INFONAVIT Rural Prototype

A social housing prototype encourages sustainable development of rural Mexico

The project promotes the development and acquisition of houses, in answer to the larger goals of densification by INFONAVIT. Rural housing implies not only building and living in the outskirts, but also a notion wherein architecture and its image exist in the context of agriculturally productive and picturesque landscape. Conceived to be self-built by owners, our proposal’s abstract posture, shape, and silhouette is made real through vernacular references and locally sourced materials and aims to conceive not just a housing prototype but also a new sense of rural living in sustainable environments.

A crystalline barn-shell would be built during the first stage of construction, ensuring a meaningful shelter  in a controlled envelope while providing efficiency, flexibility, and a basis for future growth. Its silhouette absorbs relevant traditional aspects and materials from the rural housing archetypes in nearby Ciudad Ayala. These include initiative, a sense of belonging, feasibility, adaptability, and the possibility for expansion. By encouraging rural transition through self-built houses, our project focuses on the challenges of a specific type of community while encouraging space efficiency, beneficial and distinctive conditions, and growth flexibility. In the context of larger solutions for regional and national demands, these design interventions intend to also provide a better quality of life for inhabitants through stability, job creation, and economic growth