Contested incrementalism: Elemental’s Quinta Monroy settlement fifteen years on

Abstract

Quinta Monroy is an award-winning co-designed settlement for ninety-three families on half a hectare of land at Iquique in northern Chile. Neighbours’ complaints about the disorderly settlement peaked after the landowner’s death and provoked untenured residents to seek government subsidies to redevelop the settlement. From 2003 a government social housing project was coordinated by the ‘Elemental’ architecture firm with US$10,000 per household. With the resident’s temporary relocated, a series of ninety-three modular and interlinked apartments were built around a series of courtyards. Designed as ‘half-houses’ they were subsequently co-opted by residents adding rooms in locations planned in advance by Elemental. Many households have since doubled the size of their apartment and reformed the settlement in ways not anticipated by Elemental.