Oil refineries in Punto Fijo. Much of the government’s reform agenda, which has enabled the work of the CTUs, has been funded by oilIn Punto Fijo, a coastal city in the North-West of Venezuela and home to its largest oil refineries, I visited a CTU which has now almost completed the construction of their new houses. The community, Comunidad 12 de Octubre, is now home to a group who have spent the last 15 years fighting for their rights to land and housing. In 1992 they enlisted the help of the local technical university to help them make plans for a new community on a vacant piece of land on the periphery of town. The results of that collaboration are just now being constructed on the land.
Members of Comunidad 12 de Octubre work during the weekend on finishing their new homes. When the new government signed the decree which officially sanctioned the creation of the CTUs in 2002, Yuraima ‘Tiki’ Fingal and her association of Los Sin Techo ‘those without roofs’ were quick to become registered as the 35th CTU in Venezuela. The administration took special interest in the association and assisted them to get communal title over the land they had been occupying. The communal title grants all the members of the CTU permanent and secure land tenure, which cannot be bought or sold and remains the property of all members in perpetuity. The funding for the construction of the dwellings has been provided by the Ministry of Housing. The community manages the entire process and each family contributes a minimum
Reinaldo and his daughter take a break from painting and tiling. Reinaldo works in the refinery and joined the CTU ‘for the energy of the people’On first seeing the buildings I was stuck by their unusual ‘space-age’ form, lack of sun shading and the fact that every house was identical, with no apparent consideration of family size or solar orientation. I questioned the residents about why they had opted for this design. Their justifications were interesting. They saw themselves as doing something very new and exciting, the pioneers of a new form of socialism. As such they did not want traditional workers’ homes, rather they wanted something which would symbolise their attitude to community and equality. This also went some way to explaining the homogeneity of design, as the residents were adamant that everyone in the community was equal and thus should get the same house, if the family got too large they could simply get a second house. In this way the design which at first glance had seemed highly inappropriate was now beginning to make sense. For the community of 12 de octubre the symbolism of their houses was at least as important as their basic functionality.
Sketch of ‘Tiki’ Fingal’s new home. She lives upstairs with her husband and 3 children while her elderly mother lives in the ground floor.
The houses are arranged in small clusters, referred to as manzanas (apples). Each manzana consists of four ‘mico-manzanas’. Within each micro-manzana the neighbours share a central garden and playground
