Innovations in Housing: Laboratorio de Vivienda

The AIANY Housing Committee is pleased to present a discussion of Laboratorio de Vivienda as the next installment of its Innovations in Housing Lecture Series.

The experimental project Laboratorio de Vivienda is a research laboratory for living, building, and construction. As a collection of housing prototypes and public spaces located near Mexico City, the project aims to offer insights into contemporary building and history of housing design in Mexico. The original concept was initiated by The Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers (Infonavit) to better understand how to serve their constituents. In collaboration with INFONAVIT’s Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo Sostenible, or Research Centre for Sustainable Development (CIDS), MOS Architects developed the master plan for the project and selected 32 studios to create low-cost housing with the goal of incorporating new construction techniques, water mitigation systems, sustainable energy sources, and public space. In many respects, this project offers an exemplary reference point in the design and delivery of low-cost housing alternatives as a place for education, and opportunity for design. As NYC faces a similar crisis in housing affordability and considers innovative ways to address challenges to design and contemporary building, this project and the subsequent work by the architects offers a model for new forms of practice by focusing on collaboration as a design act.

Since 2019, the Laboratorio de Vivienda garnered an Urban Design Merit Award in the 2020 AIANY Design Awards, is the subject of a new publication by Actar Press, and has drawn international attention to Mexico’s housing crisis, and the cohort of architects, planners, and designers who have continued to develop new and innovative approaches to housing in their own practices as well. This event will feature presentations by three architects who are experts in design of public space, housing, and participated in the Laboratorio including Fernanda Canales, Wonne Ickx, and Julia Gómez Candela, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Hilary Sample, FAIA, co-founder of MOS Architects and IDC Professor of Architecture at Columbia GSAPP.

Speakers:
Fernanda Canales, Founder, Fernanda Canales Architecture
Wonne Ickx, Partner, Productora
Julia Gómez Candela, Former Manager of Housing Quality Improvement, INFONAVIT

Moderator:
Hilary Sample, FAIA, Principal, MOS Architects