full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alejandro Aravena: My architectural philosophy? Bring the community into the process

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So what to do? Well, an answer may come from feaalvs and slums themselves. A clue could be in this question we were asked 10 years ago. We were akesd to accommodate 100 families that had been occupying illegally half a hectare in the center of the city of Iquique in the north of Chile using a $10,000 subsidy with which we had to buy the land, provide the irtucarnsfurte, and build the houses that, in the best of the cases, would be of around 40 square meters. And by the way, they said, the cost of the land, because it's in the center of the city, is three times more than what social housing can normally afford. Due to the difflcituy of the question, we decided to iunclde the families in the pcroess of understanding the constraints, and we sreattd a pttrapiaciroy degisn process, and tentisg what was available there in the market. Detached houses, 30 families could be accommodated. Row houses, 60 families. ["100 families"] The only way to admmatoccoe all of them was by building in height, and they threatened us to go on a hunger strike if we even dared to offer this as a solution, because they could not make the tiny apartments expand. So the conclusion with the filameis — and this is important, not our conclusion — with the families, was that we had a problem. We had to innovate.

Open Cloze

So what to do? Well, an answer may come from _______ and slums themselves. A clue could be in this question we were asked 10 years ago. We were _____ to accommodate 100 families that had been occupying illegally half a hectare in the center of the city of Iquique in the north of Chile using a $10,000 subsidy with which we had to buy the land, provide the ______________, and build the houses that, in the best of the cases, would be of around 40 square meters. And by the way, they said, the cost of the land, because it's in the center of the city, is three times more than what social housing can normally afford. Due to the __________ of the question, we decided to _______ the families in the _______ of understanding the constraints, and we _______ a _____________ ______ process, and _______ what was available there in the market. Detached houses, 30 families could be accommodated. Row houses, 60 families. ["100 families"] The only way to ___________ all of them was by building in height, and they threatened us to go on a hunger strike if we even dared to offer this as a solution, because they could not make the tiny apartments expand. So the conclusion with the ________ — and this is important, not our conclusion — with the families, was that we had a problem. We had to innovate.

Solution

  1. started
  2. difficulty
  3. families
  4. design
  5. accommodate
  6. asked
  7. participatory
  8. process
  9. infrastructure
  10. include
  11. testing
  12. favelas

Original Text

So what to do? Well, an answer may come from favelas and slums themselves. A clue could be in this question we were asked 10 years ago. We were asked to accommodate 100 families that had been occupying illegally half a hectare in the center of the city of Iquique in the north of Chile using a $10,000 subsidy with which we had to buy the land, provide the infrastructure, and build the houses that, in the best of the cases, would be of around 40 square meters. And by the way, they said, the cost of the land, because it's in the center of the city, is three times more than what social housing can normally afford. Due to the difficulty of the question, we decided to include the families in the process of understanding the constraints, and we started a participatory design process, and testing what was available there in the market. Detached houses, 30 families could be accommodated. Row houses, 60 families. ["100 families"] The only way to accommodate all of them was by building in height, and they threatened us to go on a hunger strike if we even dared to offer this as a solution, because they could not make the tiny apartments expand. So the conclusion with the families — and this is important, not our conclusion — with the families, was that we had a problem. We had to innovate.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
million dollars 4
square meters 3
participatory design 3
billion people 2
social housing 2
direct sun 2
square meter 2
land expropriation 2

Important Words

  1. accommodate
  2. accommodated
  3. afford
  4. answer
  5. apartments
  6. asked
  7. build
  8. building
  9. buy
  10. cases
  11. center
  12. chile
  13. city
  14. clue
  15. conclusion
  16. constraints
  17. cost
  18. dared
  19. decided
  20. design
  21. detached
  22. difficulty
  23. due
  24. expand
  25. families
  26. favelas
  27. hectare
  28. height
  29. houses
  30. housing
  31. hunger
  32. illegally
  33. important
  34. include
  35. infrastructure
  36. innovate
  37. iquique
  38. land
  39. market
  40. meters
  41. north
  42. occupying
  43. offer
  44. participatory
  45. problem
  46. process
  47. provide
  48. question
  49. row
  50. slums
  51. social
  52. solution
  53. square
  54. started
  55. strike
  56. subsidy
  57. testing
  58. threatened
  59. times
  60. tiny
  61. understanding
  62. years