Elemental

Elemental is an architectural firm founded in 2000 out of a desire to address the problem of social housing in Chile. It has since evolved into an unusual practice - a partnership between a university (Universidad Católica de Santiago), an energy company (COPEC, a Chilean oil company) and an architect (Alejandro Aravena). Elemental's first project was Iquique, one of Chile's largest port cities. They were asked to house 100 squatter families under a standard government subsidy of US$7,500 per house. Elemental realised that the money would only allow them to build half of the house along with the purchase of the land, so they concentrated on building the bare essentials: the overall structure of the house, kitchen and bathroom. With the tradition and skills of self-build that squatter families acquire out of necessity, they would be able to complete the house if they had a well-designed framework to work from.

Elemental insists on referring to their housing developments as urban projects. Their design process is participatory and responsive to the individual needs and circumstances of each community. By recognizing what is available both economically and socially, they act as spatial agents and turn modest housing subsidies into a tool that can actually be used to address the huge housing deficit.