Other rural livings: Contemporary rural dwelling phenomena in Colombia

Abstract

This paper identifies and analyses three phenomena in the current situation of design of rural housing in Colombia, approached as cultural spatial situation, reviewing its causes and main characteristics. The phenomena are product of a search of new types of rural dwelling generated since 1990, that were classified in three groups based on the type of spatiality produced and their relation to rural territories. The types of housing include formal and informal design processes. The groups relate to the overlook of the rural context, the stereotyped rurality and the dwelling derived from political situations. The causes of these phenomena are also reviewed with focus on the role of the spatial disciplines such as architecture, design, planning and urbanism, on the development of rurality and on the role played by the State on the configuration of rural areas through policy, normative and institutional presence. The goal is to be able to understand what is happening in rural housing in the Colombian situation and how the current facts can inform spatial disciplines, as architecture and design, in rural contexts in the near future.