Modular Affordable Housing

Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a median household income or below as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index.

Most of the literature on affordable housing refers to mortgages and number of forms that exist along a continuum – from emergency shelters, to transitional housing, to non-market rental (also known as social or subsidized housing), to formal and informal rental, indigenous housing, and ending with affordable home ownership.

There is a global need for affordable housing, especially in developing countries where a great proportion of the population lives in slums or non adequate shelters.

Modularity in housing is one technique to allow them to be more economic to build, in shorter schedules with great flexibility for their layout. It usually refers to a module, or basic dimension that can be repeated in designing housing unit.

This competition calls to propose a construction system that must be affordable, convenient from the point of view of assembly, flexible, allowing expansions and easy of construction if possible without the use of heavy equipment. One housing unit of 60 sqmt must be assembled in a maximum of two days by a crew of three persons.

It must also be all green and with high energy conservation properties, with proper insulation built in through the use of adequate materials. 3D printing techniques are acceptable.

The competition also request architectural layouts of the basic residential units, for single, couples and family units, including clusters with residential services utilizing the same modular building units.