Housing quality and professional responsibility. Make up and procedures of the Colombian Society of Architects’ Housing Quality Commission

The present paper documents the process set forth by the Society of Colombian Architects’ Housing Quality Commission in 2008 and 2009, regarding considerations around quality in low-income housing projects. The paper is divided into three parts. The first one explains how the Housing Quality Commission was structured and what its mission and purposes are. The second part briefly describes a research exercise ordered by the commission and undertaken by La Salle University. In the last part, some general observations and recommendations generated by this experience are presented, such as the need to harmonize the analytical language of architecture with the statistical language used when designing policies, in order to exercise the professional social responsibility in a more forceful fashion.