Leonard J. Currie Slide Collection

CINVA Housing Studies

Bogotá

Barrio Perseverancia. An impoverished neighborhood. March 1953.
Prefabricated concrete construction. February 1952
February 1952
July 1954
Barrio Quiroga. Public housing for workers. Construction began 1951.

Governments had the resources to sponsor large-scale developments like Quiroga. CINVA, on the other hand, focused on research, development, and technical assistance for self-help projects, often in rural areas.

Rural Colombia

Plan of an existing rural house, Colombia. Drawing by CINVA student ca. 1954
Steel plant. Acerías Paz del Río, Boyacá. August 1955
House built by owner, vicinity of Sogamoso and Nobsa, Boyacá. October 1955

CINVA worked extensively in rural Colombia. Natural resources for producing steel were discovered in Boyacá Department and a new steel plant drove a need for low-cost housing.

People in rural Latin America traditionally built their own houses and took pride in them. CINVA developed economical methods to enable homeowners to build houses and worked with them to plan their communities.