Protohabitat: Research in a Sustainable Habitat in Developing Countries. A Study Case

This research, entitled Protohabitat, deals with the arrangement of a neighborhood prototype planned according to criteria of environmental, social, economic and cultural sustainability in developing countries. Such a neighborhood integrates, on one hand, an experimental prototype of incremental housing built with improved traditional materials and systems of construction and, on the other hand, the use of new technologies. This article presents the proposal developed for the city of Manta (Ecuador), which is implementing fairly well some urban models and building typologies foreign to their social, environmental, and cultural conditions. Backed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Aecid, Spanish acronym) and based on a holistic vision, this work has integrated all the habitat levels, from the urban to the constructive development, starting from the specific socio-spatial considerations in the place but also including those parameters already assumed, tested and commonly accepted by the best urban culture.