Abstract
Space Syntax researchers have asserted that the spatial configuration of the planning of a work of architecture, such as a house, reflects how social properties are inscribed in its design. In social housing, the social inscriptions through space, which promote a particular way of dwelling, are not initially determined by the inhabitants. However, through appropriation, inhabitants mold the space to their liking, challenging preconceived ways of dwelling. Therefore, this research aims to determine what kinds of social structures the spatial configuration of social housing are promoting and how the inhabitants' transformations have altered the spatial experience. Mexico's housing sector developed from a “welfare approach” in the nineteen seventies and eighties to a “market rationale” since the nineties. During this time, different dwelling perspectives were inscribed in the spatial configuration of the homes. Using the justified plan graph (JPG) method, six social housing dwellings from these two time periods, Welfare State and market rationale, are spatially analyzed, both in their original design and in the resulting design from their inhabitant's modifications. Graph analysis is used in this paper for providing spatial insights into social housing design and its users' transformations, while pointing to further research needs.
Highlights
A common claim is that architecture and its inhabitants are mutually constitutive (Yaneva 2016); this means that we design spaces that later invite us to inhabit them in a certain way
Space syntax is a set of theories, methods, and techniques developed in the eighties by Bill Hillier and Julienne Hanson (1988) to establish relationships between spatial configuration and its social effects
The spatial configuration of a house reflects how its social properties are inscribed in its design
Summary
A common claim is that architecture and its inhabitants are mutually constitutive (Yaneva 2016); this means that we design spaces that later invite us to inhabit them in a certain way. To ease the production processes for these homes, Infonavit and later, market housing developers, developed housing prototypes that standardize and spatially inscribe supposed ways of living (Boils 1995). Inhabitants must negotiate between their real needs and various presumptions about their needs. These transactions are reflected in the spatial appropriations made to their living spaces over time, making evident that the relationship between architecture and its inhabitants is an incessant unending dynamic of shaping and being shaped, and shaping again
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