Casa Union is a proposed community centre for the people of Union Santa Fe, a neighbourhood established 20 years ago in the peripheries of Lima, Peru.
Like many places in Latin America, the community has developed through progressive self-construction under challenging environmental and economic conditions. Although the neighbourhood has a strong social fabric and active community leadership, it continues to face significant infrastructural challenges.
Developed in collaboration with the community and our local partner Medlife (Peru-based NGO), Casa Union is envisioned as a part of a larger housing infrastructural development that challenges the prevalent and inadequate use of block and cement construction in the region by providing a lightweight, high-performance, participatory housing alternative based on SIP panels.
Other than serving as a prototype for the proposed construction system , the building, on a budget of $50.000, will provide open community spaces, a community kitchen and healthcare facilities for the people of Union Santa Fe.
Models have so far been used in two stages of the project. The first a is a large contextual model of the extended neighbourhood of Union Santa Fe. It is a 1:1000 3D print model that helps to understand not only the complex topography of the site but the patterns of the existing built environment. The informal urban sprawl on steep hills in the peripheries of Lima is difficult to picture in plans. As a contextual model it helps us to map out the potential impact of the project, and how a new housing alternative can be adopted in other sites in the neighbourhood.
The second set of models were used in an experimental stage of the project related to what we call the skin of the building. We have experimented with different materials building 1:1 models of the facade of the construction system to understand how this layer building can become more than just a material decision. The experimentation instead allows us to understand the skin as a participatory element that can be co-designed and built with the people from the community itself.
For this exhibition we have prepared a model that represents this material and conceptual exploration for the skin, the form and the participative construction of the building.
