Author: Ureta, Sebastian

Source: Home Cultures, Volume 4, Number 3, November 2007 , pp. 311-336(26)

Publisher: Berg Publishers

Abstract:

This article studies the process of appropriation of new homes in a housing estate by low-income inhabitants of Santiago, Chile. Based on material collected during fieldwork, it shows how this appropriation is a balance between two contrasting forces. On the one hand, the dwellers seek to express their individuality through the personalization of their living spaces. On the other hand, the modernist architecture of the estates materializes the ideas of policy makers and developers about how low-income populations should live in urban areas. In this context families use two main strategies to adapt to their new dwellings: the material transformation of home spaces and their decoration. The first is related to the search for security and comfort in their new homes; the second to self-expression and normalization. In general, I conclude that these practices do contribute to the domestication of their new homes, although the impersonal architecture of the estate still constitutes a limit to their quality of life.

Keywords: HOMES; HOUSING ESTATES; ARCHITECTURE; APPROPRIATION; NORMALIZATION

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/174063107X247341

Publication date: 2007-11-01

More about this publication?

• Home Cultures is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the critical understanding of the domestic sphere, its artifacts, spaces and relations, across timeframes and cultures. 'Home' is a highly fluid and contested site of human existence that reflects and reifies identities and values.
  
  In this context Home Cultures explores the relationship between body and building, consumption, material culture, the meaning of home, moving cultures and social consequences of planning and architecture.
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