Tupac Amaru |
Jujuy, Argentina
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Problem
How should urban dwellers and urban activists reform the provision of government-subsidized housing units and demand best practices and quality of construction while contesting a broader political and economic climate that disadvantages the poor and corrupts political affairs? |
Solution
Organize a social and politically relevant neighborhood association and activism campaign that appropriates public housing construction subsidies through a new organization model of housing cooperatives, factories, labor, and residents to build quality housing options for the poor. |
Description
Fundamental shifts are underway in the relationships between the architect and the urban development of the city, and how the government engages in providing housing to those most in need. Tupac Amaru is part of that ideological shift. More than providing a new policy approach, or a business case for new ways to build social housing, Tupac Amaru represents the neediest in society, providing housing, education, and medical care under a sociocultural and revolutionary framework. What is most remarkable about the housing association that Tupac Amaru has created is that it has been able to conceive its own housing system (it has its own factories, schools and hospitals) and essentially become the defacto Housing and Urban Development Authority in some parts of Peru, providing subsidized housing to those most in need. With more than 70,000 followers, mostly indigenous Kolla Indians, the organization is know as both a revolutionary movement of quasi-socialist ideals and an efficient way to house the urban poor.
Tupac Amaru's principles is that "through dignified work and a change of consciousness, people can become better." And the idea of "dignity" is the most important construct of what it provides to urban planning: It employs the poor as a labor force which allows efficient cost-savings that are poured back as investments in various community spaces. As a social movement, changing ideas is also important. Usually, social housing is a matter of achieving the bare minimum, as to achieve the least possible government spending or as to maximize private profits in part of the developer. For Tupac Amaru, however, the housing projects are integrated with 'luxurious' community amenities like swimming pools, theme parks, and vast open parks that dignify the lives of the poor, creating a community that can bond through leisure and not merely through agglomeration. |
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As a social movement, Tupac built more than 7500 houses in Jujuy between 2004 to 2013.
Tupac Amaru controls government funding worth 1,000 houses per year. Receiving $23,000 per house, it builds four times faster than the private sector by employing the poor, for whom the houses are for, as labor force. National and Local Governments of Argentina, Tupac Amaru Association, the poor of many Argentinian locales, and Tupac Amaru's affiliated members. Social: A social and revolutionary movement that represents the neediest in society. Economic: Its organization provides its own housing system, it has its own factories, schools and hospitals with its own governing body. Environment: self-sufficiency. Single story social housing with rainwater collection tanks branded with the face of Che Guevara, no architect involvement, celebrates the urban poor with the same urban planning deployed in richer neighborhood through community infrastructure projects like pools, theme parks, public art and grand open spaces, vast playgrounds, and . Provides its own economic model, proposes new types of amenities for social housing projects. |
Benefits
Tupac Amaru is led by a new breed of socialist-style South American leader, Milagros Sala, wielding genuine grassroots movement to not only empower the poor but also improve their living situation. Tupac Amaru has provided thousands of houses for the poorest people in the region. What Tupac Amaru saves by creating its own factories and by cutting out all the middlemen—the developers, construction companies and architects—it can reinvest into the community as grand social gestures. |
Negatives
Social movement perceived more as a "cult" When the movement decides to demonstrate, it can paralyze the streets of Jujuy, a fact that has turned many of the local middle class against them. Radical political ideology |
LEssons
- With centralized social housing out of political fashion all over the world, it is increasingly rare to find a form of place-making that is not in thrall to a market that depends on privatized services, rising property values and speculation. Instead, government should partner with social movement organizations and nonprofits to provide best practices for social housing that includes residents in the process of construction as well as in the final product. Policies should be set in place to subsidize and encourage public interest design as the way to development.
- In the U.S there are several negative stereotypes associated with public housing linked to racism and class-struggles. they create difficulties in developing new units and building momentum around NIMBY opposition. Create housing developments that have a variety of social and urban amenities shared by the whole neighborhood to instill a culture of mix-use, inclusion, and universal rights to public.
- Empowered community organization can go a long way in addressing the real challenges faced by many communities, and sometimes are a better agent for producing change than the federal or municipal government organizations. Social movements in the U.S should seek centralized opportunities to use government funding to build and implement projects that utilize new models and alternative ways of providing aid.
Links
http://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/2011/11/24/welcome-to-the-country-club.html
http://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/2011/11/24/welcome-to-the-country-club.html