Housing affordability has been a critical issue in Latin American cities since their rapid growth from the mid-twentieth century onward. As in other parts of the world, several metropolitan areas in the region are currently facing a housing affordability crisis, whose extent and depth vary in both degree and form. In the case of the Metropolitan District of Quito, the lack of accurate and up-to-date geostatistical information has resulted in a limited understanding of the actual magnitude of this crisis, hindering both the implementation of and advocacy for effective policies to address this issue. This article seeks to address this gap through the construction and analysis of a complex system of housing statistical indicators for the Metropolitan District of Quito. The analysis covers the period 2007–2022 and draws on official and private statistical sources. The results provide a novel perspective on Quito’s housing system, specifically on the affordability of new housing available on the formal market during the period under study. They show how, particularly over the last decade, real estate speculation has contributed to the loss of housing’s social function, thereby exacerbating the structural housing precariousness that has historically existed.
This article analyses the regeneration of Cantinho do Céu, a consolidated informal settlement on the banks of the Billings Reservoir (São Paulo), understanding the reservoir as a dynamic water landscape: an infrastructure that reshapes territory and produces social and ecological hierarchies. The intervention took place in a context where the Atlantic Forest had been drastically reduced by the construction of the reservoir and the subsequent expansion of precarious urbanisation. The regeneration combined sanitation, slope stabilisation, road improvements, and a linear park that re-established the relationship between the neighbourhood and the water. The analysis articulates two key perspectives: a critique of hydric modernity —which subordinated natural flows to the metropolitan metabolism— and negotiation as a project method capable of intervening without erasing the everyday life of an existing fabric. Local results are evident —reduced contamination and risks, and reorganisation of the urban edge— yet reveal limits: the social costs of resettlement and the inadequacy of localised actions in the face of watershed-scale degradation. In the context of climate emergency, the article proposes scaling policy from neighbourhood to watershed, integrating Nature-based Solutions as living infrastructure that restores ecosystem functions, strengthens resilience, and addresses housing precariousness without displacement.
Adaptive reuse has emerged as a key strategy for sustainable urban regeneration, extending the life of buildings as an alternative to demolition. In recent years, the conversion of office buildings into residential use has increased in European cities, driven by rising vacancy rates and the demand for housing in consolidated urban areas. Despite growing interest among developers and the potential environmental and social benefits of such conversions, the topic has received little academic attention in the Spanish context. This paper aims to address this gap by advancing knowledge on this specific setting. Drawing from a broad sample of 81 identified projects, the study focuses on four cases representing three building typologies. Based on interviews with the architects and a structured analytical framework, each case is examined through three dimensions: urban planning regulations, the scope of architectural interventions, and the characteristics of the resulting housing. The results show that, in Spain, the phenomenon is primarily market-driven and that the absence of specific planning policies limits the potential social and environmental benefits. The analysis also highlights key challenges and design strategies involved in these transformations, identifying planning regulations as a decisive factor shaping the extent and characteristics of the interventions.
Latin America, the housing deficit remains a key challenge. In response, state housing policies have primarily focused on the production of social housing, prioritizing quantitative targets over housing quality and residents’ needs. In Argentina, and particularly in the Municipality of General Pueyrredon, this approach has resulted in standardized housing developments that fail to consider the potential for transformation in response to changing ways of living. This paper aims to analyze the relationship between housing policies implemented in the Municipality of General Pueyrredon between 1950 and 2023 and the post-occupancy transformations recorded in social housing developments. Drawing on the complex systems approach and qualitative habitat analysis, a chronology of housing policies was developed, the housing developments produced were characterized, and a post-occupancy analysis of representative cases was conducted. Despite changes in housing policies across different historical periods, the results reveal the persistence of patterns of typological homogenization, peripheral location, and limited post-occupancy support. The post-occupancy analysis highlights residents’ capacity to transform and re-signify their homes through extensions, adaptive modifications, and the incorporation of productive and co-residential spaces, aspects that should be considered in future housing policies.
