HOUSING
RESEARCH
HOUSING
RESEARCH
TITLE
Analisis and Documentation of the Cuban housing policy and practice.
FOUNDING:
UN-HABITAT America Latina (ROLAC), COSUDE 2013-2015
PARTNERS
INV Instituto de la Vivienda, Cuba
FUNCTION & PERIOD
principal investigator kosta mathéy
El perfil de la vivienda en Cuba se ha desarrollado ampliamente tanto para los interesados en el propio país, como para el resto del mundo. El interés del público internacional por Cuba, es mucho más grande en comparación con otros países. De hecho, existe un cuestionamiento puntual, enfocado en la siguiente pregunta: ¿Cómo hace? un país de una dimensión espacial pequeña como Cuba, que a la vez se ha visto afectado, por un bloqueo comercial, desde hace más de 50 años, y por una serie de huracanes devastadores en esta última década. Podría decirse que:
- De una manera singular ha resistido a múltiples ataques militares, económicos y políticos de uno de los países más poderosos del mundo
- Mantiene una estabilidad política y sigue validando su proyecto de una sociedad socialista, mientras que todos sus aliados en Europa del Este demisionaron y no han encontrado un nuevo equilibrio social.
- Todavía mantiene uno de los mejores estándares de calidad de vida en el mundo, a nivel social, educativo y de salud, con una esperanza de vida de 80 años[i] (2013)
- Sin haber solucionado de manera integral el problema de la vivienda, vale aclarar que no se registra una pobreza absoluta, y que no existe una población marginal viviendo en la calle como es común en otros países.
Todos estos hechos son, tal vez, evidentes para un cubano, ellos no se lo cuestionan, por qué tal vez, nunca han visto la situación de otra manera. Un extranjero no puede entender el fenómeno cubano, sin conocer el contexto histórico del país y el impacto de los eventos globales. El presente primer capítulo, está dirigido sobre todo a los lectores internacionales; en él se explican un conjunto de circunstancias concernientes a los distintos periodos de una política, basada en una economía socialista, y que aprovecha de diferentes patrones teóricos.
TITLE
Adaptationcand mitigation of housing typologies to climatic change
in ho-hhi-inh-city [saigon]
FOUNDING:
BMBF [Germany], PAR tu darmstadt
PARTNERS
University of cottbus, department of urban planning
Vietnamese ministry of housing in hanoi
FUNCTION & PERIOD
principal investigator kosta mathéy [2009-13]
assistant: dipl.-ing. christoph hesse
This project was a sub-project of the german mega-cities program, which covered all planning scales. Our contract was to address the smallest urban scale: architecture. The demand for housing in Saigon, including for social housing, is already extremely high and will drastically increase in the near future. A large amount of housing has to be provided as part of
urban expansion and urban regeneration. Against this background, and the manifold international activities regarding the energy certification or climate-efficient buildings, the development of green guidelines for sustainable housing was being sought of by the Vietnamese counterpart, the ministry of housing and urban development. The Vietnamese Green Building Council (VGBC) has already provided a draft of "LOTUS – National green building standard".
urban expansion and urban regeneration. Against this background, and the manifold international activities regarding the energy certification or climate-efficient buildings, the development of green guidelines for sustainable housing was being sought of by the Vietnamese counterpart, the ministry of housing and urban development. The Vietnamese Green Building Council (VGBC) has already provided a draft of "LOTUS – National green building standard".
In response, Furthermore, our work package within the megacity research project has provided a “Sustainable housing atlas”, and eventually presented a housing design catalogue, promotional guidelines and an evaluation tool for green architecture and building technology.
TITLE
Microfinance projects for housing construction
Case Study: Argentina
FOUNDING:
European Commission ALFA Program, c/o Delft University
PARTNERSUniversidad de Buenos Aires, Universidad de Cordoba
FUNCTION & PERIOD
Post-doc. investigator Kosta Mathéy [1998-1999]
Mentor: Prof. Jürgen Rosemann, TU Delft; Marisa Carmona
ABSTRACT
A general survey of national housing policies in Argentina and a set of case studies assessed the role of mini-credits within in the sector. In-depth interviews with managers of 7 NGOs offering mini-credits for housing provision to the low-income population were compared with a previous case study by the author into the PRIMHUR mini-credit programme in Honduras and led to three provisional working hypothesis for an envisaged second phase of the project:
1: Bottlenecks in the operation of the mini-credit schemes
In all the cases visited, the administration of the credit schemes included certain additional services apart from only money lending (i.e. technical assistance) which resulted in 'interest' charges of 3-4% per month, which is much higher than for habitual housing loans accessible to higher-income groups. Most of the interviewed NOGs have no clear idea about the composition of their administrative costs and hence are even less able to improve efficiency. In this aspect an optimization of current practice seems most feasible and advisable.
A reduction of construction costs are sought by some of the organizations, particularly through negotiating better prices for bulk purchase of building materials. Further reaching options, such as elementary building, training, terraced housing plans etc. have not been considered so far, but would be possible. Not all opportunities for self-administration by the target group are being explored due to certain paternalistic attitudes exposed by some of the organizations.
2. Commodification/Globalization: Expansion of the capitalist economy, particularly financial capital, into lower social strata.
Any introduction of commercial credits by definition represents an instance of commodification. Surprisingly, in the Argentinean case the banks have not yet exploited the potential of this new market, or prefer to concentrate capturing this market through other means, like (more profitable) local credit card schemes for consumer good purchases.
Almost all interviewed organizations have confirmed increasing difficulties for the target group to meet the repayment targets, particularly as a consequence of the declining labour market and loss of employment over the last years. This can be considered a direct impact of globalization, and may erode the possibilities of the loans schemes to survive in the future. In consequence, they may just decide to ignore the poor among their potential clientele, and concentrate on an economically better situated target population. An unresolved but realistic problem would be the likely devaluation of the Argentinean Peso (following the precedence of the Cruzeiro in Brazil, the main trading partner in the past) and subsequent inflation: None of the schemes except one have taken any precautions against inflation, which appears an inevitable phenomenon under such a condition.
3. Empowerment - or raising of self-confidence and gaining of better conditions for the target groups to defend their civil rights and eventually achieve a better share in national income distribution.
All the visited organizations claim their work to be socially motivated, but only a few positively encourage social mobilization of the participants. There was only one case where other social activities of the target group apart from organizing the credits could be identified.
TITLE
Co‑operative und individual Self-Help Housing in Latin America.
The case of Cuba
FOUNDING:
German Research Foundation c/o Kassel University
PARTNERSKassel Universität, Faculty of Social Sciences
ISPJAE La Habana, Faculty of Architecture
FUNCTION & PERIOD
Ph.D. investigator: Kosta Mathéy [1987-1991]
Supervisor . Prof Dr. Clarita Müller-Plantenberg
TITLE
Self-Help strategies as an element in social housing policies in Venezuela
FOUNDING:
DFG,
PARTNERSTH Darmstadt, TU Hamburg, DPU London, Architectural Association London, Universidad Central de Venzuela
FUNCTION & PERIOD
Principal author of the application: Kosta Mathéy
Applicant: Prof. Arnold Körte.
Researchers: Ronaldo Ramírez, Hans Harms, Jorge Fiori, Kosta Mathéy. Research assistant: Ingrid Herrmannsdörfer
Selbsthilfe-Strategien gelten seit langem als möglicher Ausweg aus vielen Problemen der sogenannten Entwicklungsländer - so auch zur Überwindung der Wohnungsnot. In der bisherigen Praxis allerdings haben entsprechend ausgerichtete Programme - gefördert von nationalen und internationalen Förderinstitutionen - nur selten die in sie gesetzten Erwartungen erfüllt. Viele Kritiker erklären die Misserfolge mit den System-immanenten Zwängen der kapitalistisch ausgerichteten Ökonomien, in welchen die Projekte durchgeführt wurden.
Die hier vorgestellte Arbeit zeigt am Beispiel Cubas, daß viele dieser Einschränkungen in der Praxis eines nichtkapitalistischen Landes nicht gelten müssen, und daß sich dort neue Qualitäten der Selbsthilfe-Wohnungsbau Programme realisieren lassen. Wesentliche Unterschiede zu marktwirtschaftlich ausgerichteten Ländern liegen insbesondere im sozialen Bereich. In diesem Sinne stellt Mathey auch innovative, im Ausland noch nicht praktizierte Organisationsformen vor, deren Prinzipien eine realistische Antwort auf Obdachlosigkeit und Wohnungsnot selbst in den Marktwirtschaften des Nordens oder in Oesteuropa darstellen könnten.
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