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According to the 2016 report by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), there are 881 million people living in slums in cities across the developing world, and it is estimated that by 2025, another 1.6 billion people will likely need adequate and affordable housing. In light of these projections, there has been much discussion about Social Interest Housing (referred to as HIS in Brazil) and how projects in this field can help address the housing deficit. But what, exactly, does this term mean?
Social Interest Housing, generally speaking, is designed for low-income populations who lack access to formal housing and cannot afford the services of construction professionals. According to UN-Habitat, affordable housing is that which is adequate in quality and location, and does not cost so much that it prevents its residents from meeting other basic living expenses or threatens their enjoyment of basic human rights.
When discussing Social Interest Housing, a wide range of interests and stakeholders come into play. From this perspective, the protagonists are—or should be—the future residents. This is true not only as individuals in need of a place to live, but also as members of a society where the network of relationships established with the neighborhood and the city plays a vital role in the project's design.
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