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Project

Rethinking the "Living unit" - Domestic architecture and forms of life in changing demographic and labor conditions

In Flanders, social housing demands an urgent and radical reform. Its marginality is a well-known historical phenomenon: social rental homes account for only 6% of the overall residential stock. In 2022, around 180.000 additional units are needed to accommodate the growing population on the waiting lists. Demographic trends show that the type of homes provided by housing companies no longer match the households’ composition and their needs. In addition, housing agencies and other regional stakeholders are largely unprepared to address these challenges, due to outdated planning, normative and design paradigms they follow.

Still today, the social housing crisis in the region is mainly described and addressed from the point of view of short-term policies and financial issues, resulting in quantitative solutions to match the booming request of homes. This PhD dissertation aims to redirect the attention of scholars, architects and stakeholders to the role of architecture in this regard, posing some crucial yet often underestimated questions: if the social housing sector must be reformed, what about its architecture? Can spatial design play a role to redefine housing in relation to new welfare agenda, and transform it, once again, into an infrastructure for social utility? And what kind of institutional reorganization, managerial practices and design procedures could trigger this transition?

To address these issues, the PhD investigates the topics and terms for architecture to drive social housing reform. Departing from a critical overview of the evolution of social housing models and realizations in Belgium and Flanders in the 20th century, the thesis considers a series of international case studies from the Netherlands, France and UK from which innovative lessons can be learnt. In these projects, the multiple connections of architectural form with operating actors, governance models, typological rationales and construction/maintenance processes are challenged and critically revisited, pointing to new paths for future housing innovation. Ultimately, the dissertation investigates the connection between academic research and design practice as a strategy to stimulate the current debate, disseminate academic findings and work out methodological bases for future action and implementation. By means of a Pilot Project developed in collaboration with a social housing company and other relevant stakeholders in Flanders, the thesis proposes a series of realistic design principles and building prototypes to test the capacity of architecture to imagine a new social home. 

Date:1 Feb 2018 →  17 Apr 2023
Keywords:Housing, Living and Working, Flexibility, Affordable housing
Disciplines:Architectural engineering, Architecture, Interior architecture, Architectural design, Art studies and sciences
Project type:PhD project