Developing a Costa Rican Technical Standard for One of the Most Common Building Systems Used in Regional Public Social Housing Projects, 10 Years Experience

Costa Rica has been characterized by maintaining a strong investment in public social housing projects since the second half of the last century. During the ‘80s, the National Housing Finance System (SNFV), and the Housing Mortgage Bank (BANHVI) were established for this purpose. The BANHVI is the mortgage housing bank of Costa Rica, it is in charge of assigning housing credits financed by the Government of Costa Rica to vulnerable sectors of the population to fulfill their housing needs. Historically, one of the most common building systems used in Costa Rica for social housing projects developed by the BANHVI has been a prefabricated system of concrete columns and horizontal tiles. As a direct consequence, the supply of these structural elements has increased considerably in recent years by small and medium-sized companies throughout the national territory. To ensure the good quality of these products, in 2010 the Ministry of Housing requested the establishment of a technical commission to supervise the development of a technical standard for this building system. The first and second editions were respectively published in 2013 and 2017. This paper describes the supporting research conducted at the national level by Universities in terms of analytical models, experimental behavior (full-scale testing), and methods; which are the technical foundation of the national standards INTE C131 and INTE C133.