The collective, the individual and self-determination: a metabolist project in architecture of PREVI Lima

Abstract

PREVI Lima—Lima’s Experimental Housing Project, 1968–1975—has gained worldwide recognition in the architecture and urban design fields as a relevant model for urban development. PREVI neighbours quickly started to appropriate the units, building and transforming the neighbourhood in a field of freedom, particularly in the facades, which became canvases for their social aspirations. As a result, the houses evolved beyond any architectural expectations, and every addition reinforced the residents’ self-determination, revealing the struggles of the overlapping cultures, and expressing the vivid processes of consolidation of the Peruvian culture. The ideas of participation, individualization of the architecture and the freedom to build their own dwelling conditions were fully achieved, albeit in a completely different way than planned.