Interventions in public housing : in search of place

Abstract

This work searches to build a framework for a rehabilitation strategy for distressed urban Public Housing projects. It is argued that an appropriate approach needs to address both, the physical and the institutional aspects of the projects, and that the core of the distress can be seen as a matter of levels of control at the project level. In this light, the notion of "mediating structures" --as an intermediate level - of control to be built into the projects-- is proposed. The argument is developed through three stages: A search into the history of Public Housing and its decay, to pinpoint what built-in patterns of control --in physical and institutional terms-- support the projects' distress. A review of current rehabilitation attempts in relation to the issue of control. An examination of what a mediating structure means and what the necessary conditions are for its support through a rehabilitation plan. The basic principles for the rehabilitation strategy, are then outlined.