Alejandro Aravena’s Philosophy: Bring The Community Into The Process

Alejandro Aravena shows how taking an unusual approach to design – inspired by the favelas and slums in Chile – can pay off socially, environmentally and economically. He was asked to build homes for 100 families in Chile with a very small budget, approximately 10,000 dollars per family. By working with the families he understood their needs and it soon became apparent that building small complete houses would not meet their needs. When the families were shown designs for a 40 metre squared house that had no options be adapted they were very unhappy. So Alejandro came up with a simple solution to a complex problem. With a budget that allowed houses of 40 metres squared per family he said why not build half of an 80 metre squared house, and give the residents the power to complete it. By rephrasing the question to ‘would you rather have a half a good house than a small one?’ the follow up became ‘well which half do we do?’Alejandro goes on to discuss two other examples of his work in Chile. Describing how sustainability can be implemented through common sense and the challenges of Tsunami defences in the southern region of the country. He speaks pragmatically about the difficulties of participatory design and through these examples highlights the benefits of this process. All of the examples underline the importance of the community in the design process, and why it is so key to finding a solution to the challenges we face.