Modernist housing estate “revival”: a paradigm to upgrade Latin America’s slums?

Abstract

Charles Jencks famously stated that Modern architecture died in St Louis, Missouri on July 15, 1972. While his statement has been disputed, the historical ineptness of Modern architecture to solve the housing problems of the urban poor is generally accepted. This is supported by several unsuccessful high-profile modernist housing estates in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Nevertheless, there has been a recent re-engagement with modernism in theory and practice, and notably in solutions to upgrade slums in Latin America. This has happened in the background of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically goal 11—Sustainable Cities and Communities—that aims by 2030 to “ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums”. This paper analyses a recent modernist large-scale slum upgrading intervention in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The project relocated a vulnerable informal settlement of over 7000 people to a new housing estate. The paper draws on ethnographic methodologies to critically analyse the ex-ante rationale of the project and the ex-post situation of the community in terms of resident’s perception of the new housing estate. We argue that the project is revised version of modernism: contextualized to the time, culture, geography, and users. Almost four years post-intervention residents praise comfort aspects of the project, report higher sentiments of safety, and endorse the project as a model for future slum upgrading in the country. These findings align with emerging re-evaluations indicating that modernist housing estates are not as problematic as the literature has suggested and can still solve the housing issues of the vulnerable urban poor.