Arquitetura Humanitária: um estudo de teorias e práticas

Abstract

With the rise of social inequity, the planet’s wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few. Meanwhile a considerable part of the world population still lives in poverty, under precarious and marginalized circumstances. The humanitarian architecture aims to seek alternative solutions to improve the lives of people living in this reality around the world. In the view of this paper, it will be presented as a development process aimed at - while producing a product - meet in the short term an immediate need and, in long-term enable individuals involved in this production to improve their quality of life. It is an approach focused on people and communities who most in need but less can afford the costs of the services of an architect. This study aims to introduce the discussion on humanitarian architecture, presenting the theories, practices and reference projects that exemplify how interventions are made in this approach. The research was exploratory in nature, with qualitative approach using bibliographic research with constant review of literature during the whole work. Inferences about the practices used by humanitarian architecture are made. They value human beings and their social relations seeking to develop him, thereby: include the user through a participatory process so that their needs are matched in the best way; create new skills in the community and potentially creating jobs through self-building process; incorporate the vernacular architecture, when possible, to preserve their culture and heritage and build buildings more sustainable and accessible by the use of local materials. Through this study we can see that the humanitarian architecture seeks to minimize global problems, contextualized in local realities and focused on the needs of a person or community.