L'habitabilitat en evolució: materials des de la història normativa per la seva redefinició vers la sostenibilitat.

Abstract

Nowadays there is a social demand to reduce the environmental impact in order to guarantee the human activity sustainability. When this demand is transposed to the construction sector, habitability must be redefined. Any search for efficiency increase must be thought about after reconsidering its social utility. Consequently, habitability must be focused on satisfying the basic necessities through the efficient use of the available resources. Due to this evidence this thesis assumes as a main goal contributing to this redefinition, through the observation of the current perception of habitability and from the study of its historical normative conformation. The achievement of this objective is developed by means of a threefold approach to the proceeding that defines habitability in each historical moment. The first approach is focused on detecting where the concept of habitability is defined, while showing that it arises fundamentally from the regulations. Research in the normative field of habitability makes clear two key aspects: Firstly, from the compendium of the regulations related to habitability it is obvious that, beyond the self-called habitability regulations, there has existed a large set of regulations that is crucial for the configuration of the material reality of habitability. This set of regulations is made of orders coming from multiple fields ¿hygiene, social housing, urbanism or construction-. Secondly, focusing on the inhabitants reveals the existence of a whole normative field that, from its link to housing, defines the rights and responsibilities of people. The second approach defines how the habitability concept is specified, emphasizing that the regulation of this utility has been evolutionary along time. From the definition of the concepts related to process of providing habitability ¿functions, satisfactors and privacy-, and the observation of the regulation, the set of contributions that allow going in depth in its definition deploy. Regarding the functions, its normative evolution compared with the implications of the right to housing reveals that they are a fundamental element to consider, specify and liken to rights linked to the fact of residing. At the same time, functions must be organized in the territory and its access from the homes must be guaranteed. In relation to privacy, the analysis of the satisfaction scales confirms that the historical trend of increasing individuality. A trend sheltered by a vision based on the negation of relations, and propelled as a vital need of the individual. This fact contradicts a variable conception of privacy that, from the individual¿s will, can become a compromise factor between the personal demands and the material availability. Regarding the satisfactors, it becomes evident that they are the main vehicles of definition of habitability, while including an implicit resource management model. All these factors should be reconsidered due to the demands derived from sustainability, pointing the regulation process towards the results guarantee. The last approach is directed to explore why the habitability concept is formulated, showing that some reasons defined by the regulations have acted as rigidities and making conditional the later evolution of habitability. Observing the objectives, plans and conditionings of habitability regulated in every moment, and the subsequent reconstruction of the normative history, the main motor objectives can be detected, and their effect on the factors that have defined habitability along time as well. Finally, as a result of the historical prospection of habitability, it is possible to characterize the current conception of habitability from its evolutionary logics, and provide materials for its redefinition towards sustainability.