Illegal Housing in Medellín: Autoconstruction and the Materiality of Hope

Drawing on ethnographic research in ‘El Oasis’, a highly precarious self-built settlement in Medellín, Colombia, this article examines the illegal practice of autoconstruction as a material expression of hope. It focuses on the multilayered, symbolic meaning of self-built housing, as it represents the pursuit of dignity, permanence and agency – as opposed to poverty, uncertainty and lack of agency – and an active and material form of hoping for a better future in the city. The state plays an ambiguous role in residents’ perspectives, who conceive of it, simultaneously, as a threat to and a guarantor of their future in the city. This ambiguity becomes materialised in the physical form of residents’ self-built housing, as residents either embrace, or refrain from, making improvements to their houses in response to shifting perceptions about the state’s intentions regarding the future of the settlement.