Construction with Earth and Sustainability: Analysis in the Light of Public Housing Policies

Abstract

Social housing public policies are the main tools that Latin American States have to reduce high housing deficit. This problem requires to be considered along with global warming, since thinking in the construction industry as energy-efficient it is imperative in the contemporary world. Earth construction is among the most interesting alternatives from this angle. This paper examines the experiences of public policies that allow the construction of homes made with earth in the province of Tucumán, in north-west of Argentina, with the purpose of approaching this reality and to examine the relation between these state programs of design and production of social habitat with the non-conventional technologies that incorporate the ground as an input for the construction. At the same time, this work aim to know the potentials for the development of these policies on a larger scale. The methodology used is research with participatory action (IAP), and the correlational study and of case is presented. The developed activities were analysed taking into consideration the history and documentation of the institutions involved, observation and analysis of sites, community and institutional approach, survey of housing and their contexts, data registration and its systematization to achieve results and conclusions. The results suggest that there are existing potentials for the development of public policies that implement the earthen construction on a larger scale, since the institutional, technological and socio-cultural identity precedents show it.