I knew the reality of Villas Miseria during the workshop “ABITAZONE08” organized by a free association named CONTROSPAZIOIWEB, the University of Reggio Calabria, and the FABU- UBA. Students and architects coming from different parts of Italy, Portugal, Spain and take part a the workshop in in May 2008. The aim of the workshop was a project of a prototype of progressive housing Villa Miseria is the Argentinian version of a term that has numerous local equivalents:

• in Brazil,

• Callampa in Chile,

• Pueblo joven in Peru,

• Katchi abadi in Pakistan,

• in Kenya,

• Bidonville in Algeria,

• Township in South Africa, The Villas Miseria ( or , or shanty town….)are unplanned settlements. They appear as a result of the initiative of a group of citizens (normally from rural areas) who appropriate furtively and illegally an empty territory located on the periphery of a large city.

All of them refer to the same phenomenon, the housing that surrounds the large metropolises of developing countries.

The Villas Miseria sorround the city of Buenos Aires but there are aslo well defined “enclaves” inside the formal city - sometimes in the richer areas. PROXIMITY TO TOWN CENTER

Pachacutec

30 km

9 km

Lima Inhabitants: almost 8 Milion Buenos Aires Inhabitants: almost 15 Milion Gran B It the largest city of the State of Argentina, almost 20% of its population live in these areas. There are 21 Villas Miserias and most of them are either called or known by numbers as “Villa #1” or “Villa #21”. Until 1870 there was 33 “villas” belonged to Capital Federal, 99,143 inhabitants in all.. During the military regime in the 1970’s, the “villas miseria” were literally "swept away" from the capital city by bulldozer. With the return of democracy, the lands were taken back and new houses were built, very often over the old settlements remains. INDEX OF CROWDING Official figures indicate that there are 21 “villas miseria” and transitional housing units. The inhabitants in the “villas miseria” have very little, if any, formal qualification. Out of 110,000 people, 60% are unemployed and 39% earn under AR$300 a month.

The southern group of “villas miseria”, the most populated one, comprises Villa 3, in Soldati; Villa 20, in Lugano; Villa 21-24, in Barracas and 1-11-14, in Bajo Flores. INDEX OF POVERTY The villas draw people from several backgrounds. Many of them are migrants, coming from poorer provinces or from impoverished rural areas near the cities, especially during Perón's first government, and a smaller number are recent immigrants from neighbouring countries (especially Paraguay and more recently Bolivia). In most cases, of course, the villa miseria is populated by the children and grandchildren of the original settlers, who have been unable to raise their economic status. They all have the characteristics of informal settlements:

• inadequate access to safe water;

• inadequate access to sanitation and other infrastructures;

• poor structural quality of housing;

• overcrowding;

• insecure residential status and so on… These settlements consist of small houses or shacks made of tin, wood, and/or other materials (whatever can be found). The streets are usually not paved — narrow internal passages may communicate the different parts.

Electric power is sometimes taken directly from the grid using illegal connections (which are perforce tolerated by the power companies). The Villas range from small groups of precarious houses, well inside the urban grid, to larger, more organised communities with thousands of residents.

My interst is focused at the villas that are INSIDE the urban grid

BORDER: FROM A WALL…… TO AN INTERFACE Tank you!