Natural Building Materials and Social Representations in Informal Settlements: How Perceptions of Bamboo Interfere with Sustainable, Affordable, and Quality Housing
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Research Background
2.1. Housing Issues in Informal Settlements
2.2. Bamboo Housing and the Ecological Transition in Architecture
2.3. Bamboo Housing Revival in Colombia
3. Materials and Methods
3.1. Case Study: Nueva Esperanza
Total n. of housing units | 282 | 100% | Cladding materials in housing units (n = 197) | ||||
permanently inhabited | 203 | 72% | esterilla | 193 | 98.0% | ||
not permanently inhabited | 79 | 28% | plastic sheeting | 139 | 70.6% | ||
metal sheeting | 116 | 58.9% | |||||
Ownership status of permanently inhabited units | wood | 31 | 15.7% | ||||
owned since foundation | 135 | 66.5% | bamboo culms | 17 | 8.6% | ||
bought | 42 | 20.7% | fabric | 17 | 8.6% | ||
received | 26 | 12.8% | plasterboards | 6 | 3.0% | ||
203 | 100% | raw earth | 3 | 1.5% | |||
Total n. of dwellers in permanently inhabited units | |||||||
509 | |||||||
Profession | |||||||
Dwellers per unit | homemaker | 124 | 26.4% | ||||
1 | 65 | 32.0% | student | 105 | 22.4% | ||
2 | 51 | 25.1% | employed (agriculture) | 100 | 21.3% | ||
3 | 36 | 17.7% | employed (other) | 71 | 15.1% | ||
4 | 26 | 12.8% | employed (construction) | 29 | 6.2% | ||
5 | 15 | 7.4% | self-employed | 16 | 3.4% | ||
6 | 6 | 3.0% | unemployed | 14 | 3.0% | ||
7 | 4 | 2.0% | retired | 5 | 1.1% | ||
203 | 100% | other | 5 | 1.1% | |||
Average dwellers per unit | 2.6 | 469 | 100% | ||||
N. Esperanza | Colombia | ||||||
Median age | 31.3 | 32.2 | |||||
Age groups | cum.% | Education | |||||
0–14 | 128 | 25.3% | 25.3% | preschool | 38 | 7.5% | |
15–22 | 67 | 13.3% | 38.6% | studying | 105 | 20.8% | |
23–44 | 178 | 35.2% | 73.9% | no qualification | 150 | 29.7% | |
45–64 | 104 | 20.6% | 94.5% | primary school | 139 | 27.5% | |
65+ | 28 | 5.5% | 100.0% | secondary school | 23 | 4.6% | |
505 | 100% | middle school | 50 | 9.9% | |||
505 | 100% |
3.2. Research Design
4. Results
4.1. Features and Weaknesses of the Dwellings of Nueva Esperanza
We designed the house ourselves, more or less. [F60] (Respondents’ gender and age are tagged at the end of each verbatim quote from interviews)
I commissioned the construction of the house, but I did the design. [F49]
4.2. From Collecting Bamboo to Self-Building
Bamboo and Guadua are common here … [F36]
I got so much Guadua easily because of my job on the farm. [F45]
The material with which I made my house was given to me as a gift, because of my work. [M58]
To pay the construction costs, I sold my cow. I bought the material and I cut the wood [and the Guadua] myself. [M53]
We paid a master builder to build but we took the material from the ‘quebrada’. [F34]
Living in the countryside, and in farms, one learns at a young age how to build handicrafts. […] People know how to work bamboo and Guadua. [M37]
My husband left his job and with the settlement he bought the materials to build our house […] If you want we can show you some videos of the construction of the house. [F59]
I built the house myself, I started building before I met my husband. But the neighbors saw me working alone and helped me a lot. [F30]
My husband and I built the house where we live now in the settlement, we made the mats ourselves, which is very difficult and very hard. [F25]
We [mother and daughter] did the construction of ‘esterillas’ ourselves. We had no idea how to do it. I hurt my hands every weekend. [F39]
I built it myself because I know how to work the Guadua, I’ve been doing it for 22 years. [F46]
We built the house by ourselves… We learned how to work the Guadua. [F33]
My husband built the house in Guadua as an autodidact, as he knew how to build in wood. [F47]
A German who lives in Medellín asked for a house in Guadua, but in that case they cut it well and at the right time, they treated it before, they immunized it very well, and so on. [M45]
This house, as it is will not last more than 5 years, because it wasn’t treated and cut well.
4.3. Bamboo and Housing Models in the Inhabitants’ Expectations
We have been here since the beginning and we want the legalization to change the house ‘en material’. [F47]
We hope that with the legalization we will receive some help from the Government [meaning State], with which we want to build ‘en material’. [M60]
What we will do with the legalization would be to build in plastered Guadua, because that is the ideal solution […] it resists so much to earthquakes that absolutely nothing happens to it. [F60]
4.3.1. Perceived Safety and Durability of Bamboo
But I would change [bamboo] for ‘material’ or adobe, because it is ideal against hurricanes. [M45]
We want to convert the construction to one ‘en material’, for safety. [F33]
We do know that Guadua is very good for building … but the ‘material’ is safer. [F55]
Guadua can be very resistant, and I like it better than other materials, because the Guadua house is cool. […] My father-in-law lived in a two-story Guadua house that resisted as it was for 20 years. [F25]
When the State gave him the money so that he could exchange it for material, the budget was not enough to finish it and it still has no roof.
4.3.2. Bamboo Housing as a Temporary Condition
We are waiting for legalization so we can have a ‘vivienda digna’. [M45]
Have you seen that house? They made it very well, it looks like a material house. They are the best [you can find] here. [M47]
It’s all wrapped with ‘lona’ [tarp], we also put it on the ceiling, so it’s ‘todo igualito’ [all the same]. Where you can see the cardboard is because I have to change it. [F49]
5. Discussion
5.1. Bamboo Housing and the Life Stages of Informal Settlements
5.2. The Vicious Circle of Bamboo as a Transient Material
5.3. Abandoning the Tradition of Bahareque
5.3.1. Globalization and Social Representations
5.3.2. The Effects of the Standardization of Building Practices
5.4. Destigmatizing Natural Materials and the Retro-Innovation of Building Practices
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
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Galmarini, B.; Costa, P.; Chiesi, L. Natural Building Materials and Social Representations in Informal Settlements: How Perceptions of Bamboo Interfere with Sustainable, Affordable, and Quality Housing. Sustainability 2022, 14, 12252. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912252
Galmarini B, Costa P, Chiesi L. Natural Building Materials and Social Representations in Informal Settlements: How Perceptions of Bamboo Interfere with Sustainable, Affordable, and Quality Housing. Sustainability. 2022; 14(19):12252. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912252
Chicago/Turabian StyleGalmarini, Bianca, Paolo Costa, and Leonardo Chiesi. 2022. "Natural Building Materials and Social Representations in Informal Settlements: How Perceptions of Bamboo Interfere with Sustainable, Affordable, and Quality Housing" Sustainability 14, no. 19: 12252. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912252