Building safe and secure homes in Peru
The importance of the reinforced House
In Peru, the dream of having a safe home faces twin challenges: the environmental risks common in the region and a shortage of skilled labor. In fact, an alarming 80% of Peruvian buildings are built informally and half of them would not withstand an earthquake due to poor construction according to the Peruvian Chamber of Construction (CAPECO).
Melinda Sasfi, Hilti Foundation’s strategic project manager, has witnessed this firsthand. After her visits to Peru as part of the Viviendas Progresivas (VIPRO) project, she observed that houses are built haphazardly, and quality is not a focus. As a result, people build without professional supervision and much of what is built is simply poor construction. At the same time, the government has no plan to solve the problem. In addition to the poor quality of construction, there is another challenge: cost.
"It is very expensive to build a house in Peru. We found that construction prices in Peru are comparable to those in Europe. This means that families have to work very hard for very long to accrue enough savings to build their houses, and even this is no guarantee that the construction will be safe," she explains.
Reflecting on the origins of VIPRO, which grew from the Construya project, Melinda Sasfi highlights that the project team already identified capable local and regional building solution actors. However, it wasn't until 2023 that these actors were united to tackle the shared challenge: creating affordable and safer housing.
“VIPRO's success lies in its two-fold approach: identifying both needs and solutions - technical and demonstrably sustainable - and developing the construction skills of master builders in one of the most informal neighborhoods in Lima. At the same time, while we discovered several organizations working to improve housing conditions, a lack of coordination between these actors was evident. VIPRO bridged this gap, strengthening their synergies and accelerating the positive change they create,” adds Sasfi.
The beginning
In 2023, Hilti Foundation visited Villa Maria del Triunfo, one of Lima’s 43 districts. Their mission was to assess the challenges of informal housing. Through homeowner testimonials, structural evaluations and consultations with builders and suppliers, they identified common construction errors. Collaborating with VIPRO, facilitated by Swisscontact as a local implementation partner, and Miyamoto, a retrofitting specialist, Hilti engineers then clustered these errors and developed solutions. Pilot implementations in seven houses have yielded positive results, demonstrating a significant improvement in the quality of life for the beneficiaries.
"We realized that the most common problems in housing are concentrated in the support elements: columns, beams, roofs and walls. Although families give priority to the columns, they are often inadequately reinforced," explains Raul Anton, technical advisor in housing construction systems at Swisscontact Peru.
In this regard, Sasfi remarks on the success of awareness campaigns in educating homeowners. “The owners came to understand the importance of reinforcing existing columns to withstand earthquakes. They no longer wonder why they should redo existing columns. This focus on safety for residents and their families proved to be a key achievement in the project's initial stage,” she explains and emphasizes these criteria as crucial in selecting houses for the next phase.
Homes will be pre-screened to ensure they have the potential for significant improvement. In the seven pilot houses, this meant removing “crab cages”, hollow spaces in concrete, from beams and columns weakened by corroded steel. Additionally, damaged walls were demolished, and some reinforced concrete columns were replaced entirely.
Another important finding in this first stage was the inclusion of technological materials as construction solutions. "We have introduced chemical anchors and made families aware of solutions that serve to prevent a problem before it occurs, such as waterproofing on the roof to prevent leaks," adds Anton.
Sasfi points out that these innovative solutions demonstrate high viability but require modification to achieve optimal results. The challenge lies in the underutilization of these materials, often due to a lack of awareness, skills or, in some cases, accessibility. To fully realize their potential, efforts should focus on bridging these gaps and promoting wider adoption.
In this initial phase, VIPRO seeks to contribute to the training of construction masters through skills development. The goal is to optimize material usage and construction times, ultimately leading to improved construction practices across the board. An example of this is the use of a chemical curing agent that only requires water to be applied to the column where it is used over one day instead of seven.
For Rosa Galeano, Swisscontact Peru's progressive housing project coordinator, the biggest challenge is the financial issue. "Since last year, we have been working with several financial entities, such as Mi Casita and Mi Banco, to design the product that the beneficiary will need. Some are going to continue with subsidies, others are going to examine ways with their own resources, but we are working on that task", she shares. Sasfi highlights a significant benefit VIPRO brings to families: a shift in mindset towards quality construction as a long-term investment.
“By understanding this concept, families can potentially reduce the overall cost of reinforcing their homes throughout their lives by 20 to 50%. This not only saves money but also improves their quality of life,” she says.
Changing lives
From a technical point of view the challenge is that the construction isn’t done properly, because the ones executing it are not trained. “Therefore, our mission is to empower construction masters through education. A critical challenge we identified is that many lack awareness of available training programs. Additionally, time and financial constraints often prevent them from attending. VIPRO aims to bridge this gap by providing free training sessions with expert engineers," points out Sasfi.
During the first wave of training master builders, carried out during 2023, adjustments were made with a view to the second phase. An example of this is the adaptation of the diagnostic sheet, which included two important developments: the introduction of a metric tool that assesses the safety level of the home, and a diagnostic tool that evaluates structural defects and provides recommendations for remediation.
"Our challenge is to reach as many master builders as possible with these trainings, whether they are given by institutions such as SENCICO, a state entity, or CAPECO, a civil association or private companies. Builders can then correctly apply the construction processes and thus have an analysis of the progressive improvement of the houses, through certain indicators, which we are working on for the second phase," says Raul Anton.
Pablo Supanta is 50 years old and is one of the master builders who benefited from the training received by the VIPRO project from July to December 2023. He has always lived in Villa María del Triunfo and learned his profession thanks to his father, who took him to all his construction sites. At the age of 16, he was already reading blueprints and accepting his own work empirically.
"Construction is a field that attracts both those driven by necessity and those fuelled by passion. I definitely belong to the latter group. While I always dreamed of studying engineering and specializing in the field, financial limitations unfortunately prevented me from pursuing that path,” recalls Pablo, who found out about VIPRO's training program thanks to a neighbor.
The training was divided into three practical modules of two months each. The classes took place three times a week, in the evenings, at a local community building. "I don't think I know everything about construction, but the training was something new for me. I learned a lot. A few weeks ago, for example, a neighbor asked me to make him four columns with material he had saved for a year. Thanks to VIPRO's training, I know that I can't use this material because it is contaminated and that would affect the final construction," he explains.
Pablo says he has built houses from scratch and also made renovations and finishes in this area. Building for his neighbors not only generates income for him, but also the satisfaction of seeing his work finished. "When I walk around the neighborhood with my son, I point out a well-built house and tell him 'I did it,'" he says proudly.
More people benefit
Angelica Montalvo is one of the beneficiaries of the first stage of VIPRO. She’s 59 years old and a leader in her community in environmental issues and infrastructure improvement. She came to Villa María del Triunfo when she was seven years old - several years after the 1950 earthquake. Since 1985 she has lived on the land that her mother inherited, which was initially fenced with boards, stones and calaminas (corrugated metal sheets covering the roof).
Angelica had two problems in her house that were repaired in the VIPRO pilot plan: a column and a beam damaged by steel corrosion. Both were entirely replaced. "Over time the house deteriorates, perhaps the bad advice of masons also has an influence. When the walls began to crack, I started to patch them up, but it was not the perfect solution, because the ironwork rusted again. Then the engineers from Vivienda Progresiva arrived to help me," says Angelica.
Another homeowner, Absalón Castañeda, whose second floor was reinforced with mesh walls for the safety of all the inhabitants as part of the VIPRO project says: "I hope that all houses in Villa Maria del Triunfo will be as safe as mine and that more master builders will be trained by VIPRO."
Incremental construction
The Hilti Foundation tackles affordable housing through two key programs:
Building material innovation: This program explores and promotes alternative construction materials like bamboo, offering more sustainable and potentially lower-cost options.
Systemic solutions for housing gaps: This program focuses on creating a comprehensive approach to address housing issues. It includes developing proper assessment tools to diagnose needs and building strong networks to accelerate construction and bridge the housing gap.
VIPRO project
The Progressive Housing Project (VIPRO) is an initiative launched by the Hilti Foundation's affordable housing focus area. It addresses the challenge of self-construction, a common practice in Peru where 80% of families build or modify their homes themselves to meet their evolving needs. These homes present common construction problems that can be addressed through innovative and accessible solutions, with the aim of reducing the risks and vulnerabilities associated with them.
These solutions are designed for initial implementation in Lima with the long-term goal of expanding to other South American countries. The pilot phase will focus on 6’000 houses, leveraging the expertise of engineers and construction masters trained by Hilti. This initial investment aims to create a ripple effect, organically scaling the program's reach.