Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, is one of the cities with the highest number of vacant homes according to the latest census conducted in 2022. Real estate speculation forces more and more people to live farther from their workplaces, cultural hubs, and leisure activities.
This house, built in the mid-1980s with a preexisting area of 75m², is located on one of the two lots that make up the property. Over the years, its uses have changed—from a single-family home to a fashion atelier and, more recently, a parking lot for vehicles for sale. These changes caused significant deterioration, leaving the house in poor condition at the time of occupation. The walls retained moisture due to a lack of ventilation, and the fixed furniture in the kitchen and bathroom was heavily deteriorated.
The intervention consisted of restoring the property to serve as both a home and a workspace, with a limited budget of $3,300 USD. This meant intervening in the house at a cost of $44 USD per square meter, in a country where construction costs are ten times higher (the cost of building homes typically ranges between $400 and $1,000 USD per square meter).
Along with environmental awareness regarding the use of available material and human resources, achieving cost efficiency for the project required maximizing the reuse of construction materials and waste from other works that the new occupant already had on hand. The intervention strategy was simple: every action had to respond to the principle of doing the minimum to achieve the maximum.
The interventions were straightforward. The preexisting roof was perforated to allow light and air into the bathroom. Plaster was removed in areas with moisture to allow the walls to breathe and remain in their raw state. Usable floors were preserved, openings were created in walls to spatially connect social areas, and natural lighting and ventilation were increased. Communication with the patio was achieved through the installation of a pivoting door.
All bricks and demolition debris were reused to create new floors both indoors and outdoors, avoiding the need to remove any materials. Furniture and the pivoting door were built using recycled glass and metal tubes recovered from an old shelving unit donated by friends, as well as some of the wood used for the pergola. The pergola structure was formerly part of a foldable assembly used for a different purpose. Its new configuration now provides shade in the afternoon and will support climbing plants in this home.
