Sustainable social housing, natural cycles and climate change in the city of Mompox: The sustainable house as an example of resilience alongside nature

The social interest housing has always been a delicate and important subject in Colombia, according to the national government (artículo 91 de la ley 388 de 1997); the social interest houses are those developed to guarantee the right of having a house to the families with the lowest income. In every Development National Plan (Plan Nacional de Desarrollo) the national government will stablish the type and peak price of the destined solutions for the families. Bolivar is one of the regions with more government’s help. This region mostly warm and humid is periodically affected by floods. Its capital city, Mompox represents the cultural confluence between the Spanish and the indigenous tribes, working as a catalyst for the region. Water bodies in Mompox are the 32.1% of the municipality’s surface, the periodically affected areas by floods are the 38.5%, this is equivalent to 24.662 ha. The last flloding by “La niña” phenomenon in 2011 affected the 29% of the municipality’s surfaces, about 18.888 ha. More than the 60 % of the population was affected. The sustainability subject plays also an important role. There are different approaches and definitions about the relationship between architecture, sustainability, development and environment. To understand where we are now we have to go back and look for the definitions, concepts and approaches that have been written since us, as global population began to worry about the environment and our relationship with it. The sustainability concept regards the construction in every aspect: design, construction, use, manage and disposal; and in every scale: materials, building, community, city, territory and planet. Otherwise are inherent the “living” aspects: psychological well-being, production, work, mobility, etc. (Taken from the course “Sostenibilità di processi e prodotti per l’architettura”. Prof Jean-Marc Tulliani. 2017-2018). We can rely on many aspects to explain the demand of social interest housing in Colombia, from the more than fifty years civil war leading to forced displacement, to corruption, poverty, poor economy models and so on. However, we are not thinking of these problems because for obvious reasons we are aware of them, in this thesis what is conceived as the problem is the actual construction of the house, its architecture, its urbanism, apparently not thought by people or made for other people. The site, the climate conditions, the cultural and social aspects, the economy, the environment, etc. become minor aspects. The only thing that actually matters apparently is to give a house to the people and finish the work there. We cannot undervalue the work of the government with the National planning Department (Departamento Nacional de Planeacion) and the private associates that are developing these houses, but we can do better, with better professionals and with and interdisciplinary teams that, from holistic approach they can create a sustainable social interest housing. However, not everything is lost. There are entities (public and private) concerned about the future of the country, its communities and its sustainable development, and more important they are committed to generate community. Also students, professionals, thinkers, from every field of action, young people that are able to think and to dream a better tomorrow. The project’s aim is to regenerate the community lost by the new location, by re-re-locating the new inhabitants, understanding the natural cycles