Oliver Heckmann
Challenges and Tendencies
In contrast to a review of the past – where the distance of time allows for a more accurate reflection on which historical, societal, and economic developments or design strategies challenged existing paradigms and contributed significantly to the development of housing – the present can only be described in tendencies. What is discussed here are some of the most important challenges facing urban housing today. Concrete examples are offered as illustrations of potential design solutions.
The Social Segregation of Cities An increasing section of the population is threatened with exclusion from the real-estate market – whether as renters or buyers – because they simply cannot afford the rapidly accelerating cost of housing. This is not only due to the global financial crisis of 2007, but also to the increasing attractiveness of real estate as an investment, the often-cited gap in income development, and even factors like online vacation rental platforms that increasingly deprive cities attractive to tourists of sufficient residential space. The current scarcity of affordable housing is also further aggravated in Western industrial societies by the steady growth in the attractiveness of city life – with simultaneous high and still increasing numbers of empty properties in many rural regions. The situation is made more acute by processes of gentrification, where in well-located but
1 Dattner Architects, Grimshaw Architects: Bronx Social Housing, New York, 2012 The project, which was built as a model for “affordable, sustainable and reproducible” housing in a central location, combines three building types taken from the surroundings – a row of townhouses, a higher block with duplex units and a high-rise – to form a continuous building, the roof of which winds its way up from the courtyard to the uppermost roof terrace and can be used as a collective fruit and vegetable garden as well as for recreational activities. Small shops, a health center, work-life units and a fitness center enliven the juncture between the street and the courtyard.
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often neglected neighborhoods, socially and ethnically diverse residents are pushed out by groups with higher incomes. This development requires counter measures, that with more inclusive concepts attempt to stem the trend toward social segregation within cities – which on a societal level can also be viewed critically – by creating new models for affordable housing, whether in the form of new building types, new property development models, through the renewal and expansion of social housing programs, cautious forms of increasing inner-city density as well as renewed, contemporary research into “housing for the minimum subsistence level.” The inhabitants to be considered are extremely heterogeneous and span from singles, couples, families, retirees, and immigrants to groups on the edge of society such as the homeless 1, 2, 3.
2 Michael Maltzan Architects: Star Apartments, Los Angeles, 2014 In this residential project for homeless people, the goal to foster a social interface with the immediate surroundings through a mix of uses was applied to the redevelopment of an existing parking structure. The ground floor is occupied by a health center for residents and neighbors, and the level above acts as a podium with communal gardens, jogging path and meeting places. The prefabricated residential units stacked above each have their own bathroom and kitchen and are connected in an open spatial fabric. Open voids offering views of both the city beyond and the podium below, and numerous staircases and external galleries are meant to foster contact.