The different meanings of home for residents and professionals in the planning and design of social housing in colombia

This dissertation compares and contrasts the perspectives of residents and housing related professionals involved in a social housing program in Bogota, Colombia to offer an in-depth understanding of how different meanings of 'home' influence the production and consumption of housing. It is based on the crucial need for architects, planners, and housing policy-makers to better understand the experiences of residents in the housing that they help to create. This study focuses on two of Metrovivienda's master-planned communities and illustrates the multiple perspectives of residents and housing related professionals through the rubric of an "emerging housing practice" (Ferguson & Navarrete, 2003). This practice encompasses four dimensions of what it means to create and live in these new communities: the meanings of homeownership, experiences in formal urbanizing spaces, misunderstandings and problems that arise from living under a 'new' horizontal property scheme, and strained attempts at ameliorating housing complex convivencia (mutual co-existence) issues via housing governance.;This exploration of people's meanings also reveals an underlying story of how these dimensions function as both city-building and citizenship-building projects of the state. The dissertation concludes with the argument that social housing is designed by the state to contribute to its citizenship goals of fostering convivencia. It does this through the horizontal property law and systems of local governance that are new and unexpected by the residents.;The study builds on interdisciplinary literature from environmental psychology and the social sciences, together with architecture and urban planning theory. It adopts a narrative inquiry approach in order to provide a complementary perspective to the largely quantitative field of housing studies. Specifically, data are comprised of 24 in-depth narrative interviews of residents and professionals, additional informal interviews with professionals, participant-observation field notes, a discussion group, and document research. Fieldwork was conducted in 2010 and 2011. The findings have direct implications in Colombia, as this model of social housing is currently being expanded by national and local governmental initiatives.