Configurational and morphological sustainability in social housing: The case of Cité Ouvrière in Mulhouse (original) (raw)
Related papers
Urban Morphology, 2017
With a shortage of affordable housing, social housing has become a priority on national agendas. However, designing social housing has a poor record, as reflected in the current demolition of postwar housing 'utopias'. This paper seeks to explore how the design of new social housing could increase the resilience of urban areas and its social and spatial integration in the contextual urban fabric. It examines the twenty-first century social housing area of Cité Manifeste, designed by renowned architects as an extension of Cité Ouvrière, a nineteenth-century mass industrial housing scheme in the city of Mulhouse, France. The spatial and social performance of these two cités are investigated, focusing on the urban interface between the streets and houses, and its patterns of evolution. Both schemes are well embedded in the wider street network, and Cité Manifeste has integrated better into the old quarter spatially than socially, yet not all parts of the design perform similarly. The comparison of the two cités and their components provides insight into the impact of architectural and urban design on the viability of housing developments.
Referential housing type for the 21st century city: new typo-morphological strategies in Brussels
2021
The hypothesis of this paper is that a specific urban identity can be traced back to the residential spaces of the city. The concept of referential housing type, defined as the archetypal and most ordinary residential type in a specific place throughout its urban history, is the most effective tool to disclose the identity of cities. Its benefits are threefold. It reveals the socio-cultural character of a place, enables a better understanding of other forms of housing, and sets a basic vocabulary from which it is possible to interpret new forms of housing. Utilizing the case study of Brussels, this paper aims to adopt an innovative approach that can further investigate the transformations and identity of cities. Although there can be a foundation type for each historical period, a city is characterized by a single referential type. Therefore, the referential type allows a dynamic analysis and understanding of the built environment's evolutionary mechanisms, providing a basis for addressing future changes. The referential type deals with both housing legacies and new housing typologies, which are designed to meet current challenges of sustainability and social changes. It can provide new suggestions for housing design, concerning, for instance, urban densification and living quality. The investigation of urban identity thus plays an important role in the design of the 21 st century city.
This call for papers concerns social housing, a rapidly changing and significant field for those who practice architecture, landscape architecture and spatial planning. Present throughout Europe at various levels, from 4% in Romania to 32% in the Netherlands, social housing heavily contributes to urban renewal. Through its material and non-material renovation, as well as the evolution of meanings, stakeholders and populations, new dynamics emerge that influence architectural, urban and landscape forms, modes of living and careers in spatial production. This volume seeks to identify and decode these dynamics through the following three axes.
Autrefois cantonnées aux principaux centres-villes, les Maisons du Peuple deviennent, après la Première Guerre mondiale, un accessoire indispensable aux nouvelles municipalités qui se développent à la périphérie des villes. Ce processus est à mettre en parallèle avec les évolutions et changements survenants dans la structure même de la vie urbaine. Les Maisons du Peuple étaient en effet des hybrides d’architecture et d’intention, utilisées afin d’apporter une certaine homogénéité entre le caractère architectural et urbain des centres-villes et l’identité des banlieues de circonscription. Les Maisons du Peuple deviennent donc un sujet idéal pour étudier la façon dont les architectes et urbanistes modernes entretenaient le réseau complexe de relations entre l’esthétique, la technologie, la politique et le mécénat. Une analyse synthétique des stratégies architecturales et urbaines déployées afin de faire des Maisons du Peuple un élément déterminant dans l’établissement des nouveaux centres municipaux en périphérie de Paris est proposée ici. Car des efforts des architectes ne résultent pas uniquement une approche des Maisons du Peuple comme marqueur identitaire politico-social, mais aussi des tentatives de donner forme aux positions culturelles d’avant-garde et à la modernité elle-même.
Sustainable Dwelling. Between Polyvalence and Empowerment, 2019
In a context of increasing individualization of our societies, dwelling has developed to become largely a personal feat. Hence, housing can no longer be considered exclusively from a traditional household perspective. Given this context, a combined analysis – both spatial and social - of several housing projects was carried out by researchers in architecture and the humanities. Two projects - La Sécherie in Nantes and Kalkbreite in Zurich - were selected for their use of a particular conception principle: ‘reduction/extension’. This principle implies organizing a dwelling between two poles: a reduced domestic nucleus and a series of additional spaces. Based on this principle, a multiplicity of dwelling configurations can be imagined. All are grounded on the idea that living could take place beyond the traditional limits of housing. Combined with a spatial analysis, a post-occupancy exploration was carried out in both projects, shedding light on the constraints but also the potential of the ‘reduction/extension’ principle. The benefits of this ‘reduction/extension’ principle are twofold. First, dwelling can evolve given the constellation of possible housing configurations. Second, inhabitants are able to make their own dwelling choices. This combination of domestic polyvalence and dwellers’ empowerment is a key for sustainable housing designs.
Journal of Architecture and Urbanism
The Unité d'Habitation is a seventeen-storey apartment block built between 1947 and 1952 in Marseilles, France. Today the construction of such a building, in almost any part of the world, would hardly be newsworthy; however the construction of the Unité d'Habitation not only attracted global interest at the time, but it can also be seen as one of the most influential buildings of the twentieth century. This was for a number of reasons. The architect was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris who, better known as Le Corbusier for most of his adult life, was probably the most influential architect of the twentieth century. The building, in many ways, initiated the hegemony of Modern Movement architecture throughout the world. But, perhaps most importantly, it was seen by much of the architectural profession as a prototype for how people should be housed in the future – with consequential major social, environmental and urban impacts. This paper examines the background of the design an...