The experience of cooperative housing in Uruguay throughout the years and its influence on social housing in São Paulo

Abstract

During a student exchange program in the city of Montevideo at the Facultad de Arquitectura, Disen?o y Urbanismo (FADU-UDELAR) and as part of an elective course called “Cooperative Housing — Counseling, Practicing, and Learning”, it was possible to learn more about the Uruguayan system of cooperatives housing. This essay is the result of this experience that also gave rise to the research carried out for the Critical Architecture discipline, with Prof. Ms. Gabriel Kogan, attended in 2018 at Escola da Cidade. This essay intends to illustrate how the Uruguayan system has developed over the years, considering the different socioeconomic contexts of each decade. There are four generations for the Uruguayan housing cooperatives: the 1st generation within the three pioneers; the 2nd started with the approval of the National Housing Law; the 3rd after post military regime, which took into account problems of urban exodus in central areas and abandoned heritage buildings; and the 4th generation the one that questions the current lifestyle and the corporativism. Based on that, I intend to outline how the Uruguayan system of cooperative housing influenced the social housing in Sa?o Paulo.