Case Study:
Monterrey Incremental Housing
Architect: Alejandro Aravena
Firm: Elemental
Year Completed: 2010
Chilean architect, Alejandro Aravena, designed the Monterrey Incremental Housing Project in Santa Catarina, Monterrey, Mexico, with his pulitzer prize winning firm, Elemental. Completed in 2010, this 70- unit complex is an urban planning design strategy which provides opportunities for middle-class families to dwell in. Each unit costs $20,000 and features half-built units with a kitchen, bathroom, stairs, and dividing walls, and roof spans. The Families then have the choice to expand the units to up to 50%. Elemental’s goal was to rather than reduce the sizing of the units as a mean of accommodating more people, institute the principle of low-rise, high density, which allows the residents to adapt and expand each property themselves.
Plan Perspective
