As part of the training of students on design-related degree programmes at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning of the University of Buenos Aires (FADU-UBA), we support the development of a neighbourhood comprising 60 families who, organised as a cooperative, collectively purchased land. Participatory workshops are held to plan the neighbourhood, its infrastructure, and its public and communal spaces, as well as workshops on housing design and construction using materials according to each family’s availability. Internal communication and outreach materials are produced to strengthen the process.

It benefits 60 families without land or housing who, in 2020 in the town of Guernica—amid the context and urgent challenges of the pandemic—took part in the reclamation of land for affordable housing from which they had been violently evicted. Following the eviction, they remained organised until they found an opportunity to purchase land collectively. It also benefits students on design-based degree programmes at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning at the University of Buenos Aires, who gain hands-on experience of a comprehensive participatory project by following the process year on year.

60 families, 156 people, of whom 80 are women and 10 are children. And each year (2023, 2024, 2025) 20 students and 6 lecturers.

60 families comprising 156 members, including 80 women living in urban and peri-urban neighbourhoods. They are landless and homeless, working together in an organised manner on neighbourhood development through monthly assemblies, community work days and individual family work days. They have drawn up a code setting out objectives and methodologies. The Taller Libre de Proyecto Social (TLPS) supports this organisation, which makes its own decisions and sets its own direction, and runs monthly workshops. Every four months, materials are produced and shared with the community.

Against a backdrop of the dismantling of public policies and the harassment of working-class communities and public universities, this initiative serves as a model of coordination that takes the lead in developing proposals and projects to drive progress towards a solution through a participatory process.

It aligns with HIC’s Vision: “A world in which all people have a safe place to live in peace and with dignity, with a civil society and social movements that are coordinated, competent and innovative, working in solidarity to advance towards gender equality and equity…”

To develop a sustainable social project based on community participation and self-management, coordinating efforts with the academic sector and social organizations, in a context where most families are headed by women and where professionals and students are also women. We built support for this initiative by integrating it into community-based organizational structures. Through training, we took on the challenge of accompanying a process of social mobilisation in a context where public services are being dismantled, thereby contributing to its sustainability, and learning to make decisions and create collectively with the participation of local women and female academics.

• To propose and sustain community actions linked to training programmes at the public university.
• Training within the local community, supporting a process of grassroots urban development in contexts where public services are being dismantled, and contributing to its sustainability.
• Community-based urban planning practices through participatory design, applying project process and decision-making methodologies with the equal participation of women—both community members and academics.
• A housing and community facilities project, based on a co-design system that integrates spatial layout, functionality and materials with a phased approach tailored to the needs and incomes of each family and the neighbourhood as a whole.
• Construction of 12 homes, a multi-purpose hall and community infrastructure incorporating environmental protection systems.

https://creas.org/frr-barrio-norita-cortinas/

In difficult times, through unity, the collective effort and agreement of the families who organised themselves, and with the support of the civil organisation El Galpón Cultural and other organisations, succeeded in a community purchase of a plot of land on which they will live, with the possibility of affordable payments. Learning about and sharing this participatory project process through the Taller Libre de Proyecto Social is a key learning experience for young project leaders.