Since the beginning of Argentina’s urban expansion, low-income groups have been compelled to develop autonomous strategies to access housing. In the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, a sprawling urban conglomerate of 12.8 million inhabitants, the housing crisis remains one of the most pressing socio-territorial challenges. With around 20% of the population in CABA and up to 50% in GBA living below the poverty line, informal habitat constitutes the ordinary condition for a substantial urban sector. Historically, this has generated different forms of informal housing, from conventillos established by European immigrants at the end of the nineteenth century to villas miseria that emerged in the 1940s near industrial employment, as well as hoteles-pensión born in the 1920s and self-managed suburban land occupations aimed at the progressive formalization of settlements. Within this trajectory, building occupations, intensified after the return to democracy in 1983, represent a consolidated yet understudied form of popular urbanization. While differing in actors, spatial configurations and organizational models, they share a common rationale: ensuring access to affordable housing in the absence of effective public policies. Unlike many experiences in the Global North, they are driven less by political protest than by the structural need for urban survival. In the context of a new wave of evictions promoted by the city government, their reintegration into the urban and social fabric becomes a crucial opportunity to counter physical and social marginalization. This thesis analyses the evolution of building occupations in Buenos Aires over the last two decades through a historical perspective, identifying the actors involved, the role of the state and dominant social perceptions, while investigating the structural patterns of inequality that produce this phenomenon. Through the systematization of these dynamics and comparison with international cases, the research defines guidelines for the transformation of occupied buildings into inclusive housing environments. These guidelines are tested through the project for the building at Olazábal 3432, occupied for decades and evicted in January 2025, conceived as a participatory and self-managed housing intervention for low-income residents. The methodology combines archival research and the analysis of official and unofficial documents with extensive fieldwork, including visits, interviews and the collection of visual material. The study aims to demonstrate the intrinsic potential of occupations to inform alternative approaches to housing informality grounded in the restitution of the right to the city and the right to beauty for historically marginalized urban sectors.
Fin dall’inizio dell’espansione urbana in Argentina, li settori popolari sono stati portati a sviluppare strategie autonome per l’accesso alla casa. Nell’Area Metropolitana di Buenos Aires, un conglomerato di 12,8 milioni di abitanti, la crisi abitativa resta una delle sfide socio-territoriali più urgenti. Con circa il 20% della popolazione di CABA e fino al 50% di GBA sotto la soglia di povertà, l’habitat informale rappresenta la condizione ordinaria per un vasto settore urbano. Storicamente, ciò ha generato diverse forme di edilizia informale: dai conventillos degli immigrati europei di fine Ottocento alle villas miseria nate negli anni ‘40 vicino alle industrie, fino agli hoteles-pensión degli anni ‘20 e alle occupazioni di terreni suburbani finalizzate alla conformazione con il tessuto urbano esistente. In questa traiettoria, le occupazioni di edifici, intensificatesi dopo il ritorno alla democrazia nel 1983, rappresentano una forma di urbanizzazione popolare consolidata ma poco studiata. Pur variando per attori coinvolti e per i modelli organizzativi, esse condividono una logica comune: garantire l’accesso a alloggi a prezzi accessibili in assenza di politiche pubbliche efficaci. A differenza di molte esperienze nel Global North, queste occupazioni non nascono tanto dalla protesta politica, quanto dalla necessità strutturale di sopravvivenza urbana. Nel contesto di una nuova ondata di sfratti promossa dal governo attuale della città di Buenos Aires, il reinserimento delle occupazioni nel tessuto sociale diventa un’opportunità cruciale per contrastare l’emarginazione. Questa tesi analizza l’evoluzione delle occupazioni della capitale argentina negli ultimi vent’anni con una prospettiva storica, identificando gli attori, il ruolo dello Stato e le percezioni sociali, indagando al contempo i modelli strutturali di disuguaglianza. Attraverso la sistematizzazione di tali dinamiche e il confronto con casi internazionali, la ricerca mira a definire delle linee guida per trasformare gli edifici occupati in contesti abitativi inclusivi e dinamici. Tali linee guida sono testate nel progetto per l’edificio in Olazábal 3432, occupato per più di 4 decadi e sgomberato a gennaio 2025, concepito come un intervento abitativo partecipativo e autogestito. La metodologia combina ricerca d’archivio e analisi di documenti ufficiali con un esteso lavoro sul campo. Lo studio mira, infine, a dimostrare il potenziale intrinseco delle occupazioni per definire approcci alternativi all’informalità, fondati sulla restituzione del diritto alla città e del diritto alla bellezza per i settori urbani storicamente emarginati
Squatting as a survival strategy : the development of building occupations in response to the housing crisis for low-income sectors in Buenos Aires
Mirizzi, Greta
2024/2025
Abstract
Since the beginning of Argentina’s urban expansion, low-income groups have been compelled to develop autonomous strategies to access housing. In the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, a sprawling urban conglomerate of 12.8 million inhabitants, the housing crisis remains one of the most pressing socio-territorial challenges. With around 20% of the population in CABA and up to 50% in GBA living below the poverty line, informal habitat constitutes the ordinary condition for a substantial urban sector. Historically, this has generated different forms of informal housing, from conventillos established by European immigrants at the end of the nineteenth century to villas miseria that emerged in the 1940s near industrial employment, as well as hoteles-pensión born in the 1920s and self-managed suburban land occupations aimed at the progressive formalization of settlements. Within this trajectory, building occupations, intensified after the return to democracy in 1983, represent a consolidated yet understudied form of popular urbanization. While differing in actors, spatial configurations and organizational models, they share a common rationale: ensuring access to affordable housing in the absence of effective public policies. Unlike many experiences in the Global North, they are driven less by political protest than by the structural need for urban survival. In the context of a new wave of evictions promoted by the city government, their reintegration into the urban and social fabric becomes a crucial opportunity to counter physical and social marginalization. This thesis analyses the evolution of building occupations in Buenos Aires over the last two decades through a historical perspective, identifying the actors involved, the role of the state and dominant social perceptions, while investigating the structural patterns of inequality that produce this phenomenon. Through the systematization of these dynamics and comparison with international cases, the research defines guidelines for the transformation of occupied buildings into inclusive housing environments. These guidelines are tested through the project for the building at Olazábal 3432, occupied for decades and evicted in January 2025, conceived as a participatory and self-managed housing intervention for low-income residents. The methodology combines archival research and the analysis of official and unofficial documents with extensive fieldwork, including visits, interviews and the collection of visual material. The study aims to demonstrate the intrinsic potential of occupations to inform alternative approaches to housing informality grounded in the restitution of the right to the city and the right to beauty for historically marginalized urban sectors.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/251877