Housing Vol.1.
Affordable Housing: Six Exemplary Projects
In the last decade, housing is back in the architects’ agenda. Yet, renewed interest in housing corresponds to a historical moment in which, more than ever, housing is considered a commodity to be bought, sold and rented rather than a space to inhabit. While in the hey-day of the welfare state, legions of architects — often employed by the state — had the chance to develop large-scale housing complexes, and to experiment with unprecedented possibilities in terms of typology and technology, today affordable housing is reduced to few interventions in a desolate sea of commodified urbanization. Yet, in spite of these hostile conditions, some recent housing projects have managed to reformulate what affordable housing can be in the 21th century. Although these projects do not match (yet) the scale and quantity of their 20th century predecessors, they are innovative especially in terms of how people can live together more collectively and by allowing new types of households.
For the Fall Lecture Series, the School of Architecture at the EPFL has gathered six housing projects that address affordable housing in an exemplary way. Each guest will present one project and explain in detail what it means to produce good and affordable housing from commission to inhabitation. The aim of these lectures is to not stare too romantically at affordable housing, but rather to show how building affordable housing is both difficult and possible. The lecture series will be inaugurated by philosopher Emanuele Coccia - author of the acclaimed book The Philosophy of Home - who will introduce the house as a place where to imagine new and unprecedented communities that can challenge the way in which we build and inhabit housing today.
10.9
Emanuele Coccia
Bringing the Planet Home. Notes on the Future of Domestic Topology
September 10, 18:30, Foyer SG
1.10
Summacumfemmer
San Riemo Cooperative Housing, Munich
October 1, 18:30, Foyer SG
15.10
fala Atelier
Cheshire cats & Trojan horses
October 15, 18:30, Foyer SG
29.10
Peris+Toral Arquitectes
Modulus Matrix
October 29, 18:30, Foyer SG
12.11
RC Architects
Vivoli, Affordable Housing Mumbai
November 12, 18:30, Auditorium
26.11
Plan Común
Architecture of Commons. La 'Maison Commune'.
November 26, 18:30, Foyer SG
16.12
Esch Sintzel Architekten
Permanence and transience - Converting a warehouse into a collective residential building
December 16, 18:30, Auditorium