Vivienda Adaptable en La Alameda: Indeterminación programática como respuesta para nuevas formas de habitar

Abstract

The senior thesis is being carried out in the Alameda area of the city of Quito. This area has undergone significant functional changes influenced by the transformation and expansion of the city, which has led to the displacement of both its inhabitants and the services found in each sector, taking them to new points of interest within the city. This led to the residential use of La Alameda being replaced by administrative and health services, turning it into an intermediate point in the city that is increasingly growing towards its valleys and abandoning the consolidated center. Family and living models have also changed, with the traditional nuclear family model being broken down into different subgroups that respond to different realities and needs. For this reason, the senior thesis does not focus on the design of rigid and immutable architecture, but rather on a spatial system that allows for the diverse realities of its potential users, thus designing an Adaptable Housing project. To this end, concepts of spatial neutrality and checkerboard spaces found in the texts “Specific Neutrality” and “Equipotential Space in Housing as a Strategy for Adaptability” are incorporated. Three main case studies are also used: “Funabashi Apartments,” “110 Rooms,” and “Cornella Housing,” to help understand the logic of spacial organization, thus allowing the functional basis of the project to be generated. This can be understood as a grid in which boxes or rooms of equivalent qualities and dimensions are arranged and can contain different functions influenced by the needs of their users and by the interaction between each of these boxes arranged in a checkerboard pattern. In this way, architecture becomes a container that adapts to different social realities without imposing a rigid housing model.