Building a good-sized house can be expensive, so in some places you can move into half a house and finish it off later when you have the money. A film by Tom Garmeson and Nick Holland

BBc world hacks - half houses

“Two thirds of the world’s population are expected to live in cities by 2050 according to the UN. But where will all these extra people actually live? Budgets to build new social housing are limited, so one architect has been working on a radical solution.”

In 2018 I travelled to the town of Constitución in southern Chile to visit a social housing development with a difference. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Alejandro Aravena and his team at Elemental have made a name for themselves by building half houses, leaving the new occupants to finish them off in their own time.

As well as producing and shooting the accompanying video, I reported this story for the BBC World Hacks radio programme. Listen to the full documentary, which aired on the BBC World Service, here.