Building 111 post occupancy investigations
In April 2012, 10 months after the first families moved into Building 111, we proposed a post-occupation study as an exercise, with the intention of interviewing the residents directly. We asked permission from City Hall, who in turn advised the residents, and we prepared a model questionnaire and borrowed a housing unit to use for a week. We bought flowers for the students to give to the interviewees, and organized drinks in the central courtyard in order to present the workshop to the community.
Many residents accepted being interviewed and opened the doors of their homes to talk about their lives there.
These interviews and films reveal the empathy, shyness and naturalness of the student interviewers. The spontaneous responses they received from the residents, taken by surprise by this unexpected approach, makes these interviews particularly valuable in a way that is lost when the interviewee prepares the answers in advance.
The model questionnaire we prepared, with the help of architects Daniela Arias and Zaida Muxí, was based on the work of sociologist María Amérigo, and focused on questions relating to the design of the space and how the residents understood them.