansell, 1982: pp. 55-97. Housing Policy”, in: World Development, 1978 (6) 9/10, pp. 4 Recent work of Peter Ward in Mexico and 1 BROMLEY, Ray, “Peru 1957–1977: How time and 1105-1133. Michaela Hordijk in Lima, Peru, founded on empirical place influenced John Turner’s ideas on housing policy”, in: BURGESS, Rod, “Self-help housing advocacy: a curious form data obtained through several visits to the area show the WARD, Peter M., 2011: pp. 467–485. HORDIJK, Michaela, Habitat International, 2003: p. 271 of radicalism. A critique of the work of John FC Turner”, realities of the self-help settlements of today. 2010: pp. 361-374.

30 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima Part I - Self-help housing: the debate and the practice 31 PART II – Theories on self-help housing © John F.C. Turner, 1963: pp. 376. Turner, © John F.C. Income and residential priorities © John F. C. Turner, 1968 Turner, F. C. priorities © John and residential Income The stages of barriada development

“The value of the house must be determined themselves. Only in an autonomous housing the process of urban settlement11. His argu- is divided into five categories that each have by how far it satisfies or frustrates the needs system, that according to Turner should be the ments to show the merits of self-help housing three stages according to the consolidation of its user, what matters in housing is what is principle for ALL of the housing production, are founded on extensive empirical research level it reaches after a certain period of time. does for people rather than what it is.”5 “supply and demand can be properly matched carried out in Peru. Turner’s contribution The three stages are defined as the incipient John F.C. Turner, 1976 and consequently satisfied. And only then will to the special issue on the ‘Architecture of stage (1-2 years), the developing stage (4-5 people invest their own relatively plentiful and Democracy’ in Architectural Design in 196812, years) and the completing stage (10-12 years). This expression exemplifies Turner’s under- generally renewable resources.”8 manifesting the squatter settlement as ‘an The five categories involved in the consolida- standing of housing that should be seen as a The autonomous and heteronomous sys- architecture that works’, is a clear example of tion process are land surface (including the ‘verb’, a process or activity rather than a ma- tems are illustrated with the depiction of the his ‘learning from’ experience in the barriadas plots, the sites and public squares), commu- terial matter, similar to its value that lies in the ‘supportive shack’ and the ‘oppressive house’ of Lima. nications, community facilities, (dwelling) function and not in the physical structure6. 9 that are explored through their material structures and public facilities. needs (access, shelter and tenure) and the The three stages of housing Who decides? existential needs (security, opportunity and In the same article Turner describes the Accessing the housing market Opposing ‘centrally administered’ or ‘het- status) that were broached in the influential housing process he envisions in more de- In the same year Turner developed anoth- eronomous systems’ against ‘autonomous book ‘Freedom to Build’ published in 197210. tail. In the model he presents the barriada er model in which he now starts linking the systems’, Turner points to the main concern of The ‘oppressive house’ seems to have no self-builder has several freedom: the freedom settlement patterns of the rural migrants arriv- housing namely, the question of “who decides advantages and only frustrates the needs of of community self-selection, the freedom of ing at the capital, to a spatial urban context14. 7 what for whom” . In Turner’s perspective, in the user, while the ‘supportive shack’ or self- budget one’s own resources and the freedom The model is based on the city of Lima and stead of the top-down production of formal help dwelling provides shelter at low costs, to shape one’s own environment13. The house gives a clear understanding how the first new- housing, in which authorities decide for the has a high use value, low rentals or tax and is within the autonomous system starts off with comers accessed the housing market. people, housing should be self-governed adjusted to users’ needs. Turner also points to a basic shack that subsequently is completed Turner classified the settlers according to their and self-management processes where the the vital advantage of self-managed housing in by the user who has all the control to shape social status that he relates to their income. people determine and produce their dwelling terms of location and employment. his own environment according to his needs The lowest is the “bridgeheader” a poor and priorities. The progressive development migrant searching for opportunities in the Housing by people: Towards The problem Turner states of ‘who decides’ is 5 TURNER, John F. C., “consolidator” autonomy in building environments, London, Boyars, 1976: in his belief described to the attitude of plan- 11 As described in: TURNER, John F. C., “Housing city, followed by the who has p. 102 ners and the state, who deny the actual needs priorities, settlement patterns and urban development a slightly better (but not yet stable) socioec- 6 The concept housing is fully developed in: and priorities of people and misunderstand in modernizing countries”, in: Journal of the American onomic status, and finally the higher income TURNER, John F. C., “Housing as a verb”, in: Freedom to Institute of Planners, 1968 (34) 6, pp. 354-363. level that is described as the “status seeker”. Build, dweller control of the housing process, TURNER, John 12 TURNER, John F. C., “The Squatter Settlement: What Turner aimed to illustrate was the link F.C.; FICHTER, Robert (eds), New York, Macmillan, 1972: pp. 8 TURNER, 1976, op.cit.: p. 102. An architecture that works”, in: Architectural Design, 148-175. 9 TURNER, 1976, op.cit.: pp. 54-59. Architecture of Democracy, August 1968, pp. 355-360. between the places in the city where people 7 TURNER, 1976, op.cit.: p. 11. 10 TURNER, 1972, op.cit.: pp. 164-169. 13 TURNER, 1968, op.cit.: p. 358. 14 TURNER, 1968, op.cit.: pp. 354-363.

32 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima Part II - Theories on self-help housing 33 PART III - The self-help housing debate

The early and mid-transitional city © John F.C. Turner, 1968: pp. 354-363. Turner, © John F.C.

settle and their priorities. In a scheme (see influential adopting his ideas eventually in seeing self-help outside a broader context in a 1904)21. Before the self-help debate arrived below) he shows that priorities strongly varied self-build policies of the World Bank and the too narrow, romanticized vision19. to the developing world, it had its prehistory according to the status the settlers were able United Nations. in Europe and therefor self-help is primarily a to achieve. How this subsequently shows how The emergence of self-help housing Western invention that after was exported to this would evolve in within the urban setting. Part III The Self-help housing debate First of all it is critical to understand that, the southern continents. Here three stages for the city are defined, the although John Turner theorized the concept The term self-help was popularized by Jacob early transitional city, the mid-transitional city Defining the concept of self-help housing and brought it into a Crane22, using the term ‘aided self-help’ for In the broad scope of literature on the and the late transitional city. more extensive debate, self-help is not a new the first time in 1945 talking from his expe- issue there has been quite some difficulty The later critique on this model is primarily concept but in fact a really old one. This again rience in Puerto Rico were in 1939 an early in developing a clear definition of the term based on the fact that Turner in this model de- depends on what we mean by the term self- experiment of ‘sites and services’ was carried ‘self-help’. As Alan Gilbert describes, self-help nies certain specific contextual circumstances help. As Harms describes how in a traditional out in which communities received govern- is primarily referred to as a ‘spontaneous and depicts the place where people settle as society “the motivation for construction was ment assistance in acquiring land and support process’ in which the user is gradually 20 a ‘choice’, in reality this is often more related the direct fulfilment of people’s own needs.” in the construction of basic shelter after which improving his home environment, that starts to the only opportunity that lies within ones Looking at the practice of self-help as a they were encouraged to further construct off after an illegal land occupation16. John possibility. government strategy in which people fulfil and ‘finish’ the house themselves. This pilot Turner himself describes self-help housing as the role of self-builders, early practices of project, promoted by agencies of the United “the competence of a household to arrange When Peruvian architect Eduardo Neira self-help can be found in Europe already States, became a key example that started off accommodation according to its priorities”17 th invited John Turner to come and work in Peru, during at the start of the 20 century (Sweden the implementation of the self-help in other there was already an intensive debate around seeing it primarily from the user’s point of countries in The Caribbean in the early 1950s, self-help going on15. Hence the circumstanc- view. As the debate commences, the approach followed by several other countries in the towards the concept is often mutually 19 Harms blames Turner on distorting realities, es were al favourable to develop his ideas. placing autonomous system: “Turner and others tend to Americas including Peru soon after. Turner’s theories indeed would become highly misunderstood because there was never, see self-help and squatter housing in relation to individual according to Niented and Van der linden, a social mobility but in relative isolation from the rest of Turner and his colleagues Charles Abrams and 18 15 John Turner came to Peru in 1957 encouraged “commonly recognized terms of reference” . the economic and structural changes in those countries.” William Mangin never fully acknowledged the by local architect Eduardo Neira. The two had met at the HARMS, Hans, “Historical perspectives on the practice and Furthermore Turner’s standpoints have been existence of these previous early practices on International Congress of Modern Architects (CIAM) in heavily criticized mainly blaming Turner for purpose of self-help housing”, in: WARD, Peter M. (ed.), Venice in 1950 and shared the interest in Patrick Geddes’ Self-Help Housing: A critique, London, Mansell, 1982: p. 19 21 BREDENOORD, Jan, “The people’s struggle work. 16 GILBERT, Alan, The Mega-City in Latin America, “Many have accused Mangin, myself and others of for affordable living space. The role of (assisted) self-help See: GYGER, Helen, “John F.C. Turner in Peru: Reflections London, Russell Press, 1996: p.80 romanticizing the truly hard conditions of ordinary housing from 1950 – 2010 and beyond.” The Housing on the Development of a Practice”, in: D’AURIA, Viviana; 17 TURNER, 1976, op.cit. people in most world cities because they have failed to Research Group, 2009. DE MEULDER, Bruno; SHANNON, Kelly (eds.), Human 18 NIENTED, P.; VAN DER LINDEN, J., “Approaches differentiate between the practice we describe and the 22 HARRIS, Richard, “The Silence of the Experts: Settlements: Formulations and (re) Calibrations, SUN to low-income housing in the Third World”, in: International principles we perceive…” Turner, 1976, op.cit. ‘Aided Self-help Housing’, 1939-1954”, in: Habitat Academia, 2010: p. 30 Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 1985: pp. 311-329 20 HARMS, 1982, op.cit.: p. 19 International, 1998: p. 165.

34 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima Part III - The self-help housing debate 35 self-help housing. They never referred to the discourse of self-help. Slowly it was more and Different counterarguments on Turner’s ‘free- Burgess also blamed Turner for ‘misunder- factual origin of self-help practices and started more accepted that the migrants were coming dom to build’ and his proposed autonomous standing the nature of the housing problem’ a ‘second generation’ debate that eventual- to the cities anyhow and since governments housing system, were expressed by Harms, and seeing the housing process “outside the ly did reached a broader audience than the were not able to provide sufficient accommo- Burgess and Ward in the influential book process of commodity formation”. In the cap- original one. The efforts of Turner promoting dation, self-help was the only way out. During published by Ward in 1982: ‘Self-help Hous- italist mode of production, money would only self-help housing did have major influence on the 1970s in Peru, the forerunner in self-help, ing: A Critique’25. The common critique stated be invested there were profit can be made. the global discourse, ultimately adopting self- this housing strategy was adopted in the that Turner disregarded ‘true choice’, that the Hence low-income classes have no choice build strategies in World Bank policies. formal system and seen as the most suitable three saw as a “structural constraint of pover- other then adopt strategies of self-help, since option for housing the poor population. The ty and lack of effective choice.” 26 they are excluded from the conventional hous- The conceptual shift and need Turnerian model in which land is invaded and ing market. for housing homes are step by step improved by the user, Rod Burgess’ writings were probably most Self-help housing was in the 1950s still seen as was for year the predominant one. John Turn- critical towards Turner, heavily appraising his According to Van Lindert the problem of a threat that would encourage more migrants er even managed to bring self-help into global visions. He questioned Turner’s ideas on who housing, that Turner assigned to the issue of to come to the city. This negative attitude attention and integrate self-help housing strat- he considered responsible in the self-help ‘who decides what for whom’, is in fact not remained for years and the response in many egies in World Bank policy agenda’s. process. Turner describes the responsibilities the problem of the market or the state in their cities of the South was often closer to the as follow: “The governments roles changes incapability of providing the required amount eradication of the squatter settlements rather Critique on self-help housing from one of financier builder to one of pro- of houses, nor the fact that simply the income then accepting the squatters as citizens. An early critique on the self-help approach moter coordinator of all available agents and does not match the available housing stock, Charles Abrams, John Turner and William was made by Charles Abrams in 1966, where resources.” Turner (1963). but the lack of purchasing power of the poor Mangin were pioneer writers in the shift that he identified several disadvantages of self- Saying this, the provision of housing was population28. An important distinction has to took place in the conception of the ‘slum’. help, though his general attitude towards relinquished from the government duty. be made here respecting the level or stability They opposed the preconceived ideas of the self-help was rather positive and he pointed Burgess saw this as “an attack on their living of the people’s income and what Gilbert calls squatter settlement, in which the slum was out the viability of the self-help strategy standards” while the self-builders now had to “the share of income people are prepared to depicted as “that of a fungus attached to and particularly in peripheral areas, were “it is take care of other things then what was their dedicate to housing”. 29 As a response to the growing out from the carapace of the city”23 likely that self-help is already functioning and “moral duty to society.”27 blames on individual approach, Turner later “an architecture by presenting the squatter as will continue, since it is part of the contest of 25 WARD, Peter M. (ed.), Self-Help Housing: A 28 VAN LINDERT, Paul, Huisvestingsstrategieën 24 that works”. survival.” critique, London, Mansell, 1982. van lage-inkomensgroepen in La Paz, KNAG/NGS, Utrecht/ Their writings had major influence in the 26 WARD, Peter M., “Self-Help Housing: Ideas and Amsterdam, 1991: p. 23. Practice in the Americas.”, in: Planning Ideas that Matter. 29 GILBERT, A; VARLEY, A, “Renting a home in a 23 JUPPENLATZ, Morris. Cities in Transformation: 24 ABRAMS, Charles, Man’s struggle for shelter in Eds. Bishwapriya Sanyal, Lawrence Vale and Christina third world city: choice or constraint?”, in: International The Urban Squatter Problem of the Developing World. an urbanizing world, Cambridge (Mass.), MIT press, 1966: Rosan. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012: p. 296. Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 1990: p. 93. Cited Queensland, University of Queensland Press, 1970: p. 5. p. 173. 27 BURGESS, 1982, op.cit.: p. 56-99. in: VAN LINDERT, 1991, op.cit.: p. 25.

36 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima Part III - The self-help housing debate 37 PART IV - Self-help housing in practice: the case of Lima, Peru

acknowledged that the focus of indeed also other words, consolidation was not likely to for example that conditions of accommoda- later career Turner was able to integrate his should lie on the ‘collective’, hereby meaning happen if a family had no resources left after tion would not necessarily improve according theories in housing policies of the World Bank. the state. paying the their daily living expenses. This is to the length of residence nor the tenurial In Lima self-help evolved as a main strategy to one example, which already shows that there status. house the urban poor, reaching its peak during Empirically grounded reflections on are more factors involved in Turners original the 1970s. Hence Turner’s work can be under- Turner’s theory self-help housing model. Furthermore Ward Ward and Huque were in fact among the first stood to be highly influential for the barriada In the Burgess-Turner discussion there was agrees with Burgess that the house cannot researchers who criticized Turner based on development within the context of Lima as often a misunderstanding of terms. The Marx- be seen outside the ‘process of commodity empirical grounded surveys. Both studies well. From the other side local political figures ist ideas of Burgess opposing the anarchist formation’. As Ward explains: “Burgess has show essential findings that can enrich Turn- and Peruvian researchers were an inspiration ideologies of Turner, made this mutual misun- rightly predicted, the formalization of the er’s theory on self-help. The importance of re- for Turner. derstanding probably even worse. Burgess was informal self-help process created additional al-life observation for improving or envisioning talking from a theoretical perspective, while costs, slowing self-built consolidation.”30 an existing theory is essential in order to suc- A travel through history, looking critically into Turner founded his arguments on empirical re- cessfully and carefully develop and integrate the process of the barriadas development and search. Generally speaking Turner’s ideas have Another early evaluation upon Turner’s self-help housing theories in practice. the immense scale in which it was carried out, been heavily criticized both on the grounds of theories was made by Ashraf Huque in 1982; Another conclusion we can draw from the will show that this was only possible under his concept and ideological vision as well as testing Turner’s findings with his empirically debate that took place is the importance certain favourable conditions. Besides that, in the methodology he used. grounded studies in Dacca, Bangladesh.31 A to see self-help housing in a broader social Lima self-help was not only the ‘freedom to Peter Ward critiques were more constructive fundamental point that Huque put forward is context including socio-economical and polit- build’ as Turner positively envisioned, but also based on his own empirical research carried that the development of a settlement cannot ical circumstances as well as the priorities of a particular way of governments to relinquish out in Mexico during the end of the 1970s. be seen outside a broader setting that is con- the people and their willingness to invest in themselves from their duty: providing housing Ward evaluated upon the everyday realities stantly changing under the affects of external housing. for the urban poor, not to mention using it as of the self-help practice, showing that this political and economical factors.32 He proved a specific instrument to separate the rich from is in fact much more complex than Turner 30 WARD, 2012, op.cit.: p. 299. part iv Self-help housing in practice the poor. stated originally in his three-stage model. 31 Ashraf Huque analyzed (talking from his He observed diverging patterns in the home experience in Dacca, Bangladesh) some of the key premises The case of Lima, Peru At the time John Turner just got started with of self-help housing theory: HUQUE, Ashraf, The myth of As mentioned in the introduction of this consolidation process with some houses that self-help housing: a critical analysis of the conventional his job in the pilot program for barriada im- 33 were consolidating rapidly while other homes depiction of shanty towns, Department for Building paper, the theories of Turner are to a large provement OATA in Arequipa, local research- had not developed much farther than the Function Analysis, Royal Institute of Technology, 1982. extent based on his experiences in Peru where 33 Eduardo Neira who invited Turner to come and incipient stage. The main determinant Ward 32 “The development trajectory of a settlement he worked between 1957 and 1965. In his work in Peru was head of the Department of Urbanism in points out that allows this process to actually does not remain constant over time […] it can take a the Peruvian Ministry of Public Works between 1953 and different trajectory when intervened by a process, f.e. general economic and political conditions.” HUQUE, 1982, 1959 and his role was essential in the establishment of happen is the surplus income of the family. In changes in the use of land and buildings, changes in the op.cit.: p. 59. OATA (Oficina de Asistencia Técnica a las Urbanizaciones

38 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima Part IV - Self-help housing in practice: the case of Lima, Peru 39 © John Turner, 1963. © John Turner, 1969 environments, Urban dwelling C. Turner, © John F.

Lima’s urban landscape in 1963 The inner‐city callejones where the first migrants or bridgeheaders settled

ers, including José Matos Mar, already carried Apart from the influence of local researchers was far away from central Lima and it was not ientos humanos39. out major studies on Lima’s barriada develop- that were active in studying the barriadas, the of any value to them. ment starting in the mid-1950s34, way before ideas of Turner were highly influenced by the Turner and Mangin’s published their first arti- intellectual debate on self-help housing pol- All these factors exemplify this particular The development and consolidation cle on Lima’s barriada movements.35 The rich icies that already started off before Turner’s setting in which the practice of self-help of the classical barriadas

tradition of documenting the barriadas contin- arrival in Peru. The local urban theorist and housing emerged in Lima, resulting in major

transformations set out since the first organ- 1940-1954: From bridgeheader to ued and was followed up by more researchers, politicians Fernando Belaúnde, Pedro Beltrán consolidator ized groups of settlers invaded the desert both ‘western visitors’ to the country such as and Carlos Delgado, who were the leading Already in the beginning of the 20th century 36 land in large amounts. The radical shift that MIT and local researchers including urbanist figures in the debate on housing policies, had the massive migration from rural peasants took place in the spatial context of metropol- and sociologist Gustavo Riofrío. The broad quite some contrasting ideas compared to to the capital got started, mainly initiated by itan Lima is evident. Thanks to the rich and range of valuable material published over the Turner. Despite their opposites, the ideas of ambitious single young people looking for a extensive tradition of documenting Lima’s years allow for a profound understanding of both sides became highly influential and re- more prosperous future in the city. The rural 37 barriadas, supported by stunning photographs the barriada in different time frames. sulted in the integration of self-help in experi- to urban migration accumulated in the 1960s of the squatter houses embedded in Lima’s mental government programs and laws, These when the migrants represented 75 per cent of mountainous landscape, this physical trans- Populares de Arequipa). Helen Gyger and Ray Bromley political circumstances were highly favourable the urban population in Lima.40 formation became unmistakable. Related to describe the influence of Eduardo Neira on Turner’s carreer. for the population to gain access to land and Between 1940 and 1954 the first migrants GYGER, 2010, op.cit.: p. 30. BROMLEY, 2003, op.cit.: p. 272. the outstanding transition that the city made, crucial for the way in which the progressive or bridgeheaders boarded in the city centre, 34 Other Peruvian researchers who studied and in which rural squatter settlements became development of the barriadas then could set mainly in the so-called callejones41 and in the published on the barriadas in the mid-1950s were Adolfo urban neighbourhoods, the usage of termi- Córdova (1958), Carlos Paz-Soldán (1957). BROMLEY, 2003, off. 39 See: CHAMBERS, Bill, “The barriadas of Lima: op.cit.: p. 275. nology to describe the squatter settlements Slums of hope or despair? Problems or solutions?”, in: 35 MANGIN, William; TURNER, John, F.C., “The Other particular conditions in Lima that made changed within the Peruvian context. The var- Geography, 2005: p. 202. The term barriada was defined barriada movement”, in: Progressive Architecture, 1968 it possible to put the self-help housing into ious terms in a way also reflect the different by Collier as: “A residential community formed by low (49) 5: pp. 154-162. practice on the scale it actually happened, attitudes towards the ‘slums’, either accepting income families in which the houses are constructed in 36 In Urban dwelling enviroments included a were the specific geographical and economical or ignoring them. Initially the squatters were large measure by the residents themselves and which are generally but not exclusively formed illegally. case study from Arequipa and several cases from squatter urbanizaciones clandestinas ” COLLIER, settlements in Lima. characteristics of the Peruvian coastal cities, labelled as , in David, Squatters and oligarchs: authoritarian rule and 37 For further reading, the tradition of comprising of large spread-out desert areas 1953 the term barriada was coined, from the policy change in Peru. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University documenting and current “revisiting” of projects is studied with relatively low economic and productive 1970s onwards the term pueblos jovenes came Press, 1976: p. 18. by Rodrigo Pérez de Arce, Esther Jacobs and Viviana value.38 For the state the plain desert areas into the picture, then for some time urbaniza- 40 CHAMBER, 2005, op.cit.: p. 203 d’Auria based upon the cases of PREVI in Lima and Mariano were the perfect locations to provide land for ciones populares was used and currently the 41 Callejones are small alleyways located in the Melgar in Arequipa.“Dwelling Practices Informing Urbanism asentam- city centre of Lima that were built until the 1930s and / Urbanism informing Dwelling Practices”, in: Human sites and services for the poor people, since it previous barriadas are referred to as functioned as rental accommodation. 64% of the migrant Settlements, 2010: p. 113-127 38 GILBERT, 1996, op.cit.: p. 57 population used to live in this type of settlements during

40 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima Part IV - Self-help housing in practice: the case of Lima, Peru 41 Ciuadad de Dios in 1955. © Servicio Aerofotografico Nacional. José Matos Mar, 2012. Mar, Nacional. José Matos Ciuadad de Dios in 1955. © Servicio Aerofotografico Straw squatter homes in Ciudad de Dios. © José Matos Mar, 1955 Mar, homes in Ciudad de Dios. © José Matos squatter Straw

early formed barriadas along the river Rímac. that after would coordinate the massive inva- 50.000 people invaded land.46 Hence the land Beltrán can also be seen as an early advocate To access the housing market they highly de- sions of in the peripheral areas of Lima43. invasion became the main strategy for the of the ‘satellite towns’. These autonomous pended on family and relatives (paisanos and In 1954 the first massive illegal land occupa- urban poor population to access the housing cities (including industries providing work compadrazgos) that provided them shelter.42 tion on state owned vacant land took place, market. opportunities, services and housing in accord- With the tremendous increase of the (largely known as the invasion of Ciudad de Dios44. ance with the sites and services schemes) had poor) urban population, the inner city areas The invasion of Ciudad de Dios was strongly 1954-1968: The barriada in the to be formed in the peripheral desert lands and the floodplains around the river Rímac encouraged by the popular opposition leader ‘developing’ stage that had a low economical and productive were filling up rapidly and the city was facing a Pedro Beltrán, who later was assigned as Elected president Manuel Prado followed up value. serious housing problem. Prime Minister. The government of Odría Odría in 1956. Soon after Ciudad de Dios was The first pilot was put in practice in Ventanilla At this time the country was under military would neither neglect the land occupations. legalized in 1958. Pedro Beltrán, opposition located in the northwest, 25 kilometres away rule of General Odría who’s populist policies The settlers could stay on the land, though leader under Odría and editor of the conserv- from the central Lima. The rise of the satellite and reforms later would become crucial for they were not given individual land titles. ative newspaper La Prensa, was assigned as towns would of course result in an even more Lima and in fact already prepared the ground Odría’s actions were in a way a political move Prime Minister. Beltrán was the founder of the sprawling city, separating the poor from the for the further large-scale development of the to gain votes and at the same time a ‘solution’ National Housing Institute (INVI), (were Turner rich even more. barriadas. Two laws were adopted in 1949 al- for the housing problem the government was was employed for a time) that was estab- lowing the government in trading-off land and simply not able to solve, as chambers explains: lished in 1960. In his housing policies Beltrán Crucial for the further development of the transforming all land without a clear tenurial “The rise of the squatter settlements was promoted ‘la casa barata que crece’ (the barriadas was the Ley de Barriadas that was status into the state property. The state by mainly a direct consequence of the inability of cheap house that grows) that was in fact the adopted in 1961. In this law the govern- then would still not negotiate with individuals the state to provide sufficient housing.“45 precursor of the sites and services schemes ment pretended to incorporate the barriada 47 in land titling, only with organized groups of As Turner puts forward between 1949 and that Turner later advocated. In his liberal dwellers into the formal system. Although the residents. This on the other hand stimulated 1959 less then 5500 dwelling were provid- policies Beltrán envisioned ‘self-help’ in which existing barriadas were officially recognized, the formation of neighbourhood organizations ed by the state and in the same period over the real estate developers would provide the at the same time it strictly prohibited new in- main opportunities for housing and mortgages vasion and illegal land occupations.48 However the 1960s. CHAMBER, 2005, op.cit.: p. 206. 43 HORDIJK, Michaela, Of dreams and deeds: the would enable people to finance their home this did not mean invasions did not take place Furthermore the callejones were documented by Turner, role of local initiatives for community based environmental construction. anymore. management in Lima, Caminos and Steffian at MIT. Caminos, Horacio; Turner, Peru. PhD dissertation, University of By passing this law the provision of land and John F.C.; Steffian, John A., Urban dwelling environments: Amsterdam, 2000. 46 TURNER, John F.C., “Dwelling resources in South an elementary survey of settlements for the study of design 44 MATOS MAR, José, Las barriadas de Lima, Lima, America”, in: Architectural Design, August issue, 1963. 48 MATOS MAR, José, Perú: estado desbordado y determinants. MIT Press, 1969. IEP, 1977. 47 BROMLEY, 2003, op.cit.: p. 284. HORDIJK, 2010, sociedad nacional emergente, Lima, Centro de Investigación 42 TURNER, 1968, op.cit.: pp. 354-363. 45 CHAMBERS, 2005, op.cit.: p. 209 op.cit.: p. 77. Universidad Ricardo Palma, 2012: p. 152

42 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima Part IV - Self-help housing in practice: the case of Lima, Peru 43

services and technical and financial assistance Under the rule of the government of the das today strongly depended on the capacity and reached (what Turner would define as) for the infrastructure was now assigned to Armed Forces series of fundamental reforms of inhabitants to organize themselves and the ‘developing’ stage if they were not already the government, though in reality the govern- took place. It started off with the formation the relation of the neighbourhood with the in the ‘completing’ stage. Secondly the char- ment’s interventions were long in coming. The of ONEDPJOV (The National Organization for government.50 acteristics of the population also changed. The Ley de Barriadas can be seen as very pro- Development of the Young Towns) in 1968. families extended and a second generation gressive, nevertheless it also implied that, by The barriadas (that in Velasco’s eyes had a On account of the fundamental reforms was growing up. Consequently the city was integrating ‘self-help’ officially into the formal negative image) were renamed as Pueblos under the military rule of Velasco, people now facing the problem of housing the second system, the state was relinquished from its Jovenes or Young Towns. Community organiza- who invaded land now could really start to generations rather than the rural migrants.52 responsibility in providing housing for the tion was strongly encouraged and the families extend and transform their homes. This was The barriadas that were established in the urban poor49. The positive point was that the finally got their individual land titles after of course already happening, but the changing 1960s obtained their land titles and the ma- existing barriada dwellers did not had to fear years of struggle. At the same time large-scale policies strongly stimulated and accelerated jority of the settlements were provided with for eradications, although they still did not programs for road construction and infrastruc- the process of home consolidation. Although basic services and infrastructure. At the begin- have individual land titles, that was now their ture were launched. Turner already left Peru in 1965, his theories ning of the 1980s, a third of Lima’s population first concern. on self-help seemed to have found its way into was living in the self-help settlements.53 The The population quickly took up Velasco’s the government housing policies. classical barriadas reached a level of consid- With the change of government in 1963 it was positive approach towards the barriadas and erable improvement and homes consolidated 51 not very prosperous that the barriada settlers a massive land invasion followed in 1971. The reproduction of the barriada close to what Turner would call ‘complete’. would obtain their services and individual The invasion, known as ‘El Pamplonazo’ took After numerous invasion of the past (that 1980-1990: The ‘completing’ of the titles soon. The new president’s Fernando place close to the where Ciudad de Dios was began with the invasion Ciudad de Dios in Belaúnde prime concern was to slow down established. The major part of the population barriada In 1980 there came an end to military govern- 1954, followed by many more illegal land the migration flows towards Lima rather than was relocated in the southern Villa El Salvador, occupations) Lima extended tremendously. invest in the barriadas. This quickly resulted some stayed in the area that is now known as ment of Velasco and Belaúnde was re-elected as president. During this period the process of The concentration of barriadas in the urban in marches of an unsatisfied, but a more and Pamplona Alta. peripheries formed the three ‘cones’ of Lima. more mobilized society, demanding their land spontaneous city making in Lima went on, yet 52 Between 1972 and 1981 the population titles and service and infrastructure networks. In the same year the Velasco Government it changed in its characteristics. Firstly the barriadas were growing and transforming rapidly increased with on average of 145.000 new inhabitants. established SINAMOS (Sistema Nacional de Driant showed explicitly that the barriada was the principal 1968-1980: The fundamental reforms Apoyo a la Movilización Social). This created 50 BARREDA, José; RAMÍREZ CORZO, Daniel, “Lima: place for this demographical increase. In this period the under military rule an official link between invaders and govern- consolidación y expansión de una ciudad popular”, in: Perú share in the population growth due to the natural increase Hope returned when the left-wing military ment that would be essential for the future hoy: Las ciudades en el Perú, Lima, Desco, 2004, pp. 199- for the first time exceeded the proportion of the immigrant government of Velasco took over in 1968. 218. population. DRIANT, Jean-Claude, Las barriadas de Lima: development of the settlement. The level of 51 The term is used by Riofrío to illustrate the shift historia e interpretación, 1991: p. 129. 49 HORDIJK, 2000, op.cit. consolidation that can be found in the barria- towards a new generation that needs to be accommodated. 53 DRIANT, 1991, op.cit.: p. 161

44 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima Part IV - Self-help housing in practice: the case of Lima, Peru 45 Land access after the 1980s marked in black. What immediately stands out barriadas, which diverge extensively in their Within a changing setting of modernization With the desert lands filling up, land was is the large area in the eastern cone and the characteristics57. The ‘first generations barria- and democratization in Lima, social dynamics becoming scarce after the 80s. As Gustavo smaller black spot in the southern periphery, das’ that emerged along the Rímac river were and characteristics of different generations Riofrío already put forward in 1978, by the located in-between Pamplona and Ciudad de smaller and did not have a strongly organi- equally changed. As Hordijk described, for end of the 1970s there was still enough land Dios in the north and Villa el Salvador in the zed community yet. Later when populations the second generation ‘their reality is diffe- available to invade, though there were certain south. It soon turned out that these areas mobilized and undertook the extensive land rent’ and the children grew up in a completely factors that impeded this process to actually indeed would be occupied by new groups of invasions (as happened in Ciudad de Dios) on other environment than their parents. happen54. Riofrío mentioned several hindering land invaders. Furthermore Riofrío visualized vacant desert land in the outskirts of Lima, the factors. Firstly the far distances of the remain- the areas, which were consolidated less than ‘second generation barriadas’ were born. The In fact the actual amount of invasions went ing vacant areas from central Lima were unfa- 50%. Here inner densification could take place new settlements that appeared after the mid down after the 1980s. Besides that is was very vourable and would contribute to high costs of in the future.55 1980s in the fringes of existing settlements common for second-generation dwellers to transportation and services. Secondly the river can be comprehended as the ‘third genera- share a house with their parents. Though it is valleys of Lurín and Chillón formed physical Three generations of barriadas tion’ of barriadas, consisting of smaller plots questionable if this was really out of a true de- barriers in the continuity of the city and would Hence the access to land became more and on substandard and often dangerous sites and sire. Surveys in a ‘consolidated’ barriada car- segregate new neighbourhoods even more. more difficult, though the great demand for steep hillsides. ried out in a 1987 by Riofrío and Driant (that Lastly Riofrío points out that the state began cheap housing was still there. As a conse- will be discussed more profoundly in chapter to see value in the peripheral areas and was quence the places where the people settled With a first period of barriada development 4) showed that in numerous cases the respon- planning to develop it. This would undoubted- changed from the mid 80s onwards, as de- behind, the population gained some expe- dents who ‘choose’ to stay in the parents’ ly lead to conflict if people were planning to scribed by Barreda and Ramírez Corzo (2004). rience in land invading and still many people home answered this was because: “there was 59 invade these lands. Still new settlements were formed mainly as aspired to have ‘a house of one’s own’. Second no other solution.” The reasoning of second an extension of the already existing barriadas, generations were quite familiar with the generations to either ‘stay’ or ‘leave’ clearly This did not mean the large-scale organized in- covering the surrounding hills and sometimes phenomenon of land invasions and the for- depends on the housing alternatives the city vasions were completely over. Riofrío mapped in the few open spaces that were left inside mation of new settlements went on, as Driant offers. The empirical research of Riofrío and 56 in 1978 the areas where the ‘next barriadas’ the barriada . illustrates: “We can conclude that the barriada Driant (that was in fact an early ‘revisit’ to the could be established. The available land or no longer is only the last step in the housing barriadas that would be followed by many areas ‘sin planos de urbanizacion urbanos’ As Hordijk adds to the process that Barreda career of the immigrants, it is also the first other restudies later on) already illustrates 58 (without an urban development plan) are and Ramírez describe, this shows the dif- step in the housing career of their children.” the complexities that evolved across different ferentiation between three generations of 54 This is illustrated by Gustavo RIOFRIO, Gustavo 59 RIOFRÍO, Gustavo; DRIANT, Jean-Claude, ¿Que “Se busca terreno para proxima barriada: Espacios 55 RIOFRIO, 1978, op.cit. 57 HORDIJK, 2010, op.cit.: pp. 361-374. vivienda han construido? : nuevos problemas en viejas diponible en Lima 1940-1978-1990” (In search for new sites 56 BARREDA, José; RAMÍREZ CORZO, Daniel, 2004, 58 DRIANT, 1991: p. 178. in: HORDIJK, 2000, barriadas, Lima, Centro de Investigación, Desarrollo y for the next barriada), Lima, Desco, 1978: p.39. op.cit.: pp. 199-218. op.cit.: p. 103. Asesoría Poblacional, 1987: p. 121

46 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima Part IV - Self-help housing in practice: the case of Lima, Peru 47 © Gustavo Ríofrio, 1978 Ríofrio, © Gustavo © Gustavo Ríofrio, 1978 Ríofrio, © Gustavo

48 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima Part IV - Self-help housing in practice: the case of Lima, Peru 49 Lima Urbanphoto, 2012 Lima Urbanphoto, Evelyn Merino Reyna, 2012 Merino Reyna, Evelyn Lima’s contemporary urban landscape Globalizing Lima

generations and the gap between the desires of the ‘third generation barriadas’ which did multigenerational complexities. After publi- implies a problem for the future generations of the second generation and their actual not obtain their titles yet, were given their shing the book Self-Help Housing: A critique in that have to be accommodated. This leads her possibilities on the housing market. individual titles for the land properties under 1982, he remained active in the field. In recent to the conclusion that re-envisioning the sett- the Fujimori government, which established publications from Mexico, he illustrates how lements is crucial, hereby especially emphasi- 1990-present: A third generations the COFOPRI (Organismo de Formalización de multigenerational households are transfor- zing the necessity of community action. growing up la Propiedad). Nearly half a million self-built ming their homes, in many cases subdividing Although new invasions could still be found homes where regularized between 1996 and the houses for second and third generations The studies of local architect Juan Tokeshi and on the steep hillsides after the 1990s, in 2007.62 or renters. The main problem he puts forward Riofrío, both associated with Desco66, especial- general the population now started seeing is the tenurial status and the issue inheritan- ly focus on how transformations of the house invading as something from the past, and At the time Turner and Mangin carried out ce. He argues that if second generations do took place in time and in what kind of house the barriada was about to grow further in its their studies, they were mainly focused on not have a secure title, they a not likely to the people have constructed after several vertical dimension, housing the members of an immigrant population that would soon invest in the house, it can lead to conflicts in decades. In 2005 Juan Tokeshi observed, the extended families, second and now the become the originators of the newly formed common spaces and even lead to deteriora- after documenting a number of case studies upcoming third generations in ‘los aires’, as barriada settlements. As Peter Ward argues, in tion. Hence his overall impression is not very in Villa El Salvador, certain spatial limitations is described and studies in detail by Peruvian that time it was not that researchers expected positive64. of the self-help house after 30 years of home architect Juan Tokeshi.60 The vertical growth a linear trajectory of development, but neither consolidation. On the other hand he strongly resulted in an enormous increase of densities one had foreseen nor imagined “the second- Several empirical studies conducted in the focuses on the potentials that the self-help in the ‘consolidated’ barriadas located in the and third-generational complexities that might ‘reproducing’ barriadas of Lima encounter house offers, in terms of community live in the three ‘cones’ of Lima, now reaching densi- evolve63.” major problems as well, although they have Peruvian family traditions, such as the inner ties that are similar to that of the inner city Ward, whose empirical grounded work is a more positive undertone. As Michaela patios for interactions as well as commercial of Lima, housing more than two third of the mainly conducted in the Mexican context, Hordijk shows in her research of the neigh- activities that are adapted in the house that population.61 emphasizes the importance to return to the bourhood of Pampas de San Juan (located in allow for economical contributions to the The ‘second generation barriadas’ and part settlements in order to evaluate better upon the southern periphery of Lima) in 201065, families. He concludes that a certain technical 60 The densification process that starts of with the changes that take place and understand the the barriada has been successfully consolida- assistance is required to, without loosing the individual process of home consolidation is widely studied “in general John Turners by Limean architect Juan Tokeshi. See the publication ted. As she explains: flexibilities the self-managed house offers. 62 HORDIJK, 2010, op.cit.: pp. 361-374. thoughts are proven right of a longitudinal study in Villa El Salvador: ZOLEZZI, 63 See article: ARD,W Peter M., “Self-help housing ” and the area seems Mario; TOKESHI, Juan; NORIEGA, Carlos, Densificación policies for second generation inheritance and succession to have developed “beyond Turners expecta- (Re)visiting the barriadas today, the settlemen- habitacional: Una propuesta de crecimiento para la ciudad of The House that Mum & Dad Built.”, In: Habitat tions.” It is clear that this at the same time 66 DESCO, Centro de Estudios y Promoción del popular, Lima, Desco, 2005. This work will be discussed in International, 2011 (35) 3, pp. 467–485. Desarrollo has long experience in Lima and has published more detail in chapter 4. 64 WARD, 2011, op.cit.: pp. 467–485. many influential books. In the thesis mainly the work of 61 Source: INEI - Censos Nacionales de Población y 65 The study was based on studies comparing the Gustavio Riofrío and more recent work of Juan Tokeshi is Vivienda, 1981, 1993 y 2007. same households in Lima in 1997 and 2010. used.

50 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima Part IV - Self-help housing in practice: the case of Lima, Peru 51 PART V - Conclusions

ts completely changed in all its dimensions. Although Turner might have polarized his Reflecting upon the house and the family were “The value of the house must be determined Ciudad de Dios, first surrounded by the exten- views a bit, seeing self-help as the only hou- the people made tremendous efforts, both in by how far it satisfies or frustrates the needs sive landscape of vacant desert land, as José sing solution, it is true in the end that in the extending and transforming their homes as of its user, the house in what is does for the Matos Mar showed on the cover of his book case of Lima in fact millions of people gained well in organizing themselves to provide the user rather than what it is.”68 published in 1977, is now surrounded by the access to an affordable place to live in the services for their neighbourhood, we see tre- district of san Juan de Miraflores. Ciudad de extent that the state could never have solved mendous changes. Earlier it was hypothesized In both the studies of Gustavo Riofrío in 1987, Dios is unrecognizable and can only be noticed with the provision of ‘formal housing’. that the Turnerian self-help housing model has Ward Michaela Hordijk in 1997 and 2010, Juan from the self-painted names of destinations of Besides that, the barriada was on the level of reached its limitations to house a contempo- Tokeshi in all his life experience and my own small micros that bring some from one place the country, as Bill Chambers (2005) illustra- rary urban population. in 2013, the population was generally very to the other. All the vacant land that Riofrío tes, a solution for the national poverty and ‘an positively about their neighbourhood, from pointed out in 1978 is urbanized, populations escape from rural deprivation’: “It is salutary What Gustavo Riofrío already showed in the which we may conclude that the most advan- changed from bridgeheaders to consolidators to consider what might have happened in rural early stages of what he would call ‘the re- tageous result of the barriada probably lies in and perhaps also statusseekers? In the city, areas of Peru had this safety valve not been production of the barriada’, is that the house its ‘social success’ and that John Turner maybe the majority of the Limeños today live in what available.”67 Nevertheless it is disputable if could simply not adapt as fast as the family wasn’t so wrong. we called before a barriada. But not anymore, the city really offered the conditions to escape extended. Juan Tokeshi on the other hand because this is ‘La Nueva Lima’. from poverty and if living conditions in the city showed years later, that the house did extent were really that better than in the Peruvian and grew tremendously, while the inhabitants villages. Chambers also put forwards the addi- were in fact decreasing. Though this is just PART V - Conclusions tional benefit of self-help housing for the real one case, and as Tokeshi puts it “Cada casa estate values in Lima and the incentives for es un caso.” Every house differs greatly from To evaluate upon the self-help practice it is the local construction and services industries. each other, though in general many houses crucial to take into account the different scales Furthermore it can be concluded that on the now, with an third generation growing up and of action, the house and the family, the nei- city level the barriadas did prevent the inner an upcoming fourth generation (that all tend ghbourhood, the city and the country. First of city to transform into an overcrowded slums. to stay with their family) is facing serious pro- all it has to be understood that in order to im- This on the other hand, resulted in urban blems, or will in the nearby future. All simply plement self-help housing strategies on such a sprawl, as Riofrío (1996) rightly points out, at because the house is too small. large scale as happened in Lima, this was only the cost of the city’s infrastructure, and at the possible on account of Lima’s geographical same time segregating the urban poor who Though if we return to what Turner envisioned conditions of desert land with low economical were pushed to the outskirts of the city. for what the house ‘should’ be, as mentioned interest. at the start of this paper: 67 CHAMBERS, 2005, op.cit.: p. 221. 68 TURNER, 1972, op.cit.: pp. 148-175.

52 Chapter 2 - The house and the family in a changing setting of modernization and democratization in Lima Part V - Conclusions 53 [03] A journey from the house to the city and back

54 55 © By Author, 2013 Author, © By “Ursula suddenly realized that the house had become full of people, that her children were on the point of marrying and having children, and that they would be obliged to scatter for lack of space. Then she took out of the money she had accumulated over long years of hard labour, made some arrangements with her costumers, and undertook the enlargement of the house. […] Ursula fixed the position of light and heat and distribu- ted space without the least sense of its limitations. The primitive building of the founders became filled with tools and materials, of workmen exhausted by sweat, who asked everybody please not to molest them, exasperated by the sack of bones that followed them everywhere with its dull rattle. In that discomfort, breathing quicklime and tar, no one could see very well how from the bowels of the earth there was rising not only the largest house in the town, but the most hospitable and cool house that had ever existed in the region of the swamp.”

Gabriel García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967: p. 56.

56 57 PART I - 60 years of self-help housing practice in Lima © By Author, 2013 Author, © By

The previous chapter illustrated how the Matos Mar proclaimed 50 years later, self- scholars who carried out empirically grounded self-managed development and the further barriada was seen as a ‘solution’ for housing help housing indeed turned out to be highly studies of barriada development over a longer complexities that evolved in the households the urban poor in Lima during the 1960s and influenced by commercialization of markets in period than Turner included in his model, facing the third and an upcoming fourth gen- 1970s. Though the way in which the self-help which prices of both land, labour and con- showed that home consolidation should be eration.11 model was carried-out and its seemingly suc- struction material increase.5 measured according to many more parame- cessful consolidation was only possible under Nonetheless, self-help housing did have many ters than Turner used in his model and this In the international debate influential work very specific circumstances such as the low advantages for users. It offered a lot more process should be seen in a broader context.8 from Peter M. Ward in Mexico showed the economic and productive values of Lima’s des- possibilities to ‘choose’ and flexibility to shape results of more than 30 years of home con- ert land and the favourable political climate.1 one’s own environment than formal housing The preceding section also highlighted the solidation. Home sharing can lead to serious As Chambers concluded, the barriada did pro- systems. The urban poor managed to become shift that took place after the 1980s, when social deterioration among owners, shares vide shelter for millions of poor migrants who homeowners that gave them tenurial securi- the population in search of a place to live was and renters. Also other problems related to became homeowners and prevented inner-city ty of owning a property. In a rental situation mostly a second generation that had grown inheritance issues and the tenurial status of slums to further deteriorate.2 Nevertheless they were more vulnerable for evictions since up9. In this period of ‘the reproduction of the the inhabitants play part.12 the peripheral barriada was also an effective income levels often were not stable. Further- barriada’ local researcher Gustavo Riofrío way to segregate the urban poor, who were more the self-help house had many advan- already emphasized in 1987 how the process Michaela Hordijk’s longitudinal studies in pushed to the outskirts of the city.3 tages for income generations either through of home consolidation in Lima has reached a Lima, focussing on second and third genera- shops and workshops that could be assimilat- critical point in adapting to the layered social tion dwellers, have a more positive approach Turner’s theories on self-help housing were ed in the residential space or by renting out dimensions of multiple generations.10 Almost stating that in general “Turner’s thoughts are heavily criticized by Rod Burgess. Burgess parts of the house.6 twenty years later Limenean architect Juan proven right.”13 Nonetheless, within process- blamed Turner for seeing self-help “outside Tokeshi emphasized the spatial limitations of 11 ZOLEZZI, Mario; TOKESHI, Juan; NORIEGA, the process of commodity formation.” 4 As Turner’s projections of how the self-managed An architecture that works”, in: Architectural Design, Archi- Carlos, Densificación habitacional: Una propuesta de process of home improvement would evolve tecture of Democracy, 1968: p. 358. crecimiento para la ciudad popular, Lima, Desco, 2005. 1 See chapter 2: p. . GILBERT, Alan, The Latin over time were envisioned in his three stages 8 Riofrío and Driant were the first scholars who 12 WARD, Peter M., “Self-help housing policies for American city, 1996: p. 57. completed a study revisiting the old barriada in 1987. second generation inheritance and succession of The House 2 CHAMBERS, Bill, “The barriadas of Lima: Slums model, which stopped in the ‘completing RIOFRÍO, Gustavo; DRIANT, Jean-Claude, ¿Que vivienda han that Mum & Dad Built.”, In: Habitat International, 2011 (35) 7 of hope or despair? Problems or solutions?”, in: Geography, stage’ after 12 years of consolidation. Other construido? : nuevos problemas en viejas barriadas, Lima, 3, pp. 467–485. 2005 (90) 3, pp. 200-224. 5 MATOS MAR, José, Perú: estado desbordado y Centro de Investigación, Desarrollo y Asesoría Poblacional, 13 HORDIJK, Michaela, “Nuestra Realidad es Otra: 3 RIOFRIO, Gustavo, Producir la ciudad (popular) sociedad nacional emergente, Lima, Centro de Investigación 1987 Changing realities in Lima’s peripheral settlements: a case de los ‘90: entre el mercado y el Estado, Lima, Desco, 1991. Universidad Ricardo Palma, 2012 9 See: DRIANT, Jean-Claude; GREY, Carlos, “Acceso study from San Juan de Miraflores”, in: The production, 4 See chapter 2, BURGESS, Rod, “Petty Commodi- 6 GILBERT, Alan; GUGLER, Josef, Cities, Poverty a la vivienda para la segunda generación de las barriadas de use and dissemination of Urban Knowledge in Cities of ty Housing or Dweller Control? A Critique of John Turner’s and Development: Urbanization in the Third World, Oxford Lima”, in: Boletín del Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos, the South, BRUNFAUT, V. ; D’AURIA, V.; DE MEULDER, B.; Views on Housing Policy”, in: World Development, 1978 (6) University Press, 1992: p. 124. 1988 (17) 1, pp. 19-36 MORETTA, L.; SHANNON, K. (eds.), Brussels, N-AERUS, 9/10, pp. 1105-1133. 7 TURNER, John F. C., “The Squatter Settlement: 10 RIOFRIO; DRIANT, 1987, op.cit. : p. 138. 2010: p. 362.

58 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part I - 60 years of self-help housing practice in Lima 59 © By Author, 2013 Author, © By Consolidating homes

es of radical social shifts, neighbourhoods be seen as a ‘social success’. Up to this time, are really diverse and closely relate to both housing model. This term was coined by Bruno will face serious problems housing the next for instance, the house is an important deter- social consumption norms and the aspirations de Meulder who ‘revisited’ the modernist generation. minant for employment generation.15 of different generations. projects in Congo, reflecting upon original Modernist ideologies in a context of African This wide range of (re)visits within the Nevertheless the way in which homes grow, In order to determine the extent in which colonization and decolonization.20 The studies discourse of both local and international adapt and are transformed by the owners, homes are able to adapt to changing social of the hereafter take into account the many scholars, underline the problem stated at and how then homes respond differently to structures and characteristics of the extend- years of ‘lived-in’ architecture of dwellers and the beginning of the thesis, that homes are the changing characteristics of the extended ed family and to uncover additional factors the interplay between architectural space and not always able to adapt to both changing families, are not always processes occurring influencing home consolidation processes, dwelling culture. characteristics of extended families and social synchronically. While two families grow in a ongoing empirical research is needed. There The self-help housing model now involves a diversification of both the neighbourhood and comparable way, their respective houses may is a long tradition of studying and revisiting similar period of ‘lived-in’ experience. It was the households themselves.14 Hence Turner’s respond in a significantly different manner. self-help settlements, with Peru as a lead- shown that original models are highly influ- self-help housing model has reached its limits Many distinctions can be found in the way this ing country in which many empirical studies enced by the context and the characteristics and in order to meet the aspirations of second is represented in the house. One house can were carried out, resulting in a wide range of of users have changed so drastically that the and third generations of barriada dwellers it grow and adapt, while the family is still living valuable publications.17 John Turner’s theories self-help house is now starting its ‘second life’. is crucial to rethink Turner’s original ideas on under very poor conditions. Other houses where mainly based on his experiences from self-help housing. remain untouched and users invest in other the Peruvian context.18 In this chapter the process of home consolida- things such as luxury goods and therefore the tion in the scope of three generations will be Despite increasingly more problems occurring family is not as poor as the house may reflect. As Turner and Mangin explained in their sem- studied according to ten cases, ten families, while families extend, the self-help house can A home investment is therefore not neces- inal work published in the late 1960s, it is im- in the neighbourhood of Pampas de San Juan. still be seen as an advantageous product of sarily a direct consequence of an increase of portant to see the house as ‘a process’ rather For this study intensive fieldwork was carried individual efforts where the Peruvian family financial resources or the extension of the than a finished object.19 It is as crucial to look out in Lima during February and March 2013. everyday life takes place. John Turner’s works family. There are many factors involved that at how the process of home and neighbour- 20 See: DE MEULDER, Bruno; PLISSART, published in the 1960s envisioned the house influence improvement, transformation and hood consolidation continued in recent years Marie-Françoise, “Kinshasa, The Hereafter of Modern 16 in the barriada to be adjusted to people’s adaptation of homes. Users’ reasons and to understand the hereafterof the self-help Architecture”, in: Back from Utopia. The challenge of the needs and priorities and, above all, that the motivations for making home improvement 17 The valuable publications carried out in Lima Modern Movement, 010 publishers, 2002: pp. 160-173. house would play an important role in income 15 ZOLEZZI; TOKESHI; NORIEGA, 2005, op.cit.: p. refer to the work of Matos Mar, Riofrío, Hordijk and Tokeshi DE MEULDER, Bruno, “The modern housing estates of OCA generation. To a certain extent his projections 91. as was reviewed in Chapter 2: pp. 47-51 in Kinshasa (Belgian Congo. 1952-1960). On the dialectics Young Town growing up: barriada 16 WILLIAMS, Susana M., 18 BROMLEY, 2003, op. cit., p. 271 of displacement and indigenization of modernistic found ground and today the can still four decades later: self-help housing and upgrading lessons 19 MANGIN, William; TURNER, John F.C., “Dwelling housing estates”, Proceedings of the conference Modern 14 WARD, 2011, op.cit.: pp. 467–485. HORDIJK, from a squatter neighborhood in Lima, Master thesis, Mas- resources in South America”, in: Architectural Design, architecture in East Africa around Independence, 2004: pp. 2010, op.cit.: pp. 361-374. sachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005. August issue, 1963: pp. 366-370. 141-148.

60 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part I - 60 years of self-help housing practice in Lima 61 Different storylines are set out to illustrate the settlements that emerged filled in the last layered social structures of three generations remaining ‘gap’ Riofrío sketched on the map and the different nature of home environ- of Lima in 1978.22 Furthermore the concepts ments. The short stories of different houses and terms that are widely used in the thesis are unravelled side by side in order to artic- are defined in this section. ulate convergences and divergences. These narratives are constructed around the central research question in order to inquire to what extent homes are able to adapt to changing social structures and shifting characteristics of the extended family. Users’ priorities, aspirations and households’ tenurial conditions in relation to home evolution are also discussed. Secondly the focus will shift from single house narratives to the social fabric of the neighbourhood. Here home transformation is discussed in relation to the broader scale, reflecting on homes within the changing urban tissue.

Prior to the ten in depth case studies, the historical background of Pampas de San Juan, a low-income settlement in the southern the 1960s and 1970s, and the new barriadas that were formed after mid 1980s on steep hillsides. Pampas the San periphery of metropolitan Lima, is presented. Juan is one of the late second-generation barriada type. The neighbourhood that was formed from the BARREDA, José; RAMÍREZ CORZO, Daniel, “Lima: consolida- 1980s onwards can be classified as one of the ción y expansión de una ciudad popular”, in: Perú hoy: Las ultimate ‘second generation barriadas’.21 The ciudades en el Perú, Lima, Desco, 2004, pp. 199-218. See Chapter 2: p. 46 21 In Lima’s urban development, Barreda and 22 RIOFRÍO, Gustavo, Se busca terreno para Ramírez distinguished three types ofbarriadas . The early próxima barriada: espacios disponibles en Lima, 1940-1978- barriadas formed along the Rimac river, the second gene- 1990, (In search for new sites for the next barriada), Lima, ration barriada that caused the large city expansion during Desco, 1978. See Chapter 2: p. 49 Lima and the district of San Juan de Miraflores

62 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part I - 60 years of self-help housing practice in Lima 63 The history of Pampas de San Juan

Pampas de San Juan was one of the last re- in 197825. The settlements emerged from the maining undeveloped pieces of land bordered late seventies onwards and are comprised of by the in 1971 established Villa El Salvador both relocated settlers from other parts of the in the south, and the spontaneously grown city, new invasions as well as existing neigh- settlements of Ciudad de Dios and Pamplona bourhood extensions.26 in the north. In the east the steep hillsides The area used to be privately owned, but the enclose the area with Villa Maria lying on property fell back in state hands in 1982. The the other side. In the west a water treatment population quickly picked up this rumour and plant and a district leisure park are found. soon after new invasions took place on the ZONE I With a total of 65.000 residents Pampas de hillside. A part of the area already had start- San Juan is a sub district within the larger area ed to fill up with the so-called associaciónes of San Juan de Miraflores that today counts de vivienda, settlements built by people who over 393.000 inhabitants23. The urban district bought unofficial titles from land speculators. originated in the northern area where, in the The later developed asentamientos humanos night of the 24th of December 1954, a group that began as squatters built by people who ZONE II of invaders set up their camp of straw mats invaded land, were favoured by socialist mayor along the vacant desert areas of the Atocongo Alfonso Barrantes27, who gave out land titles a motorway. In the following days more and few years after the invasions. more families joined in and the invasion of Ci- Although the purchased plots of the associ- udad de Dios grew out to the largest invasion aciónes de vivienda were slighty bigger and ZONE III in national history.24 started to develop earlier, today both settlements show similar levels of consolidation and The settlement was legalized in 1956. From this it is hard to see the distinction between the ZONE IV moment on the area started to expand. On the two settlement types. 27th of April 1972 another massive invasion took place, known as El Pamlonazo. A large part of the new invaders was relocated in Villa El Salvador. Another part stayed in the district that is now known as Pamplona Alta. Zones of San Juan de Miraflores ZONE V The site of Pampas de San Juan was the last 25 RIOFRÍO, Gustavo, Se busca terreno para próxima barriada: espacios disponibles en Lima, 1940-1978- Zone I Pamplona Alta vacant area that remained, as Riofrío mapped ZONE VI 1990, Lima, Desco, 1978 Zone II Ciudad de Dios, Pamplona Baja, 26 HORDIJK, Michaela, Of dreams and deeds: the San Juanito. Zone III Zona Urbana Cercado. 23 management in Lima, Peru. PhD dissertation, University of Zone V Pampas de San Juan. 24 27 HORDIJK, Michaela, 2000, op. cit.: p. 194.

64 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part I - 60 years of self-help housing practice in Lima 65 Terminology

Home space three-generation family is further extended Home sharing internet connections and cable connections for Turner defined the value of the house in terms by taking in the son and daughter in-laws that Another common trend can be found of television. This changing pattern of belongings of ‘what is does for the user’ rather than ‘what married the children of the founding fathers. children and grandchildren living under the and aspirations of second generations were it is’,28 seeing the house as ‘a process’ instead of Less frequently other kins or (unrelated) rent- same roof as their parents. The vast majority intensively studied by Michaela Hordijk.35 a finished object. In Turner’s approach, incor- ers are part of the extended household as well. of Pampas’ originators still are living in the area The way in which people make home invest- porating this social layer, the ‘use value’ or the The diversification of households in terms of and many second and third generations share ments highly depends on their social consump- extent to which a house “satisfies or frustrates owners, tenants and sharers is something that the house with their parents. It is very common tion norms and their aspirations for the future. the needs of its user”29 was considered as the can be seen across various Latin American in Pampas to either share the original house or When second generations does not see their most important feature, as Turner argues: “the cities. Though this can vary between cities, as live in a separate quarter on the same plot. parents’ house as the place they want to live in willingness of people to invest their energy and was shown by Peter M. Ward in comparative the future, it is unlikely that they make home initiative and their savings or other material studies completed in Mexico and Colombia.31 Home subdivisions investments and they would rather invest in resources depends on the satisfactions they Home sharing often leads to one or more other things either short-term investments of experience or expect as a result.”30 Home ownership split-ups of the home space, dividing the home consumable goods or long-term investments Building on Turner’s theory, the house is equal- Self-help housing has provided for people to into multiple apartments arranged in a wide such as education. ly seen as an entangled process in which both become homeowners. Today in Pampas de typological variety of multifamily homes. Some social and spatial aspects define the quality of San Juan most of the neighbourhoods’ original split-ups are very obvious and visible from the object. The physical structure and spatial invaders still live in the self-built house on the the outside, such as external staircase and composition of the house that developed pro- plot they invaded during the 1980s. various entrances. Zooming in on the urban gressively over time, together with the social The tendency of both the low mobility among tissue taking a closer look at the home spaces structure of the extended family and the way in owners is something that can be seen across many more complex spatial compositions can which spaces are used by different generations, Latin American cities. As Peter Ward explains be found. Home subdivisions were extensively are together embodied in home space. once a settlement is established and has studied and documented by Peter M. Ward and undergone some consolidation there is almost Juan Tokeshi.34 The extended family and home sharing total lack of mobility among owners.32 Also Alan Household characteristics and social structures Gilbert claims that across several Latin Ameri- Changing social consumption norms changed considerably more than thirty years can cities “A home is forever”33. and user priorities after Pampas de San Juan was founded. The ex- Users’ consumption patterns have changed tended family consists of the founding fathers 31 WARD, Peter M., “Self-help housing policies for considerably over time. Mainly as a conse- second generation inheritance and succession of The House quence of the economical improvement people 35 HORDIJK, Michaela, “Debe ser esfuerzo propio: of the neighbourhood with their offspring. that Mum & Dad Built.”, In: Habitat International,2011 (35) changing patterns of belonging in Lima’s peripheral Most second-generation members now have 3, pp. 467–485. now posses cars, smart-phones, flat screen settlements”, paper presented at the International RC21 a family of their own. In many of cases, the 32 Ward, Peter M., “Self-Help Housing: Ideas and televisions, refrigerators, washing machines conference, 2011. HORDIJK, Michaela, “Nuestra Realidad es Practice in the Americas”, in: Planning Ideas that Matter. and more and more houses have a private Otra: Changing realities in Lima’s peripheral settlements: a 28 TURNER, John F. C., Housing by people: Towards Eds. Bishwapriya Sanyal, Lawrence Vale and Christina case study from San Juan de Miraflores”, in: The production, autonomy in building environments, London, Boyars, 1976: Rosan. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2012: p. 301. 34 WARD, Peter M.,2011, op.cit.: pp. 467–485. use and dissemination of Urban Knowledge in Cities of p. 51. 33 GILBERT, Alan. “A home is for ever? Residential ZOLEZZI, Mario; TOKESHI, Juan; NORIEGA, Carlos, the South, BRUNFAUT, V. ; D’AURIA, V.; DE MEULDER, B.; 29 TURNER, 1976, op.cit.: p. 102 mobility and homeownership in self-help settlements”, in: Densificación habitacional: Una propuesta de crecimiento MORETTA, L.; SHANNON, K. (eds.), Brussels, N-AERUS, 30 Turner, 1976, op.cit: p. 51. Environment and Planning, 1999 (31) 6: pp. 1073-1091. para la ciudad popular, Lima, Desco, 2005. 2010, pp. 361-374.

66 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part I - 60 years of self-help housing practice in Lima 67 PART II - The house along the street: types and trends in home space

68 69 © By Author, 2013 Author, © By Consolidation level: 55% Built density Lot size 140 (7x20) m² Built-up space 84 m² (60%)

The visionary house Open space 56 m² (40%)

Space layout Living area (total netto area) 118 m² Private 48 m² Common 70 m² Dwelling under construction - Other Purpose - Entrances 1 | spatial divisions 1 Number of Bedrooms 4 Number of Bathrooms 1 Number of Kitchens 1

Living density Number of inhabitants 9 m²/person 13.1 1 Source: by author by Source:

The visionary house it visitors knock when passing by, a knock that openings perforate the front façade, painted interior spaces in the entire house have a is soon answered by a voice coming from the in a glaucous green. For the time being the finishing yet, Nora dreams of her beautiful The sun rises above the hills of Pampas de house calling out Quien? The door can only windows are filled up with wooden panels, kitchen complete with modern equipment and San Juan and the house of Nora Jesusi and her be closed from the inside. There is no need to until there is money available to complete the spacious quarters with painted walls and tiled husband Wilberto slowly wakes up. Rays of close it from the outside. Of the large family, finishing. The back part of the house does not floors. Of the nine children, the first-born dau- sunlight find their way to the small openings there will always be someone at home. In contain a consolidated roof yet. Semi transpa- ghter sketched out a proposal for the family’s in the corrugated sheet ceiling and the walls total, nine children and six grandchildren live rent corrugated sheets cover the passageway dwelling. The patio will be kept and from it a made out of wooden panels, cardboard cove- in the house. Four of the nine children moved linking front and back. The front part, con- newly planned staircase will lead to the upper red with plastic sheets and other material the out to live with their in-laws, though they all sisting of a spacious hallway and a bedroom floor that is bound to be twice as large as it family gathered together to build the house. still live close by and many of them can be quarter is in stark contrast with the improvi- is today. Here either the children can build The silence is broken by the barking street found in their parents’ home almost every sed spaces that lie behind it. The provisional their own private apartment or the spaces dogs. A rooster crows and a baby cries. There day. Besides that Nora prefers to always have kitchen and capacious living area under the can be rented out to others. The family is is the sound of several televisions that are people around the house to prevent burglars temporary roof have a sandy floor and are en- highly creative and imaginative in envisioning turned on. A mobile phone rings. You can even to enter. closed by walls partially built in concrete that the construction of their house of the future. hear the eggs frying in the pan in the kitchen are further closed up with roofing sheets and However little of their dreams are represen- below and the lady from next-door singing The house is mainly built with money the wooden panels. At the backside of the house a ted in the actual home improvement process. along with the saya music on the radio. parents earned through the years, with the small exterior space is found that holds a pen What is left behind is the small visionary hou- exception of a small loan to finance the roof. for breeding ducks. This part of the plot is left se where the large family gathers together in The house of Nora and Wilberto is small and The children did not invest much in their empty since building on this part of the plot it improvised spaces while they keep dreaming consists of two floors. In contrast to many home, though they do contribute to the pay- more complex due to the steep slope implying about future possibilities. other houses in the surrounding area that ment of monthly bills, including electricity, wa- the necessity to first construct a retaining are directly facing the street this house lays ter, cable television and Internet connection. wall. The staircase in the hallway leads to a back from it because of a small front patio. Occasionally they buy luxury products for compact upper floor covered by a corruga- A large tree grows promptly in the middle of their mum and dad. The computer, washing ted sheet roof. Wooden cardboard partitions it. Its branches rise above the small dwelling, machine and refrigerator that are shared by all distribute the small bedroom spaces. providing a little shade, though in summer household members were bought with money the family will cover the patio with a large the children gathered. Nora and Wilberto built their house without white plastic sheet for shelter against the any official plan or technical assistance. bright sunlight. The patio is enclosed by an old The ground floor is partially built in durable Although it is lagging behind in its consolida- brown entrance gate and a smaller wooden materials and covered with a concrete roof tion, they have great ideals of how the house door beside it that creaks when it opens. On that was constructed about ten years ago. Big will develop in the future. While none of the

70 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 71 The visionary house

1980 12 m² - 7 inhabitants 1990 45 m² - 9 inhabitants 2000 100 m² - 11 inhabitants 2013 126 m² - 9 inhabitants

Site plan scale 1:200 House trajectory vs. Life trajectories

72 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 73 The visionary house

74 75 Consolidation level: 80% Built density Lot size 140 (7x20) m² The courageous house Built-up space 130 m² (93%) Open space 10 m² (7%)

Space layout Living area (total netto area) 172 - 238 m² Private 155,5 m² Common 56,5 m² Dwelling under construction 66 m² Other Purpose - Entrances 4 | spatial divisions 4 Number of Bedrooms 7 Number of Bathrooms 1 Number of Kitchens 1

Living density Number of inhabitants 24 2 m²/person 7,2 - 9,9

The courageous house over the narrow exterior alleyway lying at the first to wood and then to brick, while his own additional input of some loans they continued corner, shading the space that guides to the home was still in its ‘incipient stage’. Aleman to expand the house. Eventually the second A few houses down the block a young man main entrance. Behind the front door, which and his wife remember well how bricks were floor was built. While the parents were putting is putting up a banner on the façade of a is usually found wide open during the day, lies piled up in front of the houses along the not most effort in building the house, the children two-storey house. “Apoyo el NO”, it says. The the living room. In recent years this area has yet paved dusty roads, waiting till the self-bu- took over though the parents remained the young man is Alexander, one of señor Aleman been perfectly finished with a decorated tile ilders had money to buy cement and could official owners. and señora Flores’ ten children. The house floor, plastered walls matching the colours of continue the home construction. On other oc- of the Aleman family, painted in pale orange the floor and an outer façade. Under the tree casions the people had different priorities and Over the past ten years not only the house and sharp white, is situated at the corner of further up the steep road lies a small staircase the bricks remained there lying in the shade doubled in size, but the family extended con- the block along the main road that runs all that leads directly to a separate room on the of the house. The Alemans were fortunate to siderably as well. By 2013 it counts twen- the way up to the hill. It is the perfect place second floor that is still under construction. A obtain a lot in the corner that allowed them to ty-four family members sharing one home to look out over the street and the surroun- third door located in the middle of the house build the various entrances and several large space. Husbands and wives of the second ding area. During the day looking for shelter gives access to the small open space in the windows in the longitudinal façade. These generation moved in and numerous third from the sweltering heat, señor Aleman can heart of the dwelling and connects to the ventilate the quarters that lie behind it and generation children are growing up under the be found here, observing the neighbourho- interior staircase and the rooms on the upper allow for daylight to enter in abundance. same roof. During this period the second-ge- od from under the small tree in front of the floor. Señor Aleman likes silence to read his neration members invested in the finishing house. books. This was one of the reasons he en- While the family increased in number and of the ground floor living area though their couraged his children to make the additional the children grew, Aleman’s house expanded main concern was now focused on the upper The house covers nearly the entire plot. Only a entrances to the house they share. in parallel. It synchronically adapted to the floor. On this floor each one has constructed narrow space containing a staircase and a blue family’s growth. In the early 1990s, ten years their own single room apartment. Some of tiled sink for the laundry is left open. It sepa- The family invaded the land in the early 1980s. after the families invaded the land, the straw the rooms already have complete flooring and rates the original dwelling from the quarter When Señor Aleman and his wife Lucia settled house had been transformed into the initial finished walls and windows and are comple- adjacent to it. in their straw shelter of no more than twelve dwelling that would represent the next stage tely furnished. In other spaces only the walls square meters they already had nine children. in home improvement. By that time Aleman’s are up though the rooms are furnished and The house is split up both horizontally and Soon after the invasion the land was subdi- children were becoming teenagers and the immediately inhabited. The quarters built last vertically into different apartments, some vided into individual plots after which the peo- house soon would become too small for all of still need roofing and are not used yet. Until completely detached while others are still ple could start building their homes. For señor the ten children. In the following years three new capital can be invested these incomplete connected with additional living areas. From Aleman, who was the community leader, the of the children moved out but the other seven spaces function as an extension of the small the street the dwelling can be accessed throu- house was not always the first thing to worry stayed. The second-generation members individual living units built by the Alemans’ gh four entrances, although one is not in use about. Aleman could see the houses slowly that remained in the house started to collect children. anymore. The upper floor protrudes slightly rising around him and the straw transforming their savings to invest in their home. With the

76 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 77 The courageous house

All efforts that were made towards home family size did not scare off the Alemans. With improvement, first by the parents and later great determination and family cohesion they by the children, were rewarded. Today this together built the courageous house. It is one results in a spacious and highly consolidated of the most creative results of a fully self-ma- home built without the help of any contrac- naged house in the neighbourhood of Pampas. tor or professional builder. The tremendous

1980 12 m² - 11 inhabitants 1990 50 m² - 12 inhabitants 2000 110 m² - 13 inhabitants 2013 238 m² - 24 inhabitants

Site plan scale 1:200 House trajectory vs. Life trajectories

78 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 79 The courageous house

80 81 Consolidation level: 80% Built density Lot size 138 m² Built-up space 123 m² (89%) Open space 15 m² (11%)

The steady house Space layout Living area (total netto area) 153 - 247 m² Private 70 m² Common 83 m² Dwelling under construction 94 m² Other Purpose - Entrances 3 | spatial divisions 1 Number of Bedrooms 4 Number of Bathrooms 3 Number of Kitchens 1

Living density Number of inhabitants 6 3 m²/person 25,5 - 41,2

The steady house Along the years the straw mats gradually va- moving in and the couple’s first child born nished and newly built brick quarters popped soon after. The second generations claimed Longitudinal blocks in the urban fringe enclose up in the large corner plot. The well-organized a part of the second floor and the parents the northern area of Pampas, neighbouring parents both worked since their early years. correspondingly moved to a more comfortable the open strip of land reserved for the power They would always keep close track of their bedroom space with a private bathroom on pylons that supply almost all homes in the lar- expenditures setting aside small amounts that the upper floor. The latter is accessed through ger district with electricity. In the inner corner were reserved for future investments in the a concrete stairway positioned at the heart of of one of the fringe blocks stands a corpulent house. All the savings went directly to home the ground floor. edifice offering an introverted cement façade improvement, which is built without any loans to its surroundings, but closing off all glimpses or external funding. At the end of the 1980s a The ground floor, made up of several consoli- of life inside the house. Its shape differs from professional builder was contracted to make dated living room spaces, is connected to the the surrounding homes due to the squared the outline and plans for the Flores’ future street w by two doorways slicing through the shape plot on which the house is built. Two that cost them a considerable amount of thick outer walls. The corner plot offers many voids ventilate the interior spaces and bring in money. Despite the fact that the architectural opportunities to create numerous private the light. plans for a fully constructed house consisting entrances, yet the family chose not to split up of two floors was already on the table in 1988, their home. While the household is now made Sandra and Cecilio Flores procured the plot at final realization took much longer. Home -ex up of multiple families sharing the house, the the beginning of the 1980s. Like other families tensions and transformations followed an in- dwelling remains a single-family home in its that settled in the area, the young Peruvian cremental pattern of investment, where small typology. Throughout more than thirty years couple lived in a straw squat until they obtai- amounts of personal savings were employed. of settlement the home developed steadily, gi- ned their individual land titles several years ving more and more comfort to Sandra, Cecilio after the invasion. Nevertheless the overall process of home and their small family. consolidation, in which first the family and Upon arrival in Pampas the oldest daughter later professional scholars built up the house, Magaly was still a baby of only a few weeks. is depicted in a linear trajectory of progression Several years after Sandra gave birth to a son in which the volume of the house would in- named Samuel. Before Samuel was born his crease constantly, doubling in size throughout father Cecilio had already constructed two every passing decade. Meanwhile the family extra rooms with a separate kitchen and a increased moderately with a third child born bathroom that were then connected to the ten years after Samuel. The family has further living room combined with a sleeping area. extended recently with the husband of Magaly

82 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 83 The steady house

1980 10 m² - 3 inhabitants 1990 70 m² - 4 inhabitants 2000 123 m² - 5 inhabitants 2013 247 m² - 7 inhabitants

Site plan scale 1:200 House trajectory vs. Life trajectories

84 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 85 The steady house

86 87 Consolidation level: 60% Built density Lot size 140 (7x20) m² Built-up space 70 m² (50%) Open space 70 m² (50%) The faltering house Space layout Living area (total netto area) 64 m² Private 14 m² Common 50 m² Dwelling under construction - Other Purpose - Entrances 1 | spatial divisions 1 Number of Bedrooms 1 Number of Bathrooms 1 Number of Kitchens 1

Living density Number of inhabitants 3 4 m²/person 21,3

The faltering house case and with a small loan from a local bank to move due to his economic and drinking pro- they were able to construct the consolidated blems, leaving the once so lively house alone. Brenda’s tiny one-storey house stands out roof of the small home. On the additional This departure almost caused the owners to against the background of the street where floor Brenda and Sandra each had their own lose their property. The mother managed to the majority of the houses count at least two room their father built with the leftover con- recover their tenurial rights, though she could floors. The small house appears ambitious struction materials. The kitchen was moved not return to live in the original house due while at the same time it features elements, to the courtyard at the back of the house and to incumbent illness. The house was abando- which reveal its faltering past and the concealed with a corrugated sheet cover. Even ned for a while, till the mother rented it out difficulties it has constantly tried to overcome. though the original quarters on the ground to one of Sandra’s friends. The little money A brand new metal fence door is placed in floor had barely been modified they seemed gained by renting the home could only just front of the old worn out front door. The discharged from the previous overcrowded cover health costs made necessary by Sandra’s memories of old times cannot be erased; a living situation and the rooms suddenly looked mother’s worsening health situation. Hospital creaking wooden door will always remind incredibly spacious as if they were brand new treatment came nevertheless too late and the Brenda of the original entrance from where and freshly built. poor old lady passed away, forcing the heavily she accessed her home as a child. However it pregnant Brenda to return from Venezuela. is placed in the background and covered with The years that would follow were not as pro- Sandra’s friend left and Brenda moved back to a layer of current times. Walls are plastered sperous, neither for the family nor for further the house. Her sisters wanted to sell the place, with a fresh coating of cement but small home improvement. The parents separated, but Brenda disagreed. She recovered the hou- cracks in the original wall, like a wrinkle on a though they lived together in the house for se with the little money she earned in Vene- human skin that betray one’s age, unfold the years after that. Finally, the situation deterio- zuela and the help of an additional small loan, fact that the house was there years before rated to the point that Brenda’s mum decided redistributing and appropriating the spaces. these layers were applied. The shiny reflecting to join her mother in Pamplona, bringing The property rights were passed to the second windows hide every glimpse of what is along the youngest daughter. Brenda and San- generation and for the first time local buil- happening inside. dra would leave soon after. In the year 2000 ders were called upon. The spatial layout was Brenda and her younger sister Sandra arrived Brenda set off to Venezuela and Sandra settled redrawn and made into an official plan, which as little kids with their parents who invaded with her mother, grandmother and little was required for making a home extension. the land. Ten years after a third daughter was sister in Pamplona. The father stayed unac- The house was now ready to make a new start born and the small brick house of no more companied in the tiny house that was at the after a painful past and faltering growth. then forty square meters was extended to beginning of its course towards consolidation, make place for the three daughters growing now forcefully interrupted. It got even worse up. The young parents built an internal stair- when a few years after the dad was obliged

88 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 89 The faltering house

1980 15 m² - 4 inhabitants 1990 40 m² - 4-5 inhabitants 2000 65 m² - 1-0 inhabitants 2013 70 m² - 3 inhabitants

Site plan scale 1:200 House trajectory vs. Life trajectories

90 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 91 The faltering house

92 93 Consolidation level: 90% Built density Lot size 126 (7x18) m² Built-up space 126 m² (100%) The expeditious house Open space 0 m² (0%)

Space layout Total netto area 382 m² Living area 190 - 336 m² Commercial area 46 m² Private 116 m² Common 75 m² Dwelling under construction 145 m² Other Purpose 46 m² Entrances 3 | spatial divisions 2 Number of Bedrooms 7 Number of Bathrooms 3 Number of Kitchens 1

Living density Number of inhabitants 6 5 m²/person 31,8 - 56

The expeditious house Marcelo raised Vacilia’s kids as if they were floor separated by a hallway and staircase substandard blind rooms in the back. his own children and later the couple would enlightened by voids in the upper floors. Little During a hot summer day in Lima hardly any have another son and daughter. The children’s light enters through the void that cuts through In the kitchen of señora Vacilia’s three-storey shade place can be found along the road growth triggered Marcelo to build an extra the three layers of the built-up space. Further- house an old lady is staring out the window. crossing the main uphill street in southern room for the boys at the back of the house. more the ground floor consists of a separate She is dressed in traditional Peruvian attire, Pampas. Only a small cool and dark void at the Since their childhood the little boys watched kitchen and the original bedroom quarter wearing a long dark blue skirt, an old pink corner of a sidewalk relieves passers-by from their father’s skilled movements when making that now functions as a room for occasional jacket and a pretty brown felt hat. The old lady the bright sunlight. The corner is sheltered by furniture for the house as well as doors and visitors since Vacilia and her husband moved with her weary face is holding her whisk tight, overhanging plants and walled on one side by window frames. The beautifully carved woo- in to an oversized new bedroom they built trying to kill every housefly that lands within a three-storey house of brickwork. The bulky dwork raised their interest in carpentry from upstairs. Amazingly the old room has hardly her reach. The old lady is Vacilia’s mother who brick house stands in front of the football early times and they later all followed in their been transformed and no finishing has been comes to stay with her daughter from time to field and allotment garden embedded in the father’s footsteps, joining in his carpentry applied since it was built at the beginning time. The lady sits silently at the kitchen table, sloping hill. It is owned by señora Vacilia and workshop. of the 1980s. The past times can strongly be occasionally murmuring unintelligible words her second husband Marcelo. sensed, even by means of the distinctive warm in Quechua or Spanish, and observing the The house as found today has transformed smell of earth that spreads through the space. outside world from this kitchen window. She Vacilia arrived in Pampas more than thirty tremendously since then. The corner location The greyish brick walls form a large contrast can see the football field where youngsters ga- years ago together with her first husband and exposes an outsized part of the brick façade with the decorations and painted walls of the ther, the brick houses surrounding it, the little their four children. The family lived for years shaping the street walls. The different shades highly consolidated spaces around it as if the shops across the street, people passing by, in the small straw settlement on the longitu- of weathered brickwork express the house’s house grew all around, over and on top of its sometimes not paying attention to the outside dinal corner plot looking out over the wider layered stories and leave no doubt of its diffe- original embryo. world, sometimes waving at her at the kitchen peripheral areas of Lima with the Pacific Oce- rent phases of development. The ground floor window. Every now and then a small mototaxi, an in the distance. The relationship between paint is of many years ago. The sun has faded The home spaces of los aires are distribu- with a sharp buzzing sound announcing their Vacilia and her first husband did not last long out the paint and softened the original orange ted among the second generations and the approach, runs by the window. and several years after they settled in Pampas colour. parents, currently all claiming their individual they divorced. Shortly after the two separated, room on the second floor. The third floor is The old lady is bewildered of what she sees Vacilia remarried a young carpenter called From the street one does not immediately no- still under construction but is reserved for the and of all that is not in tune with her remem- Marcelo. From then on the young couple tice the large carpentry workshop behind the second generation in the future. Mum and brances. Lately she gets confused more and started transforming the improvised dwelling immense façade. Only shrill sounds of machi- dad retain their bedroom area with private more and all her observations of the neigh- of straw, sheet and wooden poles into a solid nery coming from the narrow opening under bathroom in the most prominent and brighter bourhood find scarce recognition in her mind, brick house. reveals Indoor activities. A large living area section of the second storey corner, while which is filled with memories of the past. Her borders the productive space on the ground the youngest children are accommodated in bewilderment makes her constantly complain

94 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 95 The expeditious house

she wants to go back home. She cannot keep track of all that is happening in the fast world, nor with the speedy way in which her daughter Vacilia, her husband Marcelo and his sons are transforming the house.

In recent years the house developed remarkably fast. While at the start of home transformations the father improvised and built the house based on his experience with his skilled talents as a carpenter, the final phases were built with formal construction plans made by an architect. The workshop generated an abundant financial backing since there was a high demand for woodworks in the direct surroundings. The money could be invested back in the house. Apart from that, the family attained financial assistance from a local government program named techopropio. With the money generated by the workshop, the support from other second generation workers, the financial assistance from the local government program and additional banking loans the expeditious house could grow at a 1980 14 m² - 6 inhabitants speed that hardly no other house in Pampas 1985 50 m² - 6 inhabitants could keep up with. 1995 250 m² - 10 inhabitants 2013 336 m² - 6 inhabitants

House trajectory vs. Life trajectories

96 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 97 The expeditious house

Site plan scale 1:200

98 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 99 The expeditious house

100 101 Consolidation level: 65% Built density Lot size 140 (7x20) m² Built-up space 115 m² (82%) Open space 25 m² (18%)

The modest house Space layout Living area (total netto area) 112 - 228 m² Private 42 m² Common 70 m² Dwelling under construction 116 m² Other Purpose - Entrances 2 | spatial divisions 1 Number of Bedrooms 4 Number of Bathrooms 2 Number of Kitchens 1

Living density Number of inhabitants 5 6 m²/person 22,4 - 45,6

vered almost the entire plot. Due to the steep dwelling extension initiatives came to a halt. Of Cristina’s modest two-storey home, the drop at the back of the plot, they left this part ground floor is clearly completed. The par- open with a lower open space that could not Nevertheless the house, which was modera- tially built spaces in los aires makes it very be entered until a staircase was built. tely transformed over time, has undergone emblematic of the self-built Limean homes major changes compared to when Cristina emerging in all variations along the streets Eight years ago Cristina took out a loan to fund first settled in Pampas. Moreover, Cristina is of Pampas. Over more than thirty years of the construction of consolidated roof. This determined in continuing to steadily extend self-managed construction, the residents have home extension came at the right moment home space until the second floor is finished. gained significant experience in home con- since Cristina’s sister Meli also divorced and A third floor will not be achievable because struction, often copying from their neighbours moved in with her five kids. She stayed for a the structure will not be able to support more and depending on skilled workers or kinship couple of years until she found a place for her than two stories. All arrangements were made networks for construction. On the other hand own in Villa El Salvador. The sisters improvised at low-cost with sketches Cristina made with a certain families hired building professionals at a space on the second floor were Meli could friend who had some building experience. The some point. Though this practice is also based settle with the children. When Meli moved out outcome is a modest house that not stands on regulations making government approval there was a little money available. Cristina, the out particularly, but is nonetheless spacious a requirement for home extension, this does homeowner, saved from her earnings in the and well kept. The large living room allows for not mean the informal self-building activities many hours she worked as a housekeeper in a gradual transition into the back part of the have actually lessened. one of the upper-class districts of Lima. With home with a kitchen lying in between. The these savings she started buying the bricks visual relation between front and back allows Initially Cristina, a divorced mother of two and building materials required to give shape visitors to perceive the full length of the house children, lived with her offspring in a single to the upper floor. immediately upon their entrance through quarter they extended during the 1990s when the heavy steel front door. A big window at the children grew older. Four years after the In the meantime the ground floor had simply the back offers a stunning view over Pampas. second child was born she got one more child become too small. In addition, the oldest son When the evening falls, thousands of tiny li- from another relationship. Though the father Jaime got married and his wife moved in when ghts show up little by little reflecting the starlit disappeared from the eye soon after, leaving pregnant. Though Jaime worked, he was still sky above. the young mother behind with her three kids. finishing his studies. Family extension was Cristina constructed various rooms in a row on more of a priority than home improvement, one side of the dwelling, illuminating the spa- so he contributed little to the latter. Cristina’s ces with large openings facing the living room other children were also primarily concerned and interior spaces. At this point the house co- with their studies which meant that further

102 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 103 The modest house

1980 15 m² - 2 inhabitants 1990 50 m² - 3 inhabitants 2000 115 m² - 6 inhabitants 2013 228 m² - 5 inhabitants

Site plan scale 1:200 House trajectory vs. Life trajectories

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6 6

106 107 Consolidation level: 80% Built density Lot size 140 (7x20) m² Built-up space 115 m² (82%) Open space 25 m² (18%)

The amiable house Space layout Living area (total netto area) 169 - 242 m² Private 85 m² Common 84 m² Dwelling under construction 73 m² Other Purpose - Entrances 2 | spatial divisions 1 Number of Bedrooms 5 Number of Bathrooms 2 Number of Kitchens 1

Living density Number of inhabitants 4 7 m²/person 42,3 - 60,5

The amiable house durable materials with complete finishing and newcomers as if it wanting them to stay and in the surrounding area and smoke some pot. shiny tiled floors. The spaces on the ground never leave again. The house is as hospitable When his cousin moved in, occupying the Julia arrived rather late in Pampas and was floor are furnished with comfortable sofas as Julia’s kind-hearted personality. Two rooms upper floor with her children, these beautiful lucky to obtain one of the last vacant lots and chairs inviting visitors to stay on for a little were quickly finished, including the tile floo- silent nights were over. where she could fabricate her straw dwelling. chat. ring, warm coloured walls, new windows and She almost immediately changed this ‘squat- freshly carved wooden doors. Nothing was left Over an eight-year time span the house ex- ter’s shack’ into a small house consisting of The major transformation of the house started unfinished. Nevertheless the niece moved out tended massively from a ninety square meter two rooms and a patio where she installed eight years back when Julia took out a bank several years later. one-storey building to a large and generous her kitchen. She ran a small shop next to the loan to construct the second floor. A profes- home more than twice its initial size. During dwelling for years. Here she sold basic food sional architectural company was paid to draw Cesar was less happy with his mother’s niece the final years of this period Julia and Cesar supplies, groceries and liquor. When her the plan and shape the future home Julia moving in. The young adolescent was really were the only sharers together with Julia’s husband, who had a drinking problem, started imagined for herself and her son Cesar. She keen on his privacy. Although he shared the boyfriend who comes to visit occasionally. Last to drink away her liquor supply she closed moved her bedroom upstairs and created a single-family house with his mum, they two year Cesar’s girlfriend moved in and is now it down. Once the young couple eventually private bathroom integrated in the space. The lived separate lives. When the Cesar’s cou- expecting a baby. Since then Cesar started separated, Julia did not re-open the shop. new bedroom space upstairs was gradually sin moved in with her children, part of his paying rent to his mum and every now and Instead she integrated the commercial space finished with tiles and fresh layers of paint on personal space was taken from him by the then he buys new furniture or decorations for into the house to have more room for the kid the walls matching the details used to decora- newcomers. the house. she adopted and had to raise. te the rooms. In contrast with the caring way with which Julia rapidly completed her bedro- Cesar used to come home after long unwoun- Julia’s amiable house of Julia is an unquestio- Over the last thirty years the house transfor- om space, other spaces on the newly added ded Sunday nights, somewhat mellow from nably hospitable place. It lives to give space med into an amiable house with colourful storey were not even touched. The idea was to gatherings with friends at the corner shop. He to the upcoming second-generation family. spaces that are extremely inviting. A smooth wait until enough money was gathered so they then would always enter the house through Despite its friendly openness there is no concrete pavement lies in front of the flam- could be finished in one go. Cesar remained in the garage door, trying to make as little sound intention to modify its typology and strangers boyant green house. The front door is set the bedroom quarters downstairs neighbou- as he could, avoiding the living room hoping are not welcome to come and rent a room. back holding a small threshold shaded by the ring the patio in the heart of the plot. not to bump into his mum, to go straight to As long as Julia lives here, spaces will remain tree on the sidewalk and closed off by a metal his quiet bedroom space on the ground floor as part of a well-kept single-family house and fence. Another larger door gives access to the One day Julia’s niece knocked at the front at the back part of the house. Other times, household. main part of the house. The attractive interior door in search for a place to live with her especially during the fresh summer nights, he spaces with the bright blue, pink and yellow child. The house seemed to almost natural- stayed at home and climbed the roof on the walls are as vibrant as the exterior suggests. ly open up to provide a place for them. A second floor that was partially built. Here he They are highly consolidated and built in comfortable room was arranged to host the could look out over the hundreds of rooftops

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1980 12 m² - 2 inhabitants 1990 55 m² - 2 inhabitants 2000 90 m² - 5 inhabitants 2013 242 m² - 4 inhabitants

Site plan scale 1:200 House trajectory vs. Life trajectories

110 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 111 The amiable house

7 7

112 Site plan scale 1:200 113 Consolidation level: 65% Built density Lot size 133 (7x19) m²

The progressive house Built-up space 80 m² (60%) Open space 53 m² (40%)

Space layout Total netto area 145 m² Living area 105 m² Commercial area 40 m² Private 92 m² Common 13 m² Dwelling under construction - Other Purpose 40 m² Entrances 4 | spatial divisions 4 Number of Bedrooms 5 Number of Bathrooms 2 Number of Kitchens 3

Living density Number of inhabitants 8 8 m²/person 13,1

The progressive house Speaking in terms of the building structure, A few years later Justina decided to rent out containing the bathroom was occupied by Justina’s progressive house is far from con- the floor downstairs in order to gain some the niece and Sandra moved to the adjacent Justina settled in Pampas with her baby dau- solidated. Both exterior and interior spaces additional income. This move was not neces- dwelling with her three children. ghter Liz and older son David. During the first under the corrugated sheet roofing are lacking sarily motivated to collect funds for home year the threesome slept in holes they dug in all kind of finishing. Additionally, some parts improvements. Rather, the money was prima- A year later Justina’s nephew, who had pre- the sand, surrounded by a precarious shelter of the roof contain gaps and openings, which rily needed for everyday expenses. She knew viously lived with his parents in Villa El Salva- built out of a few wooden sticks, plastic sheets are temporally closed off with cardboard and a young lady named Sandra was desperately dor, knocked at the door. He had changed jobs and straw mats. Without any intervention recycled billboards. Despite the quality of the looking for an affordable place to stay, not and needed a room closer to his workplace. from professional builders and with the little building lagging behind, the home did extend easy to find in Pampas. Sandra was planning With the same ease as she did before, Justina financial resources Justina had, she built the considerably, doubling in size every decade to build a house with her four brothers and switched rooms again, swapping the large house step by step all by herself. For heavy in synchrony with the increasing number of sisters further down the road on her parents’ well-lit corner room on the second floor for a construction works some relatives came to inhabitants. plot. After the parents’ passed away, the five tiny blind room further down the tiny hallway. help and gradually the house transitioned into children had tore down the old dwelling and the two-storey corner house it is today. The Initially the ground floor, now split up in three planned to construct a completely new apart- For the last ten years the household characte- solid brick structure covers half of the plot. Its parts, was built as one house for Justina and ment with a separate room for each of them. ristics as well as the dwelling typology have few openings do not make optimal advantage her children. It progressively grew till major Nonetheless, the plot had remained vacant for changed incredibly. The house has transfor- of the corner location. transformations were made at the end of the years due to intense disagreement between med from a single family home to a multi-fa- 1990s. David and Liz were starting to have them. mily dwelling and beyond. The flexible home Nevertheless various entrances divide the their own families and the small home of no adapts to the various sharers and renters that home space vertically and horizontally into in- more than eighty square meters would soon At the same moment that Justina contacted come and live with homeowner Justina, who dividual apartments. The upper floor is acces- become too small. The children did not have Sandra, Justina’s niece who lived close by easily sacrifices her own living space for them. sible through an improvised staircase located many financial resources, but they gathered wanted to start a small business. However, her In a certain sense, the home was consolidated outside the house. Downstairs a corner shop is what they had in order to construct a second house did not have a very strategic location. proportionally to the increase in built surfa- assimilated in the home adjacent to the lower floor. Liz gave birth to her son while the home Consequently she asked her aunt if she could ce over time. On the other hand it is hard to apartment that is accessed through a separa- extension was still fully in progress. When the rent a piece of the house for her commercial speak about home improvement since the bu- te entrance. The other half of the plot is left upper floor was completed the two children activities. Justina did not hesitate and moved ilding structure is very poor and over the last vacant apart from a small self-built structure moved upstairs. They built their individual to a room upstairs and arranged the spaces ten years the living comfort has not improved that nearly falls apart. It is here Justina has rooms out of brick. No money was available downstairs for the newcomers. The door for any of the progressive home’s inhabitants. run her community kitchen for elderly people for further finishing and the family was still opening between the living room and additio- for over twenty-five years. very poor. nal room with bathroom was closed off with recycled wooden panels. The smaller space

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1980 15 m² - 3 inhabitants 1990 40 m² - 3 inhabitants 2000 80 m² - 3 inhabitants 2013 145 m² - 8 inhabitants

Site plan scale 1:200 House trajectory vs. Life trajectories

116 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 117 The progressive house

118 119 Consolidation level: 75% Built density Lot size 160 (8x20) m² Built-up space 112 m² (70%) Open space 48 m² (30%)

The garden house Space layout Total netto area 224 m² Living area 126 - 206 m² Commercial area 18 m² Private 56 m² Common 70 m² Dwelling under construction 80 m² Other Purpose 18 m² Entrances 2 | spatial divisions 2 Number of Bedrooms 3 Number of Bathrooms 1 Number of Kitchens 1

Living density Number of inhabitants 3 9 m²/person 42 - 69 m²

The garden house titles were fake and a long struggle began to me the parents gained from work. The latest Apart from a new coat of paint, the old home obtain their official property rights. While transformation the dwelling has undergone is still intact with the original front door ope- The majority of houses along the quiet back- the asentamientos humanos were privileged was financed through bank loans and allowed ning into the spacious inner patio. Although street behind the main avenue heading to under the rule of socialist mayor Barrantes to fill the vacant front part of the plot. Still the the home more than doubled in size with the Villa El Salvador count multiple stories and during the 1980s, the asociaciónes de vivien- house did not have official property rights by latest extension, the garden of Cita and Feli- their facades are freshly painted in green, blue da were not considered. Cita and Feliciano the time the large renovation was undertaken. ciano still grows and dominates the everyday and white. Some of the upper floors are still finally received their individual land title in This time round, unlike previous changes, home environment. naked with a skin of reddish brick waiting to 2011, more than thirty years after they started architectural plans determined the new inter- be plastered with a layer of cement. Consoli- building the home. ventions and labourers were hired for most dated homes form a sharp contrast with the of the construction works. Feliciano however, dusty road of loose sand, which after more The absence of a clear title did not prevent completed the finishing of the tile floor and than thirty years of settlement is still unpaved. the family nor other members of the aso- the painting of the walls independently. The heavy heat radiates from the ground bur- ciaciónes de vivienda from extending and nt by the bright Limean sun, inviting people to transforming their home space. Remarkably Cita worked with the architect - a friend - to stay inside. the processes of home consolidation are very distribute the rooms in order to keep the large similar to those occurring in the asentamien- open area in front of the house for the garden. At the end this dusty street Cita’s garden hou- tos humanos. Cita and her husband lived in a An inner patio with cactuses and a small se emerges as a cool oasis of densely growing small straw settlement during the early years, rose garden, allowing a fresh breeze to cool plants, shrubs and small trees. It claims a part after which they changed the precarious the bright living room and kitchen were also of the public area outside the plot. The house structure into an incipient brick dwelling in installed. They made smart use of the diffe- that lies behind it only counts one storey. All the early 1980s. With two children born at the rent heights of the plot by creating a split-level its spaces feature a high level of finishing and end of that decade, a second floor was added between the original two-storey structure and though the house did not grow much vertically to the small dwelling occupying the backside the newly added section, with the patio in it is highly consolidated. of the lot. The large patio stayed in front of between lighting all indoor spaces. The home the house. Here Cita used to keep her plants, could now be entered through two new doors Cita’s house is part of the so-called asocia- which she later moved to the street edge. allowing Cita to have a more private area for ciónes de vivienda. Unlike other dwellers in her neighbourhood work for which she recei- the asentamientos humanos who illegally The tiny built structure remained until the late ves guests. occupied the desert land areas, Cita and her 1990s. It was always just enough for the small husband Feliciano bought the land at the end size of the family. Back then all home invest- The brand new house that arose on the of the 1970s. It soon turned out that the land ments came from personal savings and inco- sloping plot did not erase traces of the past.

120 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 121 The garden house

1980 15 m² - 2 inhabitants 1990 50 m² - 4 inhabitants 2000 120 m² - 4 inhabitants 2013 120-220 m² - 3 inhabitants

Site plan scale 1:200 House trajectory vs. Life trajectories

122 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 123 The garden house

124 125 Consolidation level: 85% Built density Lot size 140 (7x20) m² Built-up space 122 m² (87%) Open space 18 m² (13%) The ambitious house

Space layout Total netto area 456 m² Living area 103 - 374 m² Commercial area 82 m² Private 20 m² Common 83 m² Dwelling under construction 271 m² Other Purpose 82 m² Entrances 2 | spatial divisions 1 - 6 Number of Bedrooms 2 Number of Bathrooms 1 Number of Kitchens 1

Living density Number of inhabitants 9 10 m²/person 11,4 - 41,5

The ambitious house of their time. In between the furniture that older and starting to have their own families, the sidewalks is strictly prohibited, the only is stored and waiting to be carried up to the new ideas were discussed. The mother and solution was to create an internal connection. Rufina’s ambitious house is located along the brand new apartments, an old mattress lies the four teenagers agreed on an ambitious The ground floor is to be kept as a semi-public main road to Villa El Salvador. The dwelling is on the ground where Rufina sleeps. The family plan for the future development of their commercial space, which in the future will currently undergoing massive reconstruction. lives in an improvised manner. home. The second generations each claimed function as an entranceway for the residents Piles of sand and stones lie in front of the a part of los aires where they still are con- of los aires. house along the busy street. Every now and In the provisional kitchen downstairs Rufina structing their individual apartments. Most then a young guy comes out of the building runs her comedor. Every morning you can resources for home improvements are now The final home transformations were comple- to load some materials on his wheelbarrow. find Rufina cooking here among the young also provided for by the children. ted rapidly by means of hiring various con- Concrete pillars with jutting bars stick out construction workers running up and down struction workers active seven days a week. of the skyline facing the southern district of the stairs carrying bags of cement. She started All of Rufina’s children went to university. The old incipient dwelling has completely di- Lima. The house is covering three layers of los selling food at a small stall on the street more The oldest son Wilfredo finished law school sappeared, as did many other buildings along aires and will eventually become a five-storey than twenty years ago. Back then the house a few years ago and managed to access a the busy commercial street. The house epi- apartment building. The closed ground floor was already built in brick, set back from the well-paid job. This allowed the family to take tomises the ambitions of the highly educated façade, apart from two heavy steel doors street and consisting of a single floor. Here Ru- out big loans to finance the house, though the second generation, who invested collectively through which the house can be entered, does fina, her husband and the four children lived children also had to pay for university with in what will be their future home (or source of not contain any window or opening. From the together in two small quarters with the patio the loans. Nevertheless the ambitious plans income). outside the spaciousness of the home and the and separate toilet at the back of the house. of transforming the original dwelling into a immense basement it includes can hardly be The parents later extended the house to the multi-storey apartment building could take off. spotted. Big windows are kept in the upper outer borders of the plot adding an extra floor. It was based on the principle creating an indi- front façade that at the same time provide a The comedor was integrated in the home spa- vidual living space for every child on each of stunning view over the busy commercial street ce. Just after they completed the home exten- the upper floors. Additionally, the possibility where micros, buses and mototaxis run up sion Rufina’s husband passed away. The oldest of renting it to outsiders, in case the children and down, and where the residential blocks daughter Elida had already moved out to live would have to move somewhere else closer to of Villa El Salvador appear in the distance. with her husband and parents in-law. The work, was acknowledged from the start. The internal staircase also offers some illu- young couple did not last long, and Elida, who mination, though when all five floors will be could see her mother suffering, moved back in The ideal situation for the vertical subdi- constructed this will be greatly reduced. The with her, together with the two children that vision of the house would be to create an lack of light can already be previewed in the were born in the meantime. exterior staircase sewing individual entrances dusky basement lit by fluorescent tube lights to the upper floors, but since the plot was during daytime. Here the family spends most While the second generation was growing already entirely built up and construction on

126 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 127 The ambitious house

1980 18 m² - 5 inhabitants 1990 40 m² - 6 inhabitants 2000 220 m² - 7 inhabitants 2013 456 m² - 9 inhabitants

Site plan scale 1:200 House trajectory vs. Life trajectories

128 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part II - The house along the street: types and trend in home space 129 The ambitious house

130 131 PART III - From the house to the city via the street

“Some people really care about our neighbourhood, there are neighbours who built beautiful gardens in front of their homes, but there are others that come and throw their trash in our public spaces, they simply don’t care. The people who care are mostly original dwellers who have lived here from the beginning and feel more attached to the area. Together we worked really hard to acquire all of what you see today; the roads, electricity, water. When new people came to the neighbourhood the problems started. The violence and drugs gangs are big problems nowadays. I do not want the children to play on the street, because it is too dangerous.”

Spontaneous city making that the self-help housing model has reached cess is however depends on several external Soon after an invasion would take place, the The urban development in metropolitan Lima its limits and homes are not always able to factors that affect the spatial quality of the land was subdivided in individual lots on is characterized by a spontaneous process, adapt to the changing social structures and neighbourhood. which the people could start building their which begins from home space, where the characteristics of the extended family. The homes. Nevertheless public authorities were user is constantly extending, transforming evaluation of home consolidation in relation The straw house as a ‘strategy for practically absent in the incipient stage of and improving his or her dwelling. Today, to the social dynamics of households will be city making’ barriada development and services were only 60% of the built environment is comprised treated in the final section. The barriadas emerged from the 1950s installed after a long struggle of community of spontaneously developed self-help onwards on the vacant desert land of Lima’s organizations. When the squatter settlements settlements.1 In this section, home transformation is dis- peripheries. The first migrants settled in pre- began to show a certain level of consolidation cussed within a broader scope, reflecting on carious shelters made out of straw mats that the population’s attention shifted towards the The ten in-depth cases of the multigeneration- homes within the constantly changing social eventually became consolidated neighbour- construction and improvement of the house, al families living in Pampas de San Juan, pre- tissue. As was pointed out by Sáez, García and hoods that now dominate the contemporary as Riofrío pointed out in 1987.5 sented in the previous section, illustrated the Roch (2010), Lima’s city making is based on urban landscape. The breadth with which the divergences and convergences in the home an ascendant model from the small scale to self-help housing model was carried out was Within the structure of the parcelled land, the consolidation process. It furthermore showed the big scale. This inverted exercise of spon- only possible under the favourable political straw houses gradually transitioned to first- 3 how home space is appropriated by the users taneous city making, initiated by the home climate of Peru and Lima . During the 1960s stage dwellings and eventually the manzanas and how the house is constantly trying to space, has proved to generate an array of and 1970s the self-help housing model was or housing blocks densified to an extent that is adjust to the changing social structures and urban tissue types.2 seen as the most viable solution for accom- now comparable to the city centre.6 In this in- characteristics of the households. Sometimes In the exploration of how and under what modating the poor population, and illegal land verted process of city making the house is the home transformation resulted in creative solu- circumstances the individual process of home occupations were rarely forcefully neglected basic unit from which the city’s urban fabric is tions and the home extended and transformed transformation determines the formation of by the government. As Sáez, García and Roch generated. in synchrony with the extension of the family. urban tissue, both the physical as well as the proclaim, “the straw house has become a 4 In many cases however house growth was social determinants have to be taken into strategy for city making.” lagging behind causing conflicts in home space consideration. The spontaneous processes ¿Que of home transformation do not exclude that 5 RIOFRÍO, Gustavo; DRIANT, Jean-Claude, between homeowners and sharers. Empirical 3 BROMLEY, Ray, “Peru 1957–1977: How time and vivienda han construido? : nuevos problemas en viejas findings thus validated the initial hypothesis comparable improvement of the broader place influenced John Turner’s ideas on housing policy”, in: barriadas, Lima, Centro de Investigación, Desarrollo y 1 SÁEZ GIRALDEZ, Elia; GARCÍA CALDERÓN, José; physical environment might occur. This pro- Habitat International, 2003 (27) 2, pp. 271-292. Asesoría Poblacional, 1987: p. 61. ROCH PEÑA, Fernando, “La ciudad desde la casa: ciudades 2 SÁEZ GIRALDEZ; GARCÍA CALDERÓN; ROCH 4 SÁEZ GIRALDEZ, Elia; GARCÍA CALDERÓN, José; 6 Perfil Sociodemográfico de la Provincia de Lima, espontáneas en Lima”, in: Revista INVI, 2010: p. 79. PEÑA, 2010, op.cit: pp. 77-116. ROCH PEÑA, Fernando, 2010, op.cit: p. 77. INEI, 2007: p. 26

134 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part III - From the house to the city via the street 135 Saez, Calderón, 2010. Calderón, Saez, By Author, 2013. Author, By © ©

From the house to the street built terraces creating a sequences from public neously. Though Tokeshi points out the indi- (2012)11. In this neoliberal urban setting the In a formal planning system land uses are to semi-public spaces.7 When spaces where vidual advantages of commercial spaces that spontaneous urban development and densi- defined beforehand and then implemented formalized the responsibility shifted back to can be assembled in the house, he also states fication were accompanied by an increase of into an urban structure. On the contrary in the state. Meanwhile residents had (tempo- that the diversification of commercial uses is social insecurity.12 This increase in both popu- spontaneous processes, as Sáez, García and rary) appropriated these intermediate spaces, represented in a disordered zoning and does lation and social differences characterizes the Roch argue, echoing Turner’s depiction of the linking the private and the public, thereby not necessarily match local demands. Func- process of becoming a city. As described by autonomous housing system, uses emerge as contributing to the formation of qualitative tions appear mostly out of the individual need Massey, Allen & Pile, “The particularity of the a function of user’s demands and priorities spaces of interaction. of the owner and a commercial perspective. city is that it concentrates differences through over a certain period of time. Within the process of spatial aggradation, On the broader scale it often does not reflect its density of people and lived spaces.” 13 Homes absorb specific additional functions different tissue types are formed (see above a coherent use pattern.9 that change over time. Furthermore through image). Commercial and productive spaces Reflecting on spontaneous city making at Neighbourhood densification and the hetero- home transformation and densification, are assimilated in the residential spaces that different scale levels, it becomes apparent geneous society that transpired after a certain homes have the capacity to change the char- contribute to the formation of the productive that this type of urban development has its aging of the barriada, were already predicted acteristics of urban tissue at a broader scale tissue and are amenities for the neighbour- limits in the formation of larger urban areas. by Turner in 1968.14 Paralleled with densifica- such as density, typology and use patterns. hood. The process of aggradation is intensified Moreover problems occur related to the tion and diversification of the area, amenities The house moreover generates spatial fabric by the increasing level of consolidation of the city’s continuity. The inverted process of city and job opportunities would occur, though in which the individual processes determine homes and the corresponding densification, as making ensures certain self-sufficiency at the Turner did not look closely into the social the formation of urban tissue. was already predicted by Turner in 1968.8 Fur- scale of the house, but at the larger scale it differences between first and second genera- thermore the appropriate parts of the public is detached from the formal systems hereby tions that evolved. This process of ‘spatial aggradation’ is favour- space, transforming them in green areas and contributing to a fragmented city.10 Now, 4 decades later, the old barriadas able since it starts off at a human scale arrang- thereby contributing to the aggradation of the changed form rural squatter settlements to ing for a major flexibility than in a predeter- environmental tissue. Changing social realities mined formal planning system. It therefore The fast process of globalization that took 11 MATOS MAR, José, Perú: estado desbordado y place during the preceding two decades, sociedad nacional emergente, Lima, Centro de Investigación provides for a favourable relation between the Sáez, García and Roch have a rather optimistic Universidad Ricardo Palma, 2012 house and the street in which homes are part approach. Tokeshi is however critical towards caused unforeseen and extraordinary changes 12 PLÖGER, Jörg, “Gated barriadas: Responses to of an interactive play with the public space. the way in which amenities emerge sponta- in society, as was pointed out by Matos Mar urban insecurity in marginal settlements in Lima, Peru.” In: Initially authorities did not maintain streets or Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 2012: p. 212. sidewalks. As a consequence users extended 7 SÁEZ GIRALDEZ; GARCÍA CALDERÓN; ROCH 9 Tokeshi, Juan, Sembrando Huellas, Criterios 13 Massey, D.; Allen, J. & Pile, S. (1999). City PEÑA, 2010, op.cit: p. 88 técnicos para el crecimiento de la vivienda, final report, worlds: understanding cities. Psychology Press. their private domain towards the street edges 8 TURNER, John F. C., “The Squatter Settlement: Desco, 2001: p. 51. 14 TURNER, John F. C., “The Squatter Settlement: by assembling shops, gardens and small self- An architecture that works”, in: Architectural Design, 10 SÁEZ GIRALDEZ; GARCÍA CALDERÓN; ROCH An architecture that works”, in: Architectural Design, Architecture of Democracy, August 1968, p: 358. PEÑA, 2010, op.cit: p. 112. Architecture of Democracy, August 1968, pp. 355-360.

136 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part III - From the house to the city via the street 137 “Violence is a big issue nowadays. Almost daily a group of kids are smoking pot at the corner of the street. They know who I am and they won’t harm me. But a little bit further down the road youngsters from outside the neighbourhood gather at night. They are really violent and don’t have respects for the place and the inhabitants.” Señor Poemape (56), neighbourhood leader of 1 de Junio By Author, 2013. Author, By ©

urban neighbourhoods, side by side with a have less interest in participating in communal rity is translated in the physical environment in the street during the day. And that is not the transition from a communal-based society organizations. in various manners. Parallel to the process in first time that happens. Before it was only during to an individualistic society. The early stages which user appropriate parts of public space, the night but now you should be really aware also of this process of social change were uncov- The differences between the initial socially street gating is appearing in the urban land- during the day.” ered by Riofrío in 1987. He pointed to major organized community and the current indi- scape. Furthermore the use of public space is Julia (36), daughter Aleman difference and divergent aspirations between vidual society was explained by Plöger (2012) threatened by the increasing social deterio- the better-educated second generation raised as follows: “While social deprivation and the ration, keeping the people inside their homes Conclusions in the city and their working-class parents who desire for progress were significant drivers for and hardening the edges between private Looking into Lima’s spontaneous city making, were migrants coming from the countryside, community mobilization and collective action, and public. Hence, adding a social layer, the it became apparent that the individual process as Riofrío argued, after a communal struggle these have been facilitated by shared cultural potential of the favourable relation between of home consolidation determines the forma- for service acquisition, the attention shifted background and, consequently, mutual trust or the house and the street, pointed out by Sáez, tion of urban tissue. Sáez, García and Roch, towards the individual process of home im- pressure from within the community.”17 García and Roch, turn out to be different. This who mainly focus on the physical transitions provement.15 confirms the pre-assumed affects expressed in the urban landscape, have a rather positive Common features were expressed from re- in the first chapter that social diversification, approach. They argue that spontaneous city More than 20 years later, Michaela Hordijk spondents in my own research: that in the worst case leads to social detach- making allows for more flexibility than formal revisited the now ‘consolidated’ barriadas and ment, the increasing social insecurity and the planned systems, since homes have the capac- found similar transitions as Riofrío uncovered “The neighbourhood changed a lot. People today do shift from a community-oriented society to an ity to change the urban characteristics such as in 1987. It became apparent that children of not care anymore. They do not care if their children individualistic society, inhibit the interactive density, typology and use patterns. Further- original invaders grew up in a completely oth- have a better place to life tomorrow. That was real- play between home and street. The residents more the human scale of the ascendant model er environment then their parents, who built ly different before. People cared. But back then we describe these problems as follows: has high potential for the street as a social the neighbourhood through collective efforts. did not have access to water and electricity. So it space for interaction, in which Intermediate The second generation was moreover better was also more necessary to get together. Neverthe- “I really believe in the good of people, but I see spaces occur through user appropriations of educated, had better access to jobs and more- less we also did a lot more other activities together there are more and more bad people coming to the public space adjusted to their specific neces- over their housing aspirations changed con- before. Now every single person stays in his house.” neighbourhood. Last week during the night they sities. Tokeshi contrasted this idea stating that siderable. Unlike their parents, the children Julia (58), original invader of Pampas de San Juan broke in to the building and stole 20 guinea pigs. this only counts for the individual. tend to solve their housing problem “through When I went to the police they just laughed at me. the market.”16 Furthermore the shift towards Another outstanding fact in Hordijk’s study That is the world we live in.” Sáez, García and Roch argue that the future an individualistic society was underlined by was that violence and social insecurity were Cita, resident El Universo of these neighbourhoods should be embed- the second generations, who expressed to seen as the main problem according to 90% of ded in a more sustainable form of urbanism 15 RIOFRÍO; DRIANT, 1987, op.cit: p. 61. the respondents. The increasing urban insecu- “Though there are many problems now with drugs that has the capacity to evolve over time. The 16 HORDIJK, 2010, op.cit.: p. 372. 17 PLÖGER, 2012, op.cit.: p. 214. and robberies. Last week they mugged me here development of new planning systems should

138 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part III - From the house to the city via the street 139 follow the current logic and spontaneous pro- ed to consolidate), today they have reached cesses of city making. Not exchanging them similar consolidation levels that makes it hard for formal system but finding the connection to spot differences between the two, as a res- between the two. ident from asociación de vivienda El Universo proclaims: It was furthermore shown that under influence of social change other realities appear, “Asentamiento humano, asociación de vivienda? It causing social deterioration on the neigh- is al the same. We might have started differently, bourhood scale. Hence the increase of both now we all have constructed our houses and share population and social differences, the rising the same needs and desires for the future of our social insecurity and the shift from a commu- neighbourhood.” nity-oriented society to an individual society, Cita Gonzales, resident El Universo highly influence the spontaneous process of shaping the environment and not always Hordijk and Plöger both pointed to the impor- result in a qualitative urban neighbourhood. tance of strong community cohesion In order Deterioration of public space can be observed to guard against the increasing violence and and despite the fact that neighbourhoods social insecurity. Current inhabitants seem to now are fully services, there are still needs for share the same desire: improvement. “The most important that matters for the future “I hope that the neighbourhood will improve is that we have to keep organizing ourselves. further, with parks and sidewalks and more green There are still many things to improve; parks and areas.” sidewalks are missing and some roads are badly Cristina (51), resident of 1 de Junio constructed. But we also have to act as a community to solve problems with neighbours and find Furthermore the asentamientos humanos and solutions for the insecurity and the robberies that is asociaciónes de vivienda of Pampas might really getting too much now.” have started differently,18 (the land of the asentamientos humanos was invaded when Nora Jesusi (58), original invader of Pampas de the asociaciónes de vivienda already had start- San Juan and current neighbourhood leader 20 de By Author, 2013. Author, By

140 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part III - From the house to the city via the street 141 PART IV - Living between desires and possibilities

142 143 © By Author, 2013 Author, © By PART IV - Living between desires and possibilities rapidly developed houses rise promptly above are disentangled side-by-side in order to the surrounding urban landscape while the demonstrate what factors influenced the slow growing homes, consisting of small home progressive development of the house. The In the spontaneous urban development of As was mentioned at the beginning of this spaces built out of provisional materials, lag divergences and convergences of continuously Lima, urban dwellers shape their own living chapter, John Turner’s model stopped after behind. Many complexities become apparent changing social structures in extended families environment through a self-managed process 12 years of consolidation when homes had within the home consolidation process by result in distinctive spatial compositions while of home improvement. This inverted exercise reached the ‘completing stage.’5 What would taking a closer look. Every house has its at the same time some common trends in of city making (from the small to the large happen next was not clearly defined by Turner, own story and own reasons for extending, home transformation can be identified. scale) begins with illegal land occupations though other scholars continued to research improving, transforming and adapting along made by migrants, mostly through invasion the ‘second life’6 of self-help settlements.7 certain lines. Susana Williams (2005) already Firstly the influence of changing household and on occasion by purchasing non official illustrated some of the major complexities compositions and family size that Turner titles from land speculators. Subsequently a These ‘revisits’ showed clearly that self-help arising during the self-managed process considered an essential condition for homes long community struggle begins to acquire settlements, which emerged in the 1960s and of home improvement. Williams exposed to grow and adapt, are examined, showing services and private property titles.1 Between 1970s, developed far beyond the third stage the many additional external and internal the most divergent examples among the ten 1954, when the first large land invasion took of Turner’s model. In the changing setting of factors that influence the process of home studied cases. Secondly financial resources place in Ciudad de Dios,2 and today, the barri- modernization and democratization in Lima improvement and determine people’s decision of families are studied, looking at where the adas gradually transitioned from rural squat- many complexities evolved after a certain of the people to make home investments or money invested in the house comes from, if 8 ter settlements to urban neighbourhoods ‘aging’ of the barriadas. Today, after 3 to 5 not. and how second generations contribute to that now are part of metropolitan Lima. This decades of lived-in experience in the ‘consoli- home improvements either directly or indi- process characterizes the way in which most dated’ self-help settlements we can conclude In the first chapter it was hypothesized that rectly and if additional income (of commer- Limeños accessed the housing market in the that the model Turner promoted in the 1960s homes are not always able to adapt to chang- cial, productive spaces or rented out spaces) past. has reached its limits. ing social structures and characteristics of the is speeding up home consolidation. Tenurial extended families9. The empirically grounded conditions, that Turner pointed out as one Today more than two thirds of the urban The house along the street: study illustrated there are many more factors of the main causes to start off home consol- population live in peripheral low-income a divergent and convergent process of involved in home improvement than those idation and transformation, are examined in settlements and the vast majority of the home transformation originally developed in Turner’s self-help the third sections. Now thirty years later all 10 barriada’s founding fathers continue to live At the beginning of the research the capacity housing model. The ‘use values’ and ‘spatial homes have individual property rights, and in their self-built homes.3 Household compo- of homes to adapt to the changing social values’ of the ten cases of Pampas de San the question now should shift towards tenurial sitions changed considerably since the mid structures and characteristics of the extended Juan, show how diverse trajectories of home conditions of second and third generation 1950s. Families extended with a second and family was questioned. Factors which consolidation can be. Furthermore these em- dwellers, who in most cases continue to share 11 third generation and sometimes households influence the process of home consolidation pirical findings are not always consonant with a home that belongs to their parents. Finally extended even further with other relatives have been unfolded. The ten documented the original expectations of the self-managed the progressive development of the house or renters who moved in, sharing the same cases illustrated that homes follow extremely process of home improvement as was en- is discussed in relation to future aspirations house. As a consequence homes frequently distinctive trajectories while they consolidate dorsed by John Turner at the end of the 1960s. of second generations, social consumption have been subdivided, both horizontally and over time. From the houses along the street Hence it is time to reflect upon this model in norms, priorities and motivations for making vertically, into multiple apartments construct- some divergences are immediately visible. The order to better understand how complexities home improvements. ed on the same plot.4 5 TURNER, John F. C., “The Squatter Settlement: have evolved across different generations and An architecture that works”, in: Architectural Design, if the self-help house is still adjusted to the 1 See Chapter 2. Architecture of Democracy, August 1968: p. 358. needs of the current users. 2 MATOS MAR, José, Las barriadas de Lima, Lima, 6 See: page 61 IEP, 1977 7 Riofrío and Driant (1987) were the first who 3 WARD, Peter M., “A Patrimony for the Children: reflected on home consolidation over a longer period In the subsequent section the ten case studies Low-Income Homeownership and Housing (Im)Mobility in of time than Turner included in his model. Later Ward 8 WILLIAMS, Susana M., Young Town growing up: Latin American Cities.”, 2012: pp. 1489-1510. revisited the self-help settlements in Mexico. RIOFRÍO, four decades later: self-help housing and upgrading lessons 4 WARD, Peter M., “Self-help housing policies for Gustavo; DRIANT, Jean-Claude, ¿Que vivienda han from a squatter neighborhood in Lima, Master thesis, 11 GILBERT, Alan. “A home is for ever? Residential second generation inheritance and succession of The House construido? : nuevos problemas en viejas barriadas, Lima, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2005. mobility and homeownership in self-help settlements”, in: that Mum & Dad Built.”, In: Habitat International, 2011 (35) Centro de Investigación, Desarrollo y Asesoría Poblacional, 9 See Chapter 1: p. 64 Environment and Planning, 1999 (31) 6: pp. 1073-1091. 3, pp. 467–485. 1987. WARD, 2011, op. cit.: pp. 467–485. 10 TURNER, 1968, op. cit.: p. 358. WARD, 2011, op. cit: pp. 467–485.

144 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part IV - Living between desires and possibilities 145 SCHEME 1 home transformation and family growth

1. Family size, changing household Other than Turner’s showed in his model, Turner, to a certain extent, was right in his pre- house of their parents.16 As Turner anticipated, compositions and home consolidation demographic growth of extended families did dictions about how diversification of house- in response to family extension and a grow- not directly influence home consolidation. holds as a consequence of the neighbourhood ing need for privacy of three generations of Initially, Lima’s urban development occurred in Turner expected homes to consolidated in densification would evolve over time. The first users, homes are often been subdivided either a horizontal manner caused by the formation line with the growth of the family, when more settlers in the barriadas were young families horizontally by splitting up parts of the plot or of barriadas in the urban peripheries, result- children were born additional rooms would but while the barriada would develop the vertically constructing individual apartments ing in low densities and an enormous city ex- be added. From Susana Williams’ findings of population distribution in terms of age and in ‘los aires’ with independent staircases.17 pansion. After the barriadas were established, a revisit to low-income settlement Indepen- income would gradually shift towards a het- Nonetheless, also here counts that more fac- low-income districts experienced a period of dencia in Northern Lima, it became apparent erogeneous population comparable with that tors influence this process resulting in diver- intensive densification that was initiated by that the size of the family was not necessarily of cities that have a certain age. As a conse- gent outcomes when looking at the realities. self-help consolidation. As Riofrío showed the reflected in the development of the house. quence, according to Turner, there would be city’s population growth during the 1970s and Large extended families did not always have a a greater demand for rental accommodation The ten cases illustrate that home transforma- 1980s was mainly concentrated in the low-in- developed and improved home and vice-versa. 12 after three phases of consolidation and upper tion and the way in which homes are extended come sectors. Along with the densification Williams argued that there are many determi- floors of homes would be subdivided for the in relation to the extension of the family are of the low-income districts of Lima, household nants in the home investment and improve- 15 16 WARD, Peter M., “Self-Help Housing: Ideas and 14 new generations. structures changed radically. Families extend- ment process. Practice in the Americas”, in: Planning Ideas that Matter. ed with a second and third generation and Michaela, “Nuestra Realidad es Otra: Changing realities in Eds. Bishwapriya Sanyal, Lawrence Vale and Christina sometimes renters, and both neighbourhoods Lima’s peripheral settlements: a case study from San Juan There is a common trend of both the low Rosan. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2012: p. 301 and households diversified in terms of age, de Miraflores”, in: The production, use and dissemination mobility among the original homeowners and 17 See the work of Ward and Tokeshi, in chapter 4 income and educational levels.13 of Urban Knowledge in Cities of the South, BRUNFAUT, V. ; grown-up children that continue to live in the this will be discussed in more detail: WARD, 2011, op. cit.: D’AURIA, V.; DE MEULDER, B.; MORETTA, L.; SHANNON, K. pp. 467–485. ZOLEZZI, Mario; TOKESHI, Juan; NORIEGA, 12 RIOFRIO, DRIANT, 1987, op. cit.: p. 32 (eds.), Brussels, N-AERUS, 2010, pp. 361-374. Carlos, Densificación habitacional: Una propuesta de 13 RIOFRIO, DRIANT, 1987, op. cit. HORDIJK, 14 WILLIAMS, 2005, op. cit.: p. 107 15 TURNER, 1968, op. cit.: p. 358 crecimiento para la ciudad popular, Lima, Desco, 2005.

146 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part IV - Living between desires and possibilities 147 SCHEME 2 home transformation and family growth, divergences and convergences Three families, three homes

1 2 8

not always synchronized processes. Every grew and transformed into a collective home family extension: while the visionary house sentially have a direct affect on home transfor- house has its own particular development pro- comprising four individual entrances. Never- of Nora and Wilberto remained practically mation. Furthermore, as Justina’s house and cess as every family has its own personal story theless this did not result in a fundamental untouched, Alemans courageous house grew family trajectories together show, a house can and reasons for making home investments and home improvement. The house remained and adapted in synchrony with the family adapt to changing household characteristics, enlarging in home space. Hence the hypothe- small, is poorly constructed and has a low extension and transformed into a collective but that does not necessarily mean that house sis stated at the beginning of this chapter that level of consolidation. home. The contrast can be easily spotted from transformation and adaptation entails home the family size and changing compositions of a distance, with Aleman’s two-storey house is improvement. the household do not directly affect the home The three cases presented above all involve built in durable materials covering the entire consolidation process is confirmed by empiri- a large household size that has undergone plot next to Nora’s visionary house consisting cal findings. major changes over the past 3 decades and of small home spaces built out of provisional Home space reflecting a life history show the most striking differences in the way materials. 3. The steady house of Sandra and Cecilio Three families, three homes in which family size and changing household All of the three adolescent children of Sandra 1. The visionary house of Nora and Wilberto compositions influenced home consolidation. In the third case of Justina’s progressive and Cecilio stayed living in the parents’ house The family extended but the house did not Comparing the visionary house of Nora with house, household characteristics changed and the family further extended now including follow the same trajectory and remained the courageous house of the Alemans, we see even more drastically. The family extended not a third generation. The house extended practically unimproved, in terms of both level that both families extended in a similar way. only with a second and third generation, but and the oldest daughter is constructing her of consolidation and housing typology. However, the process of home consolidation is other kinship and tenants joined the house- own apartment on the second floor, though 2. The courageous house of the Alemans very dissimilar in the two cases. hold as well. The home is being transformed no subdivision was made and the house The family extended and the house grew, in line with the extension of the household. remained a single-family home. The house transformed and adapted in synchrony with More than 30 years after the parents invaded Though the house is adapting to accommo- developed steadily in line with the family the growing family. The house was subdivid- the desert lands of Pampas both Nora’s and date newcomers, arranging individual spaces trajectory. ed into 4 separate apartments and is highly Aleman’s family extended with a second and and new entrances to allow for more privacy, 4. The faltering house of Brenda consolidated in terms of building materials a third generation. Some of their children it is not substantially improving and consolidat- The previous homeowners do not continue that are used in the construction and levels of moved out, but most of them stayed to live in ing in terms of both its physical structure as to live in the house. The father moved out finishing of interiors spaces. the parents’ house, including grandchildren well as its ‘use value’. and the mother passed away. The first-born 8. The progressive house of Justina that were born in the meantime. daughter Brenda took over and now lives in The family extended with second and third Therefore it can be concluded that family size the house. In this case the family has been generations, relatives and renters. The house The two houses responded very differently to and changing family composition do not es- split up and experienced many conflicts. The

148 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part IV - Living between desires and possibilities 149 3 4 2 5 10

80% 60%

house transformed similar to the faltering past and third generations Case 2 did not expand vertically as the other of the family. It first decreased, then slowly 10. The ambitious house of Rufina two cases, though the spaces are more consol- recuperated, after which it was taken over by The family extends the house grows and is idated and the house is being subdivided both the second generation. being transformed into department building, horizontally as well as vertically. subdivided vertically with second generations These results show that three homes that The previous cases illustrated how the increas- claiming the spaces in ‘los aires’ reached a similar level of consolidation result ing size of the family does not directly and in very different built structures. The tracks necessarily have an affect on the home consol- The households of the ambitious and the cou- that homes follow towards improvement idation and that homes with a similar consoli- rageous house extended with a second and are as unique as every individual family, who dation level follow very distinctive trajectories third generation. The residents of the expedi- makes its home investments gradually and not that are not always in line with the family tious house involve only first and second gen- always in concomitance with the extension of extensions. The cases of Sandra and Brenda erations, children who started their own fami- the family. This will be further analysed in the illustrate how the trajectory of the family can ly moved out. In all three cases the majority of part on financial resources and home invest- have a major affect on the development of the the children stayed to live with their parents. ments. house. The contrasting life histories of each Comparing life trajectories with the house woman directly translates in the way their trajectory it can be assumed that an increasing “We are constructing upstairs 4 extra floors for home space has developed. family size does affect house improvement. us, the children, to live in the future. This way we Though in some cases this is true, factors such always have a place to stay here, but we are not Rapid consolidation, similar families, as the commercial and productive values of sure if all of us stay.” dissimilar spaces the house and the future plans of the second Elida (34), daughter of Rufina 5. The expeditious house of Vacilia and generations, are also highly influential. Marcelo The family extends, the house grows consider- Furthermore the spatial outcomes of the ably but remains a single family home consolidation process are very diverse. Cases 2. The courageous house of the Alemans 5 and 10 extended in a similar way, having the family extends the house grows and tran- both vertical home enlargements, though one sitions to a collective home by horizontal and house remains a single-family home and the vertical subdivisions intended for the second other is split up into individual apartments.

150 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part IV - Living between desires and possibilities 151 SCHEME 3 home investments, second generations’ aspirations and home consolidation

2. Financial resources and home As Turner adds, “people will invest their plenti- make an important distinction between the suddenly money available, other times home investments ful and generally renewable resources.”20 accessible financial resources and what in the improvements are long in coming. Furthermore an upward trajectory of house- end motivates people to undertake action, or “The willingness of people to invest their hold incomes was expected after the first as Gilbert explained “the share of income peo- In my own investigation into the origin of cap- energy and initiative and their savings or other stage in which poor young families settled ple are prepared to dedicate to housing.”22 ital that is invested in homes and looking at material resources depends on the satisfac- and started to build an incipient house.21 This Gilbert’s interrogations from a broader per- who is investing in the house, a wide range of tions they experience or expect as a result.”18 means that in a self-managed process of home spective already implied that users’ aspira- home investment patterns can be found. The improvement, which ‘satisfies the needs of tions also affect the decision to pursue home resources range from personal earnings and Looking back on how John Turner assumed the user’, people would automatically invest improvement. savings to bank loans or additional income. In how resources would be invested in the and improve their home. If levels of income only one of the ten cases the family received house by users, he pointed to the advantages would increase, the home would develop in Tokeshi portrayed the home construction as a financial support from a government pro- of ‘autonomous’ housing systems, in which, synchrony. progressive process made through emotional gram24. according to Turner, there is a proper balance It is indeed true that, when household in- commitment of a family.23 Homes consolidate In Lima there do exist government programs, between supply and demand19. He argues that comes increase it is likely that it speeds up the gradually and capital is invested step by step such as the Banco de Materiales (BANMAT), the ‘supportive shack’ has a high ‘use value’ development and improvement of the dwell- by the user. Sometimes rapidly when there is MIVIVIENDA or Techopropio, that provide since the dwelling is adjusted to the needs of ing, though Turner does not describe precisely 22 GILBERT, A; VARLEY, A, “Renting a home in a small loans or funding for home improvement. the users who have the ‘freedom to decide’. how subsequently financial resources would third world city: choice or constraint?”, in: International Nevertheless, according to Tokeshi and Riofrío, be invested in the house. Turner forgot to Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 1990: p. 93. Cited these programs are too small to cover the 18 TURNER, John F.C., Housing by people: Towards in: Van Lindert, Paul, 1991: p. 25. whole popular housing sector. They proclaim autonomy in building environments, London, Boyars, 1976. 20 TURNER, 1976, op. cit.: p. 102. See chapter 2 23 ZOLEZZI; TOKESHI; NORIEGA, 2005, op.cit.: p. 19 TURNER, 1976, op. cit: p. 51. 21 TURNER, 1968, op. cit: p. 358 91. 24 Case 5. The expeditious house – Sra. Vacilia

152 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part IV - Living between desires and possibilities 153 Sources of capital invested 1. wages, personal savings, bank loans, additional income occasional renters 2. wages, personal savings, bank loans 3. wages, personal savings 4. wages, savings, bank loans 5. personal earnings, savings, bank loans, techo propio government program, additional income workshop 6. personal earnings and savings, bank loans 7. additional income (before from rent niece and shop), wages and savings, bank loans 8. wages and savings, additional income shop renters 9. wages, savings, bank loans

10. wages, savings, bank loans, and additional income 2013. Author, By © The expeditious house of Vacilia, workshop in home space

that home improvement is highly dependent second and third generations.28 ers. With money her sister sends home from the property has an important added valued on people’s capacity of saving and borrowing Spain, they improved the house little by little for the family that makes it unlikely that that capital.25 Furthermore there is a trend of an In the exploration of cases to document in to make it suitable for the renters.29 would want to sell the property or part of it.”30 increasing amount of people who built their Pampas de San Juan that would represent The possibilities for economic activities that houses with bank loans. divergences and convergences in home con- “ My sister did not invade, she bought the land Turner equally put forward as a great poten- solidation, a relative low number of homes later. Before there was living a family with a lot of tial, can therefore still be seen as one of the Two exceptional cases, Homes built where found that were built with remittanc- problems. They left and put the lot up for sale. I told greater advantage of self-help housing. without bank loans. es. In none of the ten in-depth case studies my sister and she bought it in 1994. In recent years 3. The steady house: home investments en- remittances were used. Among the neighbour- we made some improvements to the house, we fin- Homes with an added economic use tirely made by personal earnings and savings hood residents who were interviewed hardly ished the spaces and placed a new kitchen. We did 5. The expeditious house of Sra. Vacilia resulting in a highly consolidated home anyone knew cases where family members not extend the house further after my sister left.” 8. The progressive house of Justina 8. The progressive house: home investments migrated and sent money back home to im- “ My sister asks 400 soles for the rent for the whole 10. The ambitious house of Rufina made without bank loans, resulting in a sub- prove the house. house, that’s not much. Her we are in an area still standard building structure where not a lot of One case was found a child moved across let’s say semi-urban. In San Juan the rents are much Additional income from renters money has been invested. borders. Brenda, owner of the faltering house, higher; they charge you in dollars.” The growing demand for rental accommoda- lived and worked in Venezuela for a period of Sandra, owner of the steady house tion was already included in Turner’s three 26 Remittances time. Though she explained that the money stages model. In 1992 Gilbert and Gugler Across different Latin American countries she earned abroad was just enough for her Additional income from commercial spaces spotted similar trends: scholars frequently found homes that were weekly expenses back there. When she came A common practice in the low-income settle- “While the richer families obviously contribute built with remittances. Ward found a few cas- back home to Lima, she had no savings left to ments of Lima is that the house has an added to the economy of the barrio, the poor may es in Monterrey Mexico that were built with invest in the house. commercial or productive value and is used to be an important source of income for the rich. money second generations worked for in the In the case of Sandra, the sister bought a plot generate additional income either from small For it is a undeniable fact that as settlements 27 United States and brought back home. In the nearby the house of Sandra. Sandra’s sister businesses, shops and workshops, primary become older and consolidate, the proportions study Williams completed in Independencia bought the plot in 1994. They demolished school, community kitchens or other rented of renters increase; owners deliberately extend Lima, even 30% of the cases used remittances the house of the previous owners and built a out spaces. These spaces of economic use are their houses to accommodate renters, thereby in improvements of the house, sent home by complete new house. The entire family moved of great significance for the user. As Tokeshi increasing their income.”31 25 RIOFRÍO, Gustavo; TOKESHI, Juan, “Un mercado to Spain in 2006. They rented out the house explains: “the potential for economic use of Though the trend of renting out spaces can paso a paso. Autoconstrucción en la ciudad popular”, in: after they migrated. Sandra, who lives one Peru Hoy, Lima, Desco, 2007: p. 368 block down the street, takes care of the house 29 It was attempted to document this case. 30 TOKESHI, 2005, op. cit.: p.91 26 Money that is sent home by family members Though the owners, who live in Spain did not give 31 GILBERT, Alan; GUGLER, Josef, Cities, Poverty who work abroad. now and makes arrangements with the rent- permission. The information is based on an interview with and Development: Urbanization in the Third World, Oxford 27 WARD, 2011, op. cit.: p. 479 28 WILLIAMS, 2005, op. cit.: p. 98. Sandra, the sister of the homeowner. University Press, 1992: p. 128

154 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part IV - Living between desires and possibilities 155 By Author, 2013. Author, By © Subdivision of the plot Subdivisions in ‘los aires’

vary across different countries. Ward found that they were interested in extending their My own experiences from Pampas de San “I am supporting my mum and dad in their daily in a comparative study of capital cities in dwelling with the purpose of renting it out in Juan, were in line with the common trend living expenses and by paying the electricity and Colombia and Mexico large difference in the the future.34 Tokeshi and Hordijk observed. For the ma- water bills, but my salary is not that big to contrib- percentage of renters that were included in jor part of Pampas’ families the economical ute in improving the house. the households. In Bogotá, Colombia, 27% of An explanation for the negative attitude situation improved on account of additional Apart from that the kids come first of all.” the studies cases included (unrelated) renters, against renters in Pampas de San Juan can be household income of second generations. In Janet (30), daughter Nora and Wilberto while in Mexico city only 3% of the household ascribed to the social changes that took place the evaluation on how cumulative income rented out parts of the house to outsiders.32 in the settlement, resulting in an increase of from new generations influenced the home “Since last year I started paying rent, before I kept social insecurity. consolidation, an important distinction has to all my income for myself. I now see that in this way In Pampas de San Juan renters were not fre- The majority of original inhabitants, who be made between direct and indirect invest- I can help my mother and sometimes I buy here quently included in surveyed households. In experienced how the neighbourhood changed, ments. things for the house like that dining table I bought only one case, of Justina’s progressive house, state that the problems of violence occurred In nine of the ten cases children of original her for Christmas.” the household was comprised of a combina- when newcomers in the neighbourhood. homeowners made financial contribution to Cesar (23), son Julia tion of first, second and third generations, oth- the household (see above scheme). Some- er kins paying rent and non-related renters. Contributions of second generations times this money was used for making home “We all support my mum financially as much as we Furthermore homeowners were often not so The shift from the first generation investing in improvements, either investing directly in can, but she also finds it really important that we keen to rent out spaces to ‘strangers’, because home improvements to a second generation the house or indirectly by paying rent that invest and finish our studies.” “they did not want problems.” Only three of that has taken over. Juan Tokeshi found from subsequently is invested in the house by their Mariela (28) Rufina’s daughter ten families considered the option for renting the studies he completed in Villa El Salvador, parents. In other cases the money is used for out spaces to unknowns in the future.33 Fam- that in most cases the children were the ones other purposes such as basic living expenses Price increase ilies were more open when it came to taking to extend their parents’ house.35 Also in stud- or other goods. When family members in Pampas de San Juan in relatives. The majority expressed that if the ies Michaela Hordijk completed, two thirds were asked for their motivation for making a opportunity arose, they would accommodate of the children contributed to the household “I am really glad with the house as it is today. home improvement they often mentioned the kins. income. Thanks to the children who supported my husband increasing prices of construction materials. and me. They invested most in the house. With their The little ambition for renting out part of money we were able to built the second floor and “It is better to construct now because prices of ma- the home space is really different from what 34 RIOFRÍO; DRIANT, 1987, op.cit.: p. 100 improve the kitchen and living room downstairs. terials are going up very fast and it also becomes Riofrío found in 1987. 15% of households in- 35 TOKESHI, Juan, personal communication Our lives have become much better in many ways. harder to get loans.” feb.-aug. 2013. The issue of tenurial conditions across There were times when it was really hard times to Elida (34), daughter Rufina cluded renters and people furthermore stated generations is fully described in Tokeshi, Juan, Sembrando 32 WARD, 2011, op. cit.: p. 472. Huellas, Criterios técnicos para el crecimiento de la make ends meet, especially with 10 children.” 33 Case 8 - Justina. Case 10 - Rufina. vivienda, final report, Desco, 2001 Señora Flores (69), Aleman’s wife

156 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part IV - Living between desires and possibilities 157 Private belongings of second generations Private belongings of renters

3. Tenurial conditions Home ownership as was mentioned in the pre- 4. Future aspirations and social termined already in 1987, indeed experienced vious paragraph also opens up possibilities for consumptions norms better education and accessed better jobs. The Home ownership economic use; integrating shops, workshops, incomes of the aging first generation are much Many first generation residents in low-income internet cabins, and even private primary As was mentioned in paragraph two, an up- lower.45 Therefore the future home improve- settlements, who now own a house, before schools in home spaces.41 Furthermore, the ward trajectory of a household income does ment is now in the hands of the second and lived in rental accommodation often shared desire to become a homeowner and invade not necessarily mean that the home would third generation. with many other kins, in Lima’s inner city.36 land in the urban peripheries, lacking all kind also improve along the same line. Gilbert stat- Alan Gilbert saw renting as a temporary stage of services, mainly came from their to obtain a ed that the process of home improvement is Staying or leaving? prior to home ownership, since renters tran- property they could pass on to the children in closely related to “the share of income people As the previous scheme already demonstrates sition to homeowners in a certain period of the future.42 are prepared to dedicate to housing.”43 Gil- the willingness of second generations to invest time.37 Though for the new generations things bert’s assumptions from a broader perspective in the house highly corresponds with their have changed.38 Since “the home is forever”39 New problems arise along with changing char- in a way already implied that the aspirations future plans. It is clear that if the children do and children in most cases still with their acteristics of households. Over the last three of users also influence the decision to under- not have the intention to stay in the house parents, their future housing career highly decades all homes in Pampas de San Juan take action and make a home investment. they are less willing to invest directly in the depends on possibilities they have of improv- have obtained individual land titles, however house. Though there were also cases in which ing extending and transforming their parents’ the house structure is not officially recognized. The process of home consolidation is highly the children rather left, but did invest in the house. Furthermore titles are registered in the name depending on the future aspirations of the house. This had to do with the fact that these of first generation owners. That means that second generation. Their future plans and the children ‘chose’ to stay because there was no Primarily, the great advantage of a self-help actions undertaken by second generations, priority they give to home improvement is other solution, similar to what respondents housing (in which people become home who frequently take over the home improve- the main factor that will eventually speed up in Riofrio’s study stated in 1987.46 This in a owners) over renting an accommodation is the ment from their parents, are based on a or slow down the development of the house. way illustrates the gap between the people’s tenurial security of owning property, meaning strong relationship of trust. Logically this also depends on the resources desires and their actual possibility on the that home owners have less fear for evictions the children have. housing market. if their income is not stable, since they are not Michaela Hordijk showed that parents often paying rent.40 aspired their children to “become a profes- Of the 22 second generation respondents the 36 First migrants settled in the so-called sional.”44 majority was optimistic about their home situ- callejones (small alleyways with the purpose of rental The second generations, as Riofrío equally de- ation, though many would prefer to have more accommodation) in the inner city of Lim. See chapter 2 41 TOKESHI, 2005, op. cit. HORDIJK 2010, op. cit. space in the future, more privacy and some if 37 Gilbert, Gugler, 1992, op. cit.: p. 128 42 WARD, 2011, op. cit. Tokeshi: “The possession 43 Gilbert, A; Varley, A, “Renting a home in a third 38 As was expressed by Riofrio and Hordijk, see of a ‘house of one’s own’, regardless of the stage that is world city: choice or constraint?”, in: International Journal possible would like to have a house for them- chapter 2 in, is accomplished through the effort and sacrifice of the of Urban and Regional Research, 1990: p. 93. Cited in: Van 45 Hordijk, 2010, op. cit.: p. 369. 39 GILBERT, 1999, op. cit.: pp. 1073-1091 family and is considered as the main inheritance for the Lindert, Paul, 1991: p. 25. 46 Riofrío, Gustavo; Driant, Jean-Claude, 1987: p. 40 GILBERT, GUGLER, 1992, op. cit.: p. 124. children.” TOKESHI, 2004, op.cit.: p. 91 44 Hordijk, 2010, op. cit.: p. 369. 121

158 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part IV - Living between desires and possibilities 159 SCHEME 3 financial contribution of second generations and their future aspirations

selves. Though almost all of the respondents ations and their future plans either to stay or the house. consider a house for themselves as something to leave (see image above). 8. The progressive house of Justina: Temporary impossible in Lima. Surprisingly many second renters who do not have the intention to stay, generations had a clear understanding of their ‘Invest and want to stay’ pay there rent and do not invest or contribute possibilities on the current housing market in 2. The courageous house of the Alemans directly in making home transformations and Lima. 3. The steady house of Sandra improvements. 5. The expeditious house of Vacilia “Looking at my own housing situation, the best ‘Do not invest and want stay’ would be constructing my own house for me and my “My parents did a lot for the neighbourhood. I 6. The modest house of Cristina: The children children, but if we are realistic that is just impos- experienced that from when I was little and I have contribute in an informal way. Paying bills, sible in Lima these days. Invasions are now over, much respect for them their efforts. Their efforts food and goods. If they would have more there is no land available anymore and I would not also makes me feel attached to this area, I cannot resources they would like to invest directly in want to live all the way up the hillsides. It is to far imagine living in another place. the house. and to dangerous. The problem is that rents are re- Julia (36), daughter Aleman 7. The amiable house of Julia: Cesar does not ally high. Lima has to grow vertically from now on.” invest directly in the house but started paying Elida (34), daughter Rufina “I want to study architecture. I like how my parents rent recently. The improvements of the house built the house. I am still very young so I do not are taken care of by the mother. “It would be convenient to have a bit more space or know how I would like to live in the future, maybe 9. The garden house of Cita: The son still living a lot for my own family. Now we live with the five of like my sister did and build an apartment for myself in the house does not contribute at all since us in on single room. But all the land has been taken upstairs.” there are other priorities of their studies first and to buy a piece of land is just too expansive and Ruth (15), daughter of Sandra and he is still quite young. When he will be invasions are just not very common any more.” able to he will start paying rent to his parents. Amanda (37), daughter of Aleman ‘Do no invest and want to leave’ The improvements of the house are taken care 1. The visionary house of Nora: Most of the of by the parents. The financial contributions that members of children are not planning to stay, even if they the extended family make can be categorized are not planning to leave soon either they do ‘Invest but do not necessarily want to stay’ according to four trajectories related to direct not see their future in the house of their mum 4. The faltering house of Brenda home investments made by the second gener- and dad and therefor do not invest directly in 10. The ambitious house of Rufina

160 Chapter 3 - A journey from the house to the city and back Part IV - Living between desires and possibilities 161 [04] The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement

162 163 © By Author, 2013 Author, © By PART I - The consolidated self-help settlement © Edith R. Jiménez Huerta, 2013 Huerta, R. Jiménez © Edith Consolidated self-help settlement in Guadalajara, Mexico

In the historical chapter1 the early debate and model has reached its limits and homes are not living in a low-income self-help settlement times even including renters or other relatives John Turner’s influential theories on self-help always able to adapt to the changing charac- was often the only possibility) the settlements in the household. Densities have increased housing were reviewed in relation to the teristics of extended households. While homes covered between 10-60 per cent of numerous and homes are frequently being subdivided practice of self-help housing in metropolitan consolidate they do not always follow similar Latin American cities by the early 1980s6. both horizontally and vertically to adjust to the Lima. It showed that the early ‘success’ of the trajectories. In the process of home transfor- One decade before many squatter settlements growing need for privacy10. barriadas could be ascribed to favourable local mation many more factors are involved than were regularized in several Latin American circumstances. Empirical research ‘revisiting’ Turner originally showed. cities, land titles were given out and conse- The paradigm shift the consolidating barriadas after the incipient quently services were installed7. The speed The paradigm shifted from first depicting slums and developing stage also showed that the In this final chapter the contemporary debate with which the consolidation of the settlement as “a fungus attached to and growing out from self-help houses were going to reach their on the ‘second life’5 of consolidated settle- took place depended strongly on the local the carapace of the city”11 towards an attitude limits soon2. After 3 to 5 decades of lived-in ments will be discussed reflecting back on the circumstances and political climate.8 Sponta- of seeing the squatter settlement as “an archi- experience the self-help settlements have de- historical debate and the findings of the em- neous urbanization that began with a process tecture that works.12” The government respons- veloped even beyond the ‘completing’ stage3, pirical study in Pampas de San Juan. A selected of self-improvement of home spaces, resulted es and policies regarding squatter settlements illustrating that today’s realities in the self-help range of influential studies and ‘revisits’ of in highly consolidated neighbourhoods that can changed considerably over time as well, first settlements turned out to be different to what self-help settlements is presented first. All are be immediately seen from the changes in the neglecting the irregular land occupations on Turner envisioned in the 1960s. based on longitudinal studies and documenta- physical environment. The multi-storey homes invaded or purchased land without a clear tion from experience in the Latin American con- along the paved streets are built in durable property title, and later adopting self-help as a Subsequently ten in-depth case studies based text carried out by both local researchers and materials, neighbourhoods are fully serviced, recognized housing strategy. In Lima during the upon intensive fieldwork carried out in the pe- other scholars. This will support discussions public transport runs through and more recent- 1960s and 1970s self-help housing was even ripheral low-income settlement of Pampas de about the future of self-help housing in order ly private cars are also appearing in the street seen as the preeminent way to house the poor San Juan were presented.4 To a certain extent to meet the needs of the next generations. view.9 Many of the original owners continue population. the empirical findings were consonant with to live in their self-built homes on land they Turner’s original expectations. Nevertheless Across various Latin American cities self-help procured decades ago, often together with ad- 10 Ward, Peter M., “Self-help housing policies for many complexities have evolved confirming the settlements that emerged from the early 1960s second generation inheritance and succession of The House ditional members of the family that extended that Mum & Dad Built.”, In: Habitat International, 2011 (35) pre-assumed idea that the self-help housing onwards already showed major transforma- with a second and third generation and some- 3, pp. 467–485. 1 See Chapter 2, The house and the family in a tions after 10-25 years of existence. At the start 6 Gilbert, Alan. The Mega-City in Latin America, 11 Juppenlatz, Morris. Cities in Transformation: changing setting of modernization and democratization in of the 1980s, when urbanization was speeding London, Russell Press, 1996: p. 74. The Urban Squatter Problem of the Developing World. Lima, Peru: pp. up, many squatter settlements had changed 7 As described by Gilbert and Ward, Housing, Queensland, University of Queensland Press, 1970: p. 5. 2 As was described by the Riofrio and Driant the state, and the poor: policy and practice in three Latin into ‘consolidated’ neighbourhoods. With the 12 This refers to the influential paper written already in 1987, and American cities. Cambridge University Press, 1985. by Turner, John F. C., “The Squatter Settlement: An 3 Hordijk, 2010: p. parallel increase of poor citizens (for whom 8 See chapter 2: pp. architecture that works”, in: Architectural Design, 1968: pp. 4 See chapter 3. 5 See Chapter 3: p. 9 Hordijk, 2010: p. 368 355-360.

164 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part I - The consolidated self-help settlement 165 These radical changes in the approach can be The central question in the debate of ‘who Ward who, after publishing the influential book ‘works’ or ‘malfunctions’ are crucial to un- ascribed to the rising number of positive voices decides for whom’16 or seeing the squatter Self-Help Housing: A critique in 1982, remained derstand how ‘other realities’ evolve in order and empirical surveys of various researchers settlement as a ‘problem or solution’17 equally active in the same field to date. to rethink the future of self-help settlements studying the squatter settlement, including changed. As Chambers (2005) argued, squat- across different generations both in social and the influential writings of and John F. C. Turner, ting was the ‘solution’ for the vast majority Within the discourse of human settlements spatial terms.22 In 1976 Turner proclaimed that: 18 whose ideas were heavily influenced by his of the urban poor to gain access to housing. today, a new momentum seems to be un- “the value of the house must be determined by experiences from Peru and the favourable local Furthermore informal settlements extended derstood with the ‘revisiting’ of projects and how far it satisfies or frustrates the needs of its 13 23 circumstances and Peruvian anthropologist tremendously filling out major parts of the reflections upon original ideas and theories20. user.” Keeping this in mind it is now crucial to 14 José Matos Mar. cities. As they became more and more visible, it Many researchers return to their study area see to what extent the house indeed ‘satisfies became difficult to ignore the fact they existed. to compare and document changes over time. or frustrates’ the needs of the various genera- Self-help housing allowed the freedom to build As architect Hubert Klumpner (2005) puts it, “it Peter M. Ward has returned to Mexico and tions sharing the home space. and shape one’s own environment, though by is critical to recognize that informality is neither numerous other Latin American countries, 19 giving the power to the people the government good nor bad - it simply is. ” Caroline Moser to Ecuador, Janice Perlman to also relinquished itself from its duty of provid- Brazil and Michaela Hordijk to Peru.21 These ing adequate housing for the urban poor. Regu- After the debate on self-help housing reached ‘revisits’ are crucial in order to ‘test’ if original larization allowed a large amount of the urban its peak in the eighties, many of its participants theories are still valid in current times. Ideol- poor to become homeowners and obtain ‘a remained quiet or, like John Turner did, shifted ogies and utopias not always turn out in the house of their own’. On the other hand, it was their interest to other topic issues. Other schol- way in which their founding fathers envisioned also a strategy for governments to maintain a ars continued researching the second life of the originally, and different generations manifest certain social control or as Peter Ward states, squatter settlement. Among them Peter M. different aspirations. “making low-income settlements the key arena 16 As John Turner regarded as the principal issue for statecraft.”15 in his book Housing by People, Turner, John F. C., 1976: p. 11. See chapter 1: p. These more recent reflections upon squatter 17 The squatter as a problem or a solution refers settlements as an architecture that either to William Mangin famous article: Mangin, William, “Latin 13 Described by Gyger and Bromley. See Chapter American squatter settlements: a problem and a solution”, 20 The tradition of documenting and current 2: p. in: Latin American Research Review, 1967 (2) 3, pp. 65-98. “revisiting” of projects is illustrated by Rodrigo Pérez Bromley, R., “Peru 1957–1977: How time and place 18 Chambers, Bill, “The barriadas of Lima: Slums of de Arce, Esther Jacobs and Viviana d’Auria based influenced John Turner’s ideas on housing policy”, in: hope or despair? Problems or solutions?”, in: Geography, upon the cases of PREVI in Lima and Mariano Melgar Habitat International, 2003 (27) 2, pp. 271-292. 2005 (90) 3, pp. 200-224. See chapter 2: pp. in Arequipa.“Dwelling Practices Informing Urbanism Gyger, Helen 19 Klumpner, Hubert, Urban Think Tank in: / Urbanism informing Dwelling Practices”, in: Human 22 For a complete definition of ‘home space’ see 14 Matos Mar Brillembourg, Alfredo; Feireiss, Kristin; Klumpner, Hubert Settlements, 2010: pp. 113-127. chapter 2: p… 15 Ward, Peter M., 2004: p. 272 (eds.) Informal city: Caracas case, Prestel, 2005. 21 23 Turner, John F. C., 1976: p. 102

166 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part I - The consolidated self-help settlement 167 PART II - [RE] Visiting the self-help housing model 1. “Que vivienda han construido?” © Gustavo Ríofrio, 1987. Ríofrio, © Gustavo

An early research reflecting upon 15 years of The consolidation process of the barriada, the In 1987, the year the research was carried out, From the study it became apparent that the consolidation in one of the ‘second generation changing characteristics of the extended fami- major densification had already taken place, process of home construction was in most barriadas’24 in Lima was carried out by Riofrío lies and their housing perspectives were closely concentrated in the low-income districts. As fig- cases also ‘self-built’, without contracting and Driant in 1987. That year the book Que examined by Riofrío and Driant. ure X shows the number of persons per house- skilled workers.31 Noteworthy was the fact that vivienda han construido? Nuevos problemas en hold is significantly higher in these low-income self-construction went down considerably after Viejas barriadas was published, summarizing Whether the barriada was or not the best periphery. The houses incremented as well, in mid 1970s. their findings.25 way of dealing with the problem of housing synchrony with the family expansions (see fig- for low-income sectors was questioned. The ure X). From these figures it can be concluded Riofrío and Driant listed two main factors that The barriada in Lima was the predominant investigation assumed that problems occurring that instead of forming new neighbourhoods influenced the trend that more labour was mode in which urbanization happened in the after 15 years of settlement or more, did not the main housing strategy had shifted towards being contracted by homeowners to build their past, in which the self-help scheme was applied only affect the original settlers since families the densification of existing homes,28 (though houses. First of all they pointed to the fact and the settlements consolidated over time.26 had extended with a second and in some cases this did not mean this was the end of the land that the household compositions were already already with a third generation. Hence the invasions).29 changing. Many parents had arrived in Lima 24 The term barriada was defined by Collier as: authors argue that the focus of researchers as migrant workers, often for civil construc- “A residential community formed by low income families in which the houses are constructed in large measure by should shift towards this ‘new’ generation of Apart from self-construction Riofrío equal- tion works. The children that now formed the the residents themselves and which are generally but not barriada dwellers. The selected settlements for ly speaks about ‘self-urbanization’ hereby greater part of the household were Limeños exclusively formed illegally.” Collier, David, Squatters and the study were all established before 1967 and meaning the collective effort of a community to educated in the city and often had high educa- oligarchs: authoritarian rule and policy change in Peru. included Ciudad de Dios where the first large assemble their required facilities, services and tional levels, even beyond primary education. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976: p. 18. 27 land invasion in Lima took place in 1954. The infrastructure. After the ‘tradition of mutual This indicated that the second-generation had study is spearheading in the sense that it was less experience with construction work and See also Chapter 1: p. aid’ of community organizations the focus the first that looked across different genera- shifted in the direction of individual exertions also that the accumulated household income The ‘three generations of barriadas’ are described by José tions, studying the process of home consoli- that are expressed in the home construction would increase with children who could access Barreda & Daniel Ramírez Corzo, “Lima: consolidación y dation over a period of more than 15 years. and –consolidation.30 better jobs through their education.32 In general expansión de una ciudad popular”, 2004 Where Turner’s ‘completing’ stage stopped it was concluded that the level of self-construc-

25 (What kind of house did they built, new after 12 years of consolidation, Riofrío and 28 Riofrío, Gustavo; Driant, Jean-Claude, 1987: p. problems in old barriadas), Riofrío, Gustavo; Driant, Jean- 32 61 Claude, Lima, Desco, 1987. Driant’s study examined the barriada develop- 29 Land invasion took place, however the 31 For the complete definitions of self-help, self- 26 Riofrío, Gustavo; Driant, Jean-Claude, 1987: p. ment beyond this level. invasions changed in their characteristics. See José Barreda build and self-managed housing see chapter 2: p… 19 | During the sixties and seventies in Lima the ‘barriada’ urban poor. See chapter 1: p. … & Daniel Ramírez Corzo, 2004 32 Riofrío, Gustavo; Driant, Jean-Claude, 1987: p. was seen as the main strategy for providing housing for the 27 Described in detail by Matos Mar, José, 1977 30 Riofrío, Gustavo; Driant, Jean-Claude, 1987: p. 82

168 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part II - [Re] visiting the self-help housing model 169 © Gustavo Ríofrio, 1987. Ríofrio, © Gustavo

tion was to a certain extent linked to the level the proliferation of other alojados34 in terms of ofrío and Driant, we can conclude that in many from the parents, who often had lived in the of income of the households (if there is more additional family members or renters sharing cases this is still a strategy for accessing the central district when they first arrived in Lima, money to invest, the share of self-construction the house with the original homeowners. The housing market in metropolitan Lima. Grown- mainly with negative experiences. Therefore will go down). However not all cases showed authors express their preoccupation about up children still are living in with their parents it can be concluded that the children of the similar trends that implied that more factors the social densification process with a special who are homeowners as other family members founding fathers of the barriada, strongly built influenced the decision for families to involve concern about how the rental market would and relatives also do (temporarily). upon the housing history of their parents. subcontractors in the process of home im- evolve. In the 1987 household surveys they Furthermore Riofrío en Driant already point provement. found that 15% of the all cases included renters An important issue the second generation to the problems that would occur when the even though law prohibited renting in these of the extended family was confronted with family would further extend in the future. At was the question of staying, renting a place The intrusion of capitalist modes of production areas. Furthermore many families responded the time of the research most families could be somewhere else or invading a new territory. and intensifying economic relations, expressed that they were interested in extending their addressed as single-family households, though The results of the surveys were quite divided. in the increasing offer of construction materials dwelling with the purpose of renting it out in they would soon turn into multifamily house- 35 The majority preferred to stay in the same 38 and building services (accompanied with their the future. holds. The house they encounter at that time area, though more than half of this group increasing cost) was a second factor that made is not suitable for these changes, and therefore would favour a place for themselves. The high it likely for families to outsource (parts of) the Although the issue of living-in with relatives needs radical transformations in order to adapt percentage of youngsters that prefers to stay in construction of the dwelling. This tendency was not extensively studied back then, we to the changing family characteristics of the the area can also explain the invasions that take emphasizes Burgess’ critique on John Turner’s know that the first migrant population fre- future. place in the fringes of the barriadas. self-help housing theories, seeing it ‘outside a quently started their housing career by staying 36 Though in numerous cases the respondents capitalist mode of production’33. with relatives. According to the findings of Ri- who ‘chose’ to stay answered this was because: 34 Alojados are people sharing the house who “there was no other solution.” 37 This in a way The 15 year of home consolidation phase (and are not part of the nuclear family. Riofrío and Driant also illustrates the gap between the people’s desires more) resulted in a significant improvement included the adult children who established their own family and remained living in the parents’ house among the and their actual possibility to access the hous- of the physical environment. Homes extended alojados. Riofrío, Gustavo; Driant, Jean-Claude, 1987: p. ing market. immensely and the average number of rooms 35 Riofrío, Gustavo; Driant, Jean-Claude, 1987: p. increased from 2.9 to 4.2. The families grew in 100 A low amount of children expressed the desire synchrony with the house, rising from 5.7 to 36 Turner described how the migrant population to live closer to the city centre. The children 7.8 persons per household on average. Anoth- arriving in Lima during the 1940s and 1950s boarded in the city centre often living in with paisanos and compadrazgos heard stories of previous housing experiences er important observation Riofrío and Driant (family or relatives and godparents). Turner, John F.C., made, besides that the households now mainly “Housing priorities, settlement patterns, and urban See chapter 2: p. consisted of an adult second generation, was development in modernizing countries”, in: Journal of the 37 Riofrío, Gustavo; Driant, Jean-Claude, 1987: p. 38 Riofrío, Gustavo; Driant, Jean-Claude, 1987: p. 33 Burgess, Rod, 1982: see chapter 1: p.. American Institute of Planners, 1968 (34) 6, pp. 354-363. 121 138

170 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part II - [Re] visiting the self-help housing model 171 © Gustavo Ríofrio, 1987. Ríofrio, © Gustavo

172 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part II - [Re] visiting the self-help housing model 173 2. Reflections on “the house that mum and dad built” © Peter M. Ward, 1979. M. Ward, © Peter 2008. M. Ward, © Peter The neighbourhood Casablanca - Bogotá in 1979 and when revisiting in 2008

As mentioned previously the major transfor- after the parents invaded the land many second dation. Ward emphasizes the importance of The first level of research incorporated a more mations of the ‘consolidated’ home started off and third generations indeed continue to live longitudinal studies to gain insight in the home general data collection from different inner- when the founding fathers (who where often in the place they were born sharing the house consolidation process across different genera- urbs. Secondly surveys where held among a migrants or bridgeheaders) settled on public with their mum and dad. That often results in tions. These ‘snapshots’ allowed for a compar- broad audience in the selected settlements and land, that they procured either through inva- subdividing the dwelling or the lot in various ison and closer understanding of how home additionally a ‘third level’ of casos a profundi- sion or by buying the territory from land specu- manners.41 consolidation carried on after the intensive dad (in-depth cases) was added in order to get lators, most commonly in the urban peripheries studies and debates of the 1980s and what new a closer understanding of home consolidation of Latin American cities. After a long struggle Nonetheless, there are major differences problems arise in home space when families in relation to changing family characteristics. and through collective effort they managed to between different cities. In the capital cities of extend and households diversify in term of This allowed to triangulate between findings obtain the services and built their houses for Mexico and Colombia home subdivisions are owners, sharers and renters. from the more general and broader surveys them and their children. When revisiting the very common with 40% of the cases in Mex- and from the more in-depth cases.45 ‘consolidated’ settlements, Ward found that ico City including more than three separate This section concentrates on the compara- indeed 80 per cent of the original owners still households on one plot and 34% in Bogota. In tive studies by Ward and the Latin American The findings of the first two levels of research lived on the lot they invaded during the 1960s non-capital cities as Guadalajara and Mon- Housing Network (LAHN) 43 completed in manifested the low mobility among owners and and 1970s, showing that there is a low mobility terrey over two thirds were still single-family twelve ‘consolidated’ settlements or so-called the aging of the original owners (with the ma- among the original home owners.39 Alan Gilbert households. Ward ascribes these differences to innerurbs44 in 2009 across eight different Latin jority of owners who were over 60 years old). 40 equally stated: “a home is forever”. the different nature of housing markets that are American countries. These empirical studies Furthermore the houses now had acquired Another important trend observed by Ward much more intense in capital cities.42 are based upon a specific methodology, using a considerable value in the market, though was the urge of original invaders to acquire ‘a mixed methods and different scales of research. it would not be likely for owners to sell the house of their own’ that would also function At the end of the 1980s, long after John Turner 43 The Latin American Housing Network (LAHN) is property since it continued to have use value as a place where their children could reside left Peru, the debate on self-help housing lost a research network focussing on third generation housing for the majority of the children. Nevertheless in the future. The inheritance aspect was in momentum, though some scholars continued policy issues in ‘consolidated’ low-income settlements in arrangements about the use and inheritance of fact an important motive for the parents to go research on self-help housing. Ward revisited Latin American cities. Peter M. Ward is the coordinator the house that were made with the second and of the network. The main goals of the LAHN is to develop ahead with land invasion. Now 30 to 50 years the places in Mexico he worked and lived in the ‘third generation’ housing policies in order to meet third generations were in most cases purely 39 Ward, Peter M., “Self-Help Housing: Ideas and during the 1980s, tracing the transitions that not only the needs for the original homeowners, but by based on trust, causing tensions and conflicts Practice in the Americas”, in: Planning Ideas that Matter. occurred in 30 years of settlement consoli- documenting the evolutions of the self-help settlements, between family members.46 Eds. Bishwapriya Sanyal, Lawrence Vale and Christina unravelling the new demands of the second and third 45 Ward, Peter M.; Jiménez, Edith & de Virgilio, Rosan. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2012: p. 301. 41 Ward, Peter M., “Self-help housing policies for generations. For detailed information see the LAHN Mercedes, “Methodology for the Intensive “Interesting” 40 Gilbert, Alan (1999) cited in Ward, Peter second generation inheritance and succession of The House webpage: www.lahn.utexas.org Case Studies (Casos a Profundidad) in Monterrey, M., “Self-help housing policies for second generation that Mum & Dad Built.”, In: Habitat International, 2011 (35) 44 Innerurbs are the first suburbs where the self- Guadalajara, & Buenos Aires.” LAHN, 2009. Retrieved from inheritance and succession of The House that Mum & Dad 3, pp. 467–485. help or squatter settlements emerged during the 1960s and the LAHN webpage: www.lahn.utexas.org Built.”, In: Habitat International, 2011: p. 471. 42 Ward, Peter M., 2011: p. 472. 1970s across different Latin American cities. 46 Ward, Peter M., 2011: pp. 467–485.

174 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part II - [Re] visiting the self-help housing model 175 © Peter M. Ward, 2011. M. Ward, © Peter 2011. M. Ward, © Peter Home subdivisions in Monterrey Gradual extensions a self-built home

The in-depth studies carried out by LAHN in will actually happen in the way they foresee, obtain a property to raise their own families. riage and another main one was the conflict 2009 included a neighbourhood in Monter- it is very likely that if the house has a strong As a consequence the house where they grew between family members. The case further- rey, Mexico, that emerged the late sixties and ‘symbolic value’ it will stay in the family. So up was likely to be sold or rented out. Further- more illustrated the intensive use of the house early seventies. A small number of ‘interesting’ will the house of señora Guzman most proba- more it was concluded that the ’sentimental over the years and the complexity of mobility cases was selected of which the houses were bly by the time she will not be here anymore, symbolic value’ of the parents’ home is another within the extended families.47 documented and interviews were held among using the home space for family gatherings and important factor that has a major effect on different members of the extended family. The fiestas. Additionally the house might function the likeliness of second generations to keep After 30 years of existence, the ‘lived-in’ self- most outstanding findings are discussed below, as a patrimony for the third generation while investing in the house and keeping the house help houses showed increased densities of contrasting with pre-assumed effects derived meanwhile renting the spaces out was also as family property. three generations sharing a home, sometimes from the broader comparative analysis, thereby taken into consideration. added with renters or additional family mem- exposing additional factors involved in home Another important observation from the in- bers. Homes lack privacy, have high rates of transformation. In an additional case study of the Martínez fam- depth cases was that the low mobility among plot sharing and are often overcrowded. Based ily, the children also left to live somewhere else the original founding fathers and homeowners upon this empirical evidence Ward concludes In the case of señora Guzman, all of the eight and the parents stayed in the house renting for whom the “home is forever” applies for that the current self-help house, or to use children moved out and were able to acquire a out the upper floor to strangers. Nonetheless original owners, whereas for the following Ward’s terms “the heavily deteriorated fabric” house for their own families. The kids fre- the children of the Martínez family were not as generations a much higher mobility is assumed. is no longer adjusted to the users’ priorities and quently visited the home ‘their mum and dad attached to the house they grew up in as the Second and third generations move in and out homes are in urgent need of recovery. Further- built’, the place where they grew up and share second generation of the Guzmans. The chil- of the house, but often see the parents’ house more social problems occur with the increas- lots of memories. The father passed away and dren declared that in the future they preferred as bases to come back to, underlining the im- ing population densities in the consolidated the mother was left alone in the consolidated to sell the house, to the chagrin of the parents. portance of the ‘symbolic value’ of the house. self-help settlements. In the recent (re)visits of home comprised of multiple stories and various They moved to different places, often living in 2009 high ‘new’ poverty levels were found as bedrooms. Although the house lost its pur- The examples of Guzman and Martínez showed with other relatives or in-laws or renting on the well as problems of social insecurity. The prob- pose of providing shelter and accommodation that the original home, which successfully local housing market (either formal or infor- lems that evolve in both the neighbourhood for the next generation, the children agreed consolidated assignable to the effort the par- mal) and in some cases even (temporary) cross and individual home spaces show the impor- that the house should not be sold when their ents put into the dwelling in the thirty years of boarder migrants were found. Nonetheless, tance of on-going research in ‘consolidated’ mother would die. What Ward describes as inhabitation, does not always continue to have they moved but always came back ‘home’ at self-help settlements.48 the continued ‘symbolic value’ of the house, a ‘use value’ for the second and third genera- some point. In one maybe extreme example, 47 The findings and data presented were retrieved was in the case of señora Guzman an import- tions. An important factor Ward witnessed was it was estimated that in the almost 40year old from the 2009 surveys in Monterrey presented on LAHN ant factor for either vending or sustaining the that in both households the children moved up house more than 74 people had lived in it. webpage. Ward, Peter; Jiménez, Edith & de Virgilio, property. Though it is never certain that what on the socio-economic ladder, they had better There were different motivations for out-going Mercedes, LAHN, 2009, www.lahn.utexas.org/Methodology financial resources and more possibilities to mobility, among which the most cited was mar- 48 Ward, Peter M., Housing rehab for consolidated respondents say to aspire for the future home squatter settlements in Latin America’s ‘first suburbs’: New

176 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part II - [Re] visiting the self-help housing model 177 3. “Other realities” © Michaela Hordijk, 2011. © Michaela Hordijk, Family in Pampas in 1996 and 2010

Parallel to Peter Ward’s research for the Latin first by people who bought their (non official) would call ‘complete’53. The land invasion of already extended with a third generation.55 American Housing Network, human geogra- land titles from a corrupted mayor and later mid 1980s where privileged by the government At the end of the 1960s Turner already ex- pher Michaela Hordijk completed a similar from new invasions that took place further up programme of the socialist mayor Barrantes in pected that densification would take place in longitudinal study in a low-income settlement the hillsides.50 As Hordijk points out, the area which land titles where given out soon after the self-help settlements. He pointed to the in Lima’s urban periphery. She compared the clearly represents the process of home consol- the land was occupied. This allowed families to possible subdivisions of lots for the “growing same households in 1997 and 2010 contrast- idation promoted by popular opposition leader rapidly develop and consolidate their homes. demand for rental accommodation” and ques- ing current realities and living conditions of Pedro Beltran (who became prime minister in Community organization also played an import- tioned the possible transformation of housing the families in Lima with original influential 1958) with ‘the cheap house that grows’ and ant role in the consolidation process and the typologies from single-family to multi-family theories of John Turner. Hordijk underlines envisioned by Turner.51 struggle for basic services acquisition.54 home, predicting that the structure of the the issues Ward raised about second and third house could change to a single-family unit cov- generation dwellers in low-income settlements, Reflecting upon the progressive development A revisit of Pampas de San Juan in 2010 showed ering the ground floor and a second floor that stating that within the process of social change, of the squatter settlement and John Turn- even further improvement of the physical en- could possibly be independent.56 where children grew up under completely other’s ‘three stages model’52, Hordijk found in vironment. Homes had been further extended er circumstances than the preceding generation 1996, only a decade after the neighbourhood and improved, roads were now mostly paved, Furthermore commercial facilities would, in it is time to “renew our knowledge base on formation, that the majority of the homes local economic activities diversified and some Turner’s perspective, also change according to urban poverty and urban collective action”49. already consolidated to a level that Turner informal markets had been formalized. Since the residents’ demand, attracting “a wide range The studies are carried out in Pampas de San 2008 all homes were provides with domes- of individual interest”57. As Turner predict- Juan, a low-income settlement located in the 50 Hordijk, Michaela, 2010: p. 363. The fieldwork tic drinking water and sewerage connection. ed, Hordijk showed indeed that community for this thesis conducted for the empirical in-depth larger district of San Juan de Miraflores in the case studies presented in chapter 3 A journey from the Similarly to what Ward found in Mexico and facilities diversified with all kind of commer- southern periphery of Lima. The neighbour- house to the city and back, was carried out in the same Colombia, in Lima densities also increased cial activities ranging from the small corner hood was formed from the mid 1970s onwards, neighbourhood. See for a complete description of the considerably, caused by people sharing a house shop, different productive workshops, internet history of Pampas de San Juan chapter 2: p. 64. on the same plot. Of the cases Hordijk studied cabins and private primary schools. These were policy approaches from LAHN in preparation for UNHABITAT 51 In fact it was not Turner but the conservative in 2010, 80% of the children stayed to live with integrated within the home spaces. Hordijk’s III 2016, The Wilson centre’s Comparative Urban Studies head of the Limean newspaper ‘La Prensa’ Pedro Beltran Project, Washington D.C., 2013, www.lahn.utexas.org/ who later became prime minister and promoted “the cheap their mum and dad and of those families 60% findings were therefore in line with Turner’s meetings house that grows” a model that was surprisingly similar 53 As Hordijk states: “Pampas de San Juan seems predictions and theories about home sharing 49 Hordijk, Michaela, “Nuestra Realidad es Otra: to the self-help housing model Turner later advocated. to have developed beyond Turners expectations.” Hordijk, and the extended family. Changing realities in Lima’s peripheral settlements: a case (Hordijk, 2000, 2010; Bromley, 2003). As was described in Michaela, 2010: p. 367. study from San Juan de Miraflores”, in: The production, Chapter 2. 54 The role of community action if fully examined However Turner perceived this process of use and dissemination of Urban Knowledge in Cities of 52 Turner presented his ‘three stages model’ in in Hordijk’s PhD research: Hordijk, Michaela, Of dreams the South, BRUNFAUT, V. ; D’AURIA, V.; DE MEULDER, B.; the article “The Squatter Settlement: An architecture that and deeds: the role of local initiatives for community 55 Hordijk, Michaela, 2010: p. 370. MORETTA, L.; SHANNON, K. (eds.), Brussels, N-AERUS, works”, in: Architectural Design, Architecture of Democracy, based environmental management in Lima, Peru. PhD 56 Turner, John F.C., 1968, op.cit.: p. 358. 2010, pp. 361-374. August 1968, pp. 355-360. dissertation, University of Amsterdam, 2000. 57 Turner, John F.C., 1968, op.cit.: p. 357.

178 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part II - [Re] visiting the self-help housing model 179 densification and the interrelated social diver- grew up in a totally other environment then aspirations of the children have also changed. generations often pay ‘rent’ in the form of sification in rather optimistic terms. He stated their parents. Riofrío already spotted an early As Hordijk argues “the new generation aspires luxury goods or support their parents with that: “the wider the range of its members, the stage of this transition in 1987, in which the to solve through the market.”63 material goods in ‘return’ for babysitting. This better served the community, and the greater working-class population of original invaders may mean an improvement in terms of living the needs of those who most need them.”58 shifted towards a more educated second gen- Another issue that arose since the 1990s and comfort, but not it also shows that additional Hordijk’s conclusions show different realities: eration,61 showing how these changing realities form a serious problem in the neighbourhood income is not always used for improvement of “a gradual improvement of material wealth influenced the process of home consolidation. today is increasing social insecurity. Escalating the house itself that as a consequence often is paralleled with deterioration of the social envi- Hordijk equally found outstanding differenc- violence was the most important problem for lagging behind. ronment”, findings echoing those of Perlman in es between the children and their parents in 90% of Hordijk’s respondents. Rio de Janeiro (2009) and Moser in Guayaquil terms of their educational levels that matched The 25 to 30 years of consolidation in Pampas

(2009). 59 the desires of the parents of their children to Changing social consumption norms de San Juan showed major transformation “become a professional.”62 Beside the increase of the physical environ- in the physical environment and to a certain Apart from the major transformations that ment’s consolidation level, the economic situa- extent confirmed Turner’s predictions. Never- Hordijk detected in the built environment of Although most the children still share the tion of many families improved, in parallel with theless the ‘other realities’ that evolved caused the now ‘consolidated’ settlements, funda- house with their parents, some of them did the contributions to the household income of severe social deterioration in the neighbour- mental changes took place in society as well. manage to procure a house of their own. second generations.64 Furthermore, compar- hood. Although the problems occurring at the An important feature Hordijk observed was Hordijk pointed out that for new generations, ing people’s belongings in the 1996 and 2010 neighbourhood level are seen as the most the decreasing interest in collective action and invasions were really out-dated, only 7% of the study, a pattern of increasing consumption problematic according to the population, the community organization, especially among children who moved out invaded land. Most of was traced. Car possession increased from 6% future of the homes is not very prosperous second and third generations. As Riofrío (1987) the kids went to live with in-laws. Respondents to 20%, almost 80% of families now owned a either. The aspirations of second and third pointed out, once services were provided, the indicated to prefer renting or buying a home fridge (30% more than the 1996 study showed) generations do not match their current living focus shifted towards the individual process of above invading land. They obviously learned and also other consumables including washing situation. The studies of Hordijk are consonant improving the house.60 from their parents’ experiences. Though they machines (possessed by 37% of the families). with the pre-assumed idea that the self-help respected the efforts of their mum and dad, 30% now owned a computer and some even housing model has reached its limits and are With children growing up the household char- they also saw the struggles and long absence had internet access.65 not able to adapt to the aspirations of the acteristics also changed considerably within the of the government that made them develop ‘new’ generation. Turner’s model therefore family. Furthermore the second generations a ‘mistrust’ in public authorities. Hence they The changing consumption norms are closely needs to be re-envisioned urgently in order to are less willing to participate in community related to the additional income and reciprocal prevent further deterioration in the ‘consolidat- 58 Turner (1968: p. 357) cited in Hordijk, Michaela, relations between family members. Second “Debe ser esfuerzo propio: changing patterns of belonging organizations, which are still dominated by the ed’ self-help settlements. in Lima’s peripheral settlements”, paper presented at the original neighbourhood founders. The housing 63 Hordijk, Michaela, 2010: p. 372. International RC21 conference, 2011: p. 2. 64 Two third of the children where now 59 Hordijk, Michaela, 2011: p. 3. 61 Riofrío, Gustavo; Driant, Jean-Claude, 1987: p. contributing to the household income. Hordijk, Michaela, 60 Riofrío, Gustavo; Driant, Jean-Claude, 1987: p. 82. 2010: p. 368. 61. 62 Hordijk, Michaela, 2010: p. 369. 65 Hordijk, Michaela, 2011: p. 11.

180 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part II - [Re] visiting the self-help housing model 181 4. A local perspective © Peter M. Ward, 2011. M. Ward, © Peter

In bygone days urban development in Lima to create individual entrances. Tenurial conditions occurred in a horizontal manner resulting in One of the key findings from the studies in Villa In the redistribution of ‘los aires’72, Tokeshi con- low densities and an enormous city expansion.66 Tokeshi extensively documents the spatial El Salvador was that in most cases the children siders four possibilities regarding the tenurial The old barriadas are now catching up with the transformations. In these studies Tokeshi found were the ones to extend their parents’ home, status of the house.73 The second generation rest of Lima through self-help consolidation (in that children often construct an indepen- despite the fact that they did not have the can acquire the right to build the second floor which more than two third of Lima’s inhabi- dent new housing unit on top of the original official rights over the property.70 The lack of a either by purchasing ‘the air’, the parents tants live) reaching densities that are similar to single-family dwelling. This trend is very similar clear title or ownership however, did not hinder can donate ‘the air’, rent part of the property the inner city of Lima67. to how Turner portrayed the expected changes their investment in the parents’ home. This independently or a final possibility is that the of the housing structure in response to the illustrates that these home transformations are homeowner creates specific rights over the sur- The studies carried out in Villa el Salvador, progressively developing barriada.68 based on a strong relationship of trust. face of his property. The last option implies that formed through a relocation in a sites and neither ‘the air’ nor the land have to be sold, services program of large group of settlers who As Turner furthermore predicted, a heteroge- In order to proceed with the densificación but that the beneficiary has the right to take invaded public land in San Juan de Miraflores in neity of uses and services can now be found. habitacional,71 the juridical status of the house temporary ownership of (part of) the property. 1971, show that needs have changed since the In Tokeshi’s outcomes the commercial and has to be clarified and renewed to enable In Tokeshi’s opinion, instead of the former formation of the settlement according to the productive spaces that are assembled in the homes to adapt to the increasing number of horizontal growth, we now should give prior- increasing number of family members and the homes still add an important value to the home sharers. As was mentioned earlier in this ity to ‘densification growth’ focussing on the parallel changing household composition. From house, contributing to the household income, section, Ward likewise warned about the need self-managed process of home improvement to the wide range of in-depth studies carried that makes it unlikely for homeowners to sell. to revise tenurial conditions in multi-genera- in which single-family homes are being con- out by Desco in Villa El Salvador, it is appar- Tokeshi is however critical towards the impact tional households. verted by the users into collective homes. The ent that there is a greater demand for privacy of this diversification at the level of the neigh- key problem Tokeshi points out it that the among the second and third generations as bourhood. As he states, the diversification of Desco, 2001: p. 51. urban densification in poor neighbourhoods well as home extensions. This is translated in commercial uses is represented in a disordered 70 Tokeshi, Juan, personal communication is mainly an isolated spontaneous process feb.-aug. 2013. The issue of tenurial conditions across the houses by the various house subdivisions, zoning and does not necessarily match local generations is fully described in Tokeshi, Juan, 2001, op.cit. 72 ‘Los aires’ is a term in Spanish that is used both vertically as horizontally as well as the demands.69 71 This term refers to the book with the same title to define spaces in ‘the air’ or upper floors. Both Ward great variety of staircases that are constructed 68 Turner, John, “The squatter settlement: An Densificación Habitacional, published by Desco in 2005, and Tokeshi frequently use the term to describe what is Architecture that works”, 1968: p. 358. meaning the process of home densification trough the self- happening on the upper floor spaces, mainly relating issues 66 RIOFRIO, DRIANT, 1987, op.cit: p. 54 69 Tokeshi, Juan, Sembrando Huellas, Criterios managed process of home transformation of the extended of vertical subdivision. 67 INEI, op. cit. 2007.… técnicos para el crecimiento de la vivienda, final report, families in the low-income settlements in Lima. 73 Tokeshi, Juan, 2001, op.cit.: p. 54.

182 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part II - [Re] visiting the self-help housing model 183 © Juan Tokeshi, 2005 © Juan Tokeshi,

BOX 1 Key findings from the longitudinal studies of Desco in Villa El Salvador © Juan Tokeshi, 1998 © Juan Tokeshi, Home space 1. The construction of each home is an on-going process (of 20 years on average), made through the emotional commitment of the family. without receiving much technical support. This 2. The possession of a ‘house of one’s own’, regardless of the stage that is in, is accom- uncontrolled process of explosive and irregular plished through the effort and sacrifice of the family and is considered as the main inheri- growth leads to a ‘substandard housing catego- tance for the children. ry’ of poor quality that now comprises extend- 3. Home extensions, the use of ‘los aires’, and home subdivisions occur according to the ed families and new uses patterns. growth of the family or the need for privacy of multiple generations. 4. In most cases, the lot (ranging from 100 and 300 square meter) is entitled, while the structure of the house itself has no official status and is not registered. 5. Of great significance is the potential for economic use of the property as an important added valued for the family that makes it unlikely that that would want to sell the property or part of it. 6 The ideal predominant structure is that of a two-storey house, made out of reinforced concrete and brick, wherein the second floor serves to accommodate children independently. 7 The access to the second floor is planned or improvised by independent external staircases either based within or outside the restricted boundaries of the lot. 8 The construction is mostly done without plans and without assistance of building professionals: the construction worker is the specialist with the highest capacities involved in the home construction. 9 Municipalities are neither involved in the project nor in the construction works. 10 The trend is to cover practically the whole lot with the roof, not taking into consideration issues of internal illumination through daylight, direct ventilation of interior spaces, nor for independent circulation areas. 11 Generally speaking the housing structures are suitable for vertical loads up to three floors, but these would be insufficient to withstand earthquakes.1

1 Translated from ZOLEZZI, Mario; TOKESHI, Juan; NORIEGA, Carlos, Densificación habitacional: Una propuesta de crecimiento para la ciudad popular, Lima, Desco, 2005: p. 91

184 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part II - [Re] visiting the self-help housing model 185 5. The gap between desires and possibilities

As Michaela Hordijk’s comparative study findings of Hordijk (2010) that second genera- My overall findings of the aspirations of the “I would like to move to another part of Lima, closer already showed families had extended con- tions learned from experiences of their parents second generations were rather divergent, to my work and friends, but rents of apartments siderably between 1996 and 2010 when the and land invasions were now longer seen as an though the majority of children that lived in the are really high and my income is not (yet) stable. ‘snapshots’ were taken. The 496 households of appropriate way to gain access to housing. This parents’ house, was satisfied with their housing Nowadays it is quite impossible to access land and a house for your own. Land is scarce and land prices the 1996 survey contained 80% of nuclear fam- was also confirmed by the declarations of my situation and was planning to stay in the house. are really high. […] Invading? No, that is no longer an ilies with most of the children still under 16. As own respondents. None of them planned to Need for more privacy was however expressed option. I respect the effort of my parents for building logically could be expected the children grew make land invasion and a general response to frequently. up this neighbourhood. I like to be in the house and up and started their own families by 2010, 80% invasion was that this was “really something of with the family, but my real life is somewhere else.” still lived in the house were they grew up and the past.” On the other hand, many families also pre- Karin (34), daughter of Nora 60% of those already had children themselves. ferred the collectiveness, which could explain My own ten in-depth case studies carried out in Some of the children who where living in the why in so many houses, where three gener- “Looking at my situation the best would be construct- the same neighbourhood 3 years after showed house at the time the fieldwork was carried ations live, no subdivisions have been made. ing my own house, but if we are realistic that is just similar trends. Of the ten (all nuclear) families out, did have a living experience elsewhere, The aspiration was more to have an own room, impossible in Lima. Invasions are now over. There is nine families extended with a third generation either abroad or renting a place on the housing rather than to have an individual apartment. now land and rents are really high. Lima has to grow and in eight cases some or all of the grandchil- market in Lima, but eventually they moved Families regularly are very independent having in a vertical direction from now on.” Elida (34), daughter of Rufina and mother of two dren were living in the house of their grandpar- back to the house where they were raised.76 A complex reciprocal relations, that makes children ents. Only one case remained a single-family comparable trend of “mobility within immobil- children stay and that is the main reason not household. Two-thirds of all the 43 children ity” was also spotted by Ward in the in-depth want to move too far from their parents and of the ten families still shared the house with case studies of Monterrey, Mexico77. Ward brothers and sisters. Another important motive As a consequence, their need and desire for mum and dad. A surprisingly low amount of ascribed the ‘symbolic value’ of the house as a to stay that was mentioned, despite the serious more privacy they seek in the house of the par- the grown-up kids of the households that were main motive for children to come back to the problems of insecurity, was the ‘symbolic value’ ents, underlining the similar trends Ward and surveyed left to rent a place elsewhere in Lima house. the neighbourhood had for the children. Tokeshi spotted. and a few took off to other cities inside Peru, “We are constructing upstairs 4 extra floors for us, for work reasons. Trans-national migration was “We moved out to my parents-in-law. We still come 74 the children, to live in the future. This way we always not very common in Pampas . to my parents place almost every day to have lunch have a place to stay here, but we are not sure if all of 76 Brenda (30), owner of the faltering house, and now during holidays my mum and my sisters lived in Venezuela for a couple of years. When her mother us stay.” are looking after our kids. We also have our small The children who left the parents’ home went got seriously ill she returned to Lima. The house was Elida (34), daughter of Rufina, business together. So in many ways we are still very to different places. The majority moved in with abandoned for a period of time and eventually she moved mother of two children their parents-in-law, often close by the parents’ back in. The house still had an ‘emotional value’ for her and depend on each other.” home. Some of the second-generations literally she did not want the house to be sold. Furthermore Brenda William (31), son of Nora and Wilberto knew that it was not so easy to find a house for your own in married ‘the girl next door’ and live only a few Lima, therefor keeping the house would provide a basis to blocks away from where they grew up. Only come back to. See case 4. Nevertheless it can be questioned if the many one single case was found of a child that fol- Elida (34) moved out to live with her parents in law years children that continued to live with their par- lowing the example of his parents and similarly ago. When the young couple separated Elida moved back in ents, stayed out of a true desire and if this was made a land invasion on the steep hillsides of with her mother. See case 10. an actual ‘choice’ or just their only possibility. 77 Ward, Peter M.; Jiménez, Edith & de Virgilio, 75 Surprisingly second generations were aware of Villa María del Triunfo. That underlined the Mercedes, “Methodology for the Intensive “Interesting” 74 See: p. 154. Case Studies (Casos a Profundidad) in Monterrey, their possibilities on the housing market in Lima 75 Jaime (39) the oldest son of señora Vacilia Guadalajara, & Buenos Aires.” LAHN, 2009. Retrieved from quite often. As Karin and Elida pronounced: invaded the LAHN webpage: www.lahn.utexas.org

186 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part II - [Re] visiting the self-help housing model 187 PART III - [RE] Envisioning the self-help housing model Conclusions and confirmed the hypothesis that homes are It is of great importance to see self-help in a not always able to adapt to the continuously historical perspective and, as Peter M. Ward changing household compositions and aspira- argues to understand “how such ideas were tions of next generations. shaped by the dominant paradigms of the day.81” The early ‘learning from’ experiences The influential theories and expectations of and the later longitudinal ‘re-learning from’ John Turner83 (1968) to a certain extent are empirical studies, allow us to continuously consonant with the outcomes of several ‘re- renew and rethink our knowledge concerning studies’ in consolidated self-help settlements. In the work of the scholars re-studying the ‘sec- Tokeshi showed that for the second generations the housing conditions of the urban poor. In the The self-help house has a continued ‘use value’ ond life’ of the self-help settlements that was not having clear ownership did not prevent Peruvian context it is crucial to understand that for the second and third generations. Corre- reviewed here, various similar trends were un- them to invest in the house. The two scholars the country has a rich history in documenting spondingly the houses have great potentials to covered in the process of home consolidation. from different disciplines though are exposing self-help settlements that still continues. Before assimilate productive and commercial spaces Home sharing, that is a common practice across similar issues in home transformation. Ward John Turner arrived in Peru there were already in the home space that generate an important many Latin American cities,78 and intensive argues that the tenurial status and inheritance local scholars, amongst others probably most contribution to the household income and 84 use of the ‘lived-in’ self-help house resulted in factors should be given priority while Tokeshi well know Peruvian anthropologist José Matos makes it unlikely that the house will be sold . serious problems both in the social dynamics denotes the spatial limitations of self-construc- Mar, carrying out empirical surveys from the Nevertheless the process of home transforma- of changing households as well as the spatial tion pointing to the importance of assisted squatter settlements. Besides the local political tion does not always follow the same trajectory compositions of the ‘consolidated’ homes. construction processes. climate was very favourable for Turner to devel- of the extension of the family and is not always 82 The outcomes of different longitudinal studies op his theories on self-help housing. happening according to demands of all the from researchers with distinctive professional The social differences between parents and users. backgrounds, showed the importance of seeing their children and major transitions that took In this thesis I attempted to bring together the the social and spatial dynamics in home con- place in society were other important aspects broader global discussions on self-help housing Furthermore the 25 to almost 60 years of solidation as an interrelated process, together that influenced home transformation. This was with the long experience of local researchers, ‘lived-in’ experience in the old barriadas result- represented in home space. especially put forward by Riofrío and Hordijk. both of the early debates on self-help housing ed in problems that occurred across different 85 Riofrío already spotted an early stage of the that reached its peak in the 1980s as well as scales. Earlier works were mainly focused on As was already predicted by John Turner transition of children born and raised in Lima the recent debate on the ‘second life’ of the the level of the house, seeing it in relative iso- in 1968, there is an increasing demand for and parents who migrated to Lima, and how ‘consolidated’ self-help settlements. Though lation from other scale levels of the block, the individual dwelling units as the family would this affected their role in home self-construc- the local researchers sometimes found there neighbourhood and the city. In Chapter 3 the extend and the neighbourhood would densify. tion. Since the children were born and raised in way through in the global debate, still they of- inverted process of spontaneous city making How homes react to the changing household the city and had higher educational levels they ten are absent in the work of scholars publish- (in which the home is building up the urban compositions, represented in subdivisions of were less willing to built a house by them- ing in English. Ward for example refers mainly tissue) reflected upon how individual processes the house and the lot, was illustrated by Peter selves. Ward found something similar: ”there to other scholars who published in English, of home transformation interconnect with the 86 Ward and Juan Tokeshi. is little attraction in following their parents’ while in the local reports mutually the broader social fabric of the neighbourhood. Although Both authors clearly pointed out the limits example by moving to the current periphery discourse if not mentioned. the spontaneous process of city making (from of self-help in adapting to multigenerational as self-builders in newly formed and poorly the house to the city) proved to be able in the 87 growth of the family, particularly of the tenurial serviced settlements.”79 Hordijk showed equally The different approaches from multiple disci- formation of different types of tissues , adding status of the house. They both mentioned the that invasions are really over. Second gener- plines that have been discussed in relation with 83 Turner, John F. C., “The Squatter Settlement: my own empirical study based upon fieldwork An architecture that works”, in: Architectural Design, hitches of tenurial conditions of homes, which ations have become ‘professionals’ and grew Architecture of Democracy, August 1968, pp. 355-360. now all have clear titling of the land, but not up in a very different the setting than the first conducted in Pampas de San Juan, allow for 84 Tokeshi, Juan, op. cit. (2005) over the construction of ‘los aires’. Tokeshi was generation and now try to solve their housing a broader understanding of how complexities 85 With early works is meant the early works of somewhat more positive than Ward showing problem through the market80. evolved in the process of home consolidation John Turner, his seminal works with William Mangin and the creative solutions of lot subdivisions and dif- 81 Ward, Peter, M., “Self-Help Housing: Ideas and other colleagues publishing on the squatter settlement Practice in the Americas”, in: Planning Ideas that Matter. between 1960 and the mid 1980s. ferent spatial solutions for solving the issue of Eds. Bishwapriya Sanyal, Lawrence Vale and Christina 86 See: p. 134 the lack of privacy. Other than Ward assumed, 79 WARD, Peter M., 2012, op. cit.: pp. 283-310. Rosan. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2012: p. 306. 87 Sáez Giraldez, Elia; García Calderón, José; 78 WARD, Peter M., 2011, op. cit.: pp. 467–485. 80 HORDIJK, Michaela, 2010, op. cit.: pp. 361-374. 82 Bromley, Ray, 2003: p. 271. Roch Peña, Fernando, “La ciudad desde la casa: ciudades

188 Chapter 4 - The ‘second life’ of the consolidated self-help settlement Part II - [Re] envisioning the self-help housing model 189 © By Author, 2013 Author, © By

a social layer to this mode of development The self-help housing model (that starts off general not so keen on informal renting and Tokeshi. Also many scholars looking at the ‘sec- other realities reveal. The built environments with land invasions followed up with a grad- sharing a home with ‘strangers’. They then ond life’ of these settlements housing a ‘new’ might show high levels of physical improve- ual improvement of the settlements) was for rather remained living in the house with mum generation have revisited these areas more ment, the densification and accumulating social decades the main strategy to gain access to and dad. recently. differences (that are part the process of be- housing for the urban poor in metropolitan coming a city88) correspondingly brought about Lima, but now (as was argued in this thesis) The attachment to the place was another factor Riofrío documented the unplanned settle- a concerning increase of social deterioration. this model is no longer valid. Invasions now are that did not want the second generations to ment of Ciudad de Dios, DESCO and Tokeshi The majority of the current population living undeniably out-dated, because land to invade move to other parts of the city. The neighbour- the planned Villa el Salvador and Garcia-Hui- in the low-income settlements mentioned the has become scarce, but mainly because the hood where they grew up had a strong ‘sym- dobro, Diego Torres and Tugas revisited the increasing violence and social insecurity as the children are not attracted to follow the example bolical value’ for the majority of the second Experimental housing project of PREVI, that main problem they are confronted with today.89 of their parents to invade un-serviced peripher- generations. was formulated in 1967, involving well-known Furthermore it should be continuously ques- al land, as Michaela Hordijk proclaimed, second architects Aldo van Eyck, Charles Correa, James tioned what actual housing demand exists in generations often aspire “to solve through the The divergent and convergent processes of Stirling, Christopher Alexander, Candilis Josic Lima today in order to solve the gap between market.” home consolidation showed how users are Woods and more. All these studies show how the ‘desires’ of the second and third genera- majorly transforming, extending and improving the many years of ‘lived-in’ experience set off tions and their ‘possibilities’ on the current Though the aspiration for acquiring ‘the house their homes. Other than Turner expected, this change in home space. housing market. The ‘new’ generation is now of your own’ is sometimes still there, but the happened not always as a direct consequence trapped in living situations that often are not children of the original invaders also start to of their needs and desires. In the city of Lima, The reality furthermore shows that these a real “choice” but because of other housing realize that in contemporary Lima, this is no similar processes can be seen across the three empirically grounded studies should continue, opportunities are beyond their reach.90 longer an option91, since (within the changing ‘cones’. Different areas started from a different since still many mismatches are found in Lima’s espontáneas en Lima”, in: Revista INVI, 2010, 25 (70), pp. modes of consumption) land prices have risen underground, sometimes ‘unplanned’ such as housing systems, either not meeting the needs 77-116. incredibly and land is often too expensive for Pampas de San Juan, sometimes constructed of next generations that live between their 88 As described by Massey, Allen & Pile, “The them. The rental prices of apartments on the upon a scheme of sites and services like Villa desire and possibility. particularity of the city is that it concentrates differences formal market equally rise and are not afford- El Salvador, and sometimes planned with great through its density of people and lived spaces.” Massey, D.; 92 Allen, J. & Pile, S. (1999). City worlds: understanding cities. able. What rests in the housing ‘possibilities’ ideologies such as PREVI . Psychology Press. is the rental accommodations on the informal 89 In Hordijk’s surveys from Pampas de San Juan market, but the second generation were in Lima has the advantage that a wide range of 90% of the respondents stated the violence as the biggest ‘desires’ and their actual ‘possibilities’ on the housing these projects and settlements were doc- problem. Hordijk, 2010: p. 368. My own respondents market today in Lima) was only possible with the help umented from an early stage, starting with equally mentioned the increasing social insecurity as a and various discussions (Lima, Amsterdam 2013) I had severe problem that got even worse the last year. See with local promoter Liliana Miranda Sara (architect and José Matos Mar and later Turner, Riofrío and chapter 3 executive director of Cities for Life Forum in Lima). I would 92 GARCIA-HUIDOBRO, Fernando; DIEGO TORRES, 90 My personal exploration of current housing like to thank her for all her help, commitment, enthusiasm Torriti; TUGAS, Nicolás, ¡ El tiempo construye!: el problems in Lima (in order to get a better understanding of and useful input. Proyecto Experimental de Vivienda (PREVI) de Lima: génesis the tensions and mismatches that exist between people’s 91 See the statements Elida and Karin: p. 187 y desenlace. Gustavo Gili, 2008.

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