Social housing in the rural areas of the metropolitan region of Maringá, PR: post-occupancy evaluation

Abstract This article presents a study of the architectural design of the housing units of the Rural Village Program, implemented in the state of Paraná from 1995 to 2002. The method used was post-occupancy evaluation through the following tools: walkthrough, interviews, questionnaire and physical measurements. Thus, it was possible to obtain information concerning the actual appropriation the rural residents made of their units over time, which the study revealed to be significant. Most residents altered their houses to such an extent that it became almost impossible to recognise the units' original design. The results show which rooms were altered, how the floor plans evolved and the construction techniques employed to undertake the alterations. The square footage per resident greatly increased. Hence, it is clear that neither the original architectural design nor the housing program met the real needs of users, since they failed to consider their way of life and the specificities of rural housing.