CASA ROSENDA

Rosenda´s house is a 60 m2 dwelling that was planned, designed and built in collaboration with family members and students from Tecnologico de Monterrey (TEC) in a low-income neighbourhood. The house was built using self-help practices and about 40% of re-used and super-used materials such as fiberglass panels, fridge doors and the like. The house is located at 643 meters above sea level, half way up on Saddle Mountain, a natural landmark in the city of Monterrey.

Rosenda is a janitor at TEC and she was one of ten employees that accepted collaborating with Urban Impulse to improve their own homes. During the foundation phase of the house, the ten-member-group collaborated using TANDA, a strategy that Mexicans use to help each other by systematically sharing economic resources. In the case of Rosenda´s house, the resource exchanged was labour for three weeks to collect stones for the foundation.

By building the house, the Impulso Urbano team intended to move Rosenda´s family from the crowding and unsanitary conditions they lived in, to a more comfortable environment while still living in the house. In that respect, our design-build strategy was to build the second floor first and moving the family up to then continue building the first floor. A strategy that proved to be correct as we implemented it in 2009 2010.

The original house was a 25 m2 thin metal dwelling with a dirt floor and no windows or interior partitions. It was hot during summer and cold during winter time. The house was conceived as a modular (4´x8´) and incremental construction system that allowed the dwelling to be built in phases depending on the family’s budget and their needs.

Technical Description