Quinta Monroy is an award-winning co-designed settlement for 93 families on half a hectare of land at Iquique in northern Chile. Neighbors' complaints about the disorderly settlement peaked after the landowner's death and provoked untenured residents to seek government subsidies to redevelop the settlement. From 2003, a government social housing project was coordinated by the “Elemental” architecture firm with US$10,000 per household. With the resident's temporary relocation, 93 modular and interlinked apartments were built around a series of courtyards. These apartments, which were designed as “half-houses,” were subsequently co-opted by residents adding rooms in locations planned in advance by Elemental. Many households have since doubled the size of their apartment and reformed the settlement in ways not anticipated by Elemental.

This paper details a spatial and ethnographic study of the Quinta Monroy settlement since redevelopment to identify opportunities and risks that accompany this type of social housing model. The study reveals evidence that residents' capacities to enlarge apartments commonly exceeds the architect's expectations and that unregulated expansions often compromise the settlement's livability. This research anticipates further opportunities for expansion in this semi-regulated settlement and investigates possibilities that another contested slum settlement may emerge.

Quinta Monroy 是智利北部伊基克半公顷土地上为 93 个家庭设计的屡获殊荣的定居点。在土地所有者去世后，邻居对无序定居点的投诉达到顶峰，并促使未拥有土地的居民寻求政府补贴来重建定居点。从 2003 年开始，“Elemental”建筑公司协调了一个政府保障房项目，每户 10,000 美元。随着居民的临时搬迁，围绕一系列庭院建造了 93 套模块化和相互连接的公寓。这些被设计为“半屋”的公寓随后被居民增选，他们在 Elemental 预先规划的地点增加了房间。此后，许多家庭将公寓的面积扩大了一倍，并以 Elemental 出乎意料的方式改造了定居点。

本文详细介绍了自重建以来 Quinta Monroy 定居点的空间和人种学研究，以确定伴随这种社会住房模式的机遇和风险。研究表明，有证据表明，居民扩建公寓的能力通常超出建筑师的预期，而且不受监管的扩建往往会损害定居点的宜居性。这项研究预计了在这个半监管的定居点中进一步扩大的机会，并调查了另一个有争议的贫民窟定居点可能出现的可能性。