News

GSD team presents new affordable housing types for Brazilian cities

An interdisciplinary team of students led by Felipe Correa (associate professor of urban design) and Carlos Garciavelez Alfaro (lecturer in urban design and MAUD ’12) is working on new affordable housing prototypes for Rio Grande do Sul. Sponsored by Landinvest, a Sao Paulo-based housing agency, the Housing Surplus Project explores how increased density paired with typological diversity and the introduction of collective services can redefine the domestic landscape around consolidated urban edges.

The team, comprising Ryley Poblete ( MArch II), Ana Victoria Ciari (MAUD), Maynard Leon ( MArch I / MUP) , Miguel Lopez Melendez (MAUD) and Long Zuo (MAUD), is conceptualizing new block configurations that break away from the mono-functional rigidity offered by the current affordable housing delivery protocols, exploring how mixed income blocks can incorporate income diversity into the affordable housing market. The prototypes will be tested on the ground by Landinvest throughout the course of the summer.