Building Community: the José Pedro Varela Complex

Systemic Architecture and Housing Cooperatives in Uruguay

Abstract

The Housing Law, approved in Uruguay in 1968, contained a novel alternative in the country: the legal framework for the development of housing cooperatives. The works carried out during the 1970s express the different currents of thought that influenced the interpretations of the collective dimension, giving rise to varied physical configurations.

The first complex promoted by the National Workers' Central was designed in 1972 by the architects from the Technical Assistance Institute Cedas and built through mutual aid on the outskirts of Montevideo. The three zones that comprise it stem from the application of systems theory to architectural design. They express the significance given to the flexibility of the supporting structure, the indeterminacy of functions, the potential for growth, the rationalization of the design process, the use of mathematical laws for generating typologies, the application of modules, and the utilization of serialized construction procedures.

This article describes and analyzes this complex using primary sources. It provides materials and interpretations aimed at contributing to the understanding of system architecture in Uruguay, within the context of housing cooperative production.