Evolution of housing cooperatives in Uruguay

Collective ownership, self-management and technical assistance as a framework for creativity and innovation.

Abstract

The article traces the evolution of users' housing cooperatives in Uruguay, a system that, based on collective ownership and self-management, has not only provided a quality housing solution to a large part of the population with limited resources, but has also contributed to maintaining the social function of housing, distancing it from the logic of the market and real estate speculation. During more than 50 years of experience, this open and unfinished system has demonstrated its capacity to adapt to different economic, social and political conditions, and has constituted a laboratory of explorations and proposals in social, urban and architectural aspects, providing numerous lessons in terms of organisation, management, production and interdisciplinary work. As a hypothesis we maintain that after the analysis and evaluation of the existing spatial conditions in relation to the contemporary needs of those who inhabit them, it is possible to reveal intervention strategies for the collective production of spaces that can integrate greater complexity, in accordance with the diversity and plurality of ways of inhabiting and family arrangements Reviewing the evolution of this experience will allow us to identify the opportunity that the current challenges offer to explore alternative paths of action within a necessary updating of the system, including the role of technicians and the architectural project.