Habitability of low-cost housing. Case: Urbi Villa del Cedro, Culiacán, Sinaloa

Abstract

The concept of habitability has to be considered and implemented in housing policies, especially in the 21st century, because it is vital to seek optimal comfort conditions and generate satisfaction with the inhabited space. This work aimed to describe the habitability of social housing in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, from two approaches, one psychosocial and the other physical-spatial, to determine the habitability of the architectural spaces of social housing. The type of research was descriptive-explanatory and was developed in two aspects, the first was psychosocial, and the second was physical-spatial. The first was carried out by studying the individual's relationship with his home and measuring psychosocial habitability through a questionnaire. In the second, thermal, acoustic, and light habitability was measured using different mechanical measuring instruments according to the type of habitability. The results obtained were compared with international and national regulations. However, a significant discovery was the inexistence of its normative framework to establish specific criteria for evaluating comfort in social housing. The results obtained in this investigation showed that the respondents feel satisfaction and pride in their home, considering it a family heritage. However, the perception of the spaces tended to rate them negatively because they were designed with minimum square meters. In technical issues such as thermal, acoustic, and lighting, it was observed that most houses did not reach the standards to have comfortable houses. From this study, it is possible to observe, describe and measure the physical and spatial problems derived from not taking into account the precepts of habitability and designing the architectural spaces of social housing with the minimum elements.