Beyond Standardization: Re-configuring Mexican Housing Towards a Socially Responsive Temporal Framework

Abstract

This thesis critiques the dominant model of standardized social housing in Mexico and proposes an alternative framework rooted in temporality and social responsiveness. Tracing the evolution of Mexican housing from the cultural vecindad typology to neoliberal mass-produced suburban developments, the research reveals how state-led and privatized housing initiatives have prioritized efficiency, scale, and profit over residents' lived realities. The result has been widespread spatial inadequacy, infrastructural isolation, and, thus, the abandonment of millions of housing units. In response, this thesis reconsiders housing not as a fixed product but as an evolving social process. In analyzing Mexican vernacular traditions, informal settlements, and contemporary architectural practices, it argues for a redefinition of density that privileges adaptability and sustained long-term habitation over rigid standardization, deemed temporal density, which ultimately creates a true socially responsive framework to social housing. Through case studies of recent Mexican housing prototypes, the research demonstrates how flexible design strategies can accommodate diverse family structures throughout Mexico to make housing desirable and sustainable over generations. This thesis advocates for a shift in how social housing is conceived: from a static, top-down provision of shelter to a dynamic system that evolves with its inhabitants. By foregrounding the relationship between architecture and everyday life, the thesis proposes a temporal framework for housing that aligns design with the social, economic, and environmental realities of contemporary Mexico.