Improved Homes Project

Across the world, there are a number of challenges involving the production of social housing in urban settlements, given the many issues to be resolved, such as the access to basic sanitation, transportation systems and urban equipment infrastructure. In recent years, the city of Maputo, Mozambique, has been able to host the Casas Melhoradas project, which was developed in partnership with the Royal Danish Academy through the increasing of housing prototypes, allowing the population to have contact with architectural solutions that intend to establish a relation with their surroundings in a more sustainable way. Through a low-cost proposal, possibilities of design with the use of materials and local labor were explored in search of an architectural typology integrated with the morphological characteristics of the existing dwellings. We will discuss the post-COVID-19 strategies that can be developed from then on, since methodological approaches are essentially in direct contact with the community.