elemental housing, arch. aravena, iquique/chile, © 2005
On December 14, 2004, ninety-three families belonging to a community of Aymara indigenous established thirty years ago in the Quinta Monroy district of Iquique, in the north of Chile, moved into their apartments. The almost classical austerity of the settlement, built as part of the Elemental project, under the architectural direction of Alejandro Aravena, resisted for just one sunny afternoon. These photographs depict the progressive and accelerated transformation, the successive infiltrations that have altered the initial image of the project without corroding its spirit.
