The NGO Soluções Urbanas launched a crowdfunding platform earlier this month to enable technical assistance, the purchase of materials, and renovation work in precarious housing. Named Arquiteto de Família, the tool was developed with sponsorship from CAU/RJ.
The platform's goal is to facilitate access to better housing conditions, and the funds raised through the tool can be combined with resources from other sources, such as microcredit and barter fairs.
According to Mariana Estevão, president of the NGO, "the Arquiteto de Família project emerged in 2011 with the goal of providing free technical assistance to families, as established by the Technical Assistance Law [Law 11,888/2008]. We started with localized, small-scale interventions. The platform, however, can be a window of opportunity for local business generation and for opening up a new job market for architects and urban planners.”
The crowdfunding campaigns launched on the platform are currently selected by the NGO Soluções Urbanas; however, architects and urban planners who wish to provide technical assistance services will soon also be able to register their campaigns online, expanding the use of the tool.
In force since 2008, the Technical Assistance Law has had limited effectiveness so far, with only 122 cities across 16 states and the Federal District benefiting from federal funding transfers. In total, R$ 27.9 million has been invested, and the last contract signed for funding transfers was in 2010.
Jeferson Salazar, president of CAU/RJ, states that one of the main obstacles to implementing technical assistance for social housing is the lack of definition regarding which agency is responsible for allocating the funds. Regarding Rio de Janeiro, Salazar notes that "there is no housing policy across the three levels of government (municipal, state, and federal). The Rio de Janeiro State Housing Company (Cehab-RJ) was nearly dissolved. Meanwhile, the city of Rio's urban and social guidance centers (Pouso) were dismantled.”
CAU/RJ, for its part, allocates 2% of its revenue to projects of this nature. Universalizing architecture and urban planning services may still be a distant reality, but tools like Arquiteto de Família are a step in the right direction on this long journey.
Source: CAU/BR
This article was written by Romullo Baratto. The translation is powered by AI.
