A New Vision for Housing

A New Vision for Housing
Author: Christopher Holmes
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2006-03-20
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1134236360

In 1945 the Labour Government set out to enable everyone to have a decent home, where people from all walks of life could live together. This dream was destroyed by a succession of avoidable mistakes and almost everyone now seems to believe that it is impossible to rediscover that vision. This book challenges that fatalism, tracing the policy mistakes that have given rise to this inequitable state from the folly of mass housing to the unfair tax privileges of many home owners. Holmes describes and advocates a new vision for the new millennium, finding solutions variously in development, planning, economic structures, social reform, and political reassessment to narrow the gap between rich and poor and enable people in all housing tenures to finally have a choice.

Housing the New Russia

Housing the New Russia
Author: Jane R. Zavisca
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2012-05-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0801464773

In Housing the New Russia, Jane R. Zavisca examines Russia’s attempts to transition from a socialist vision of housing, in which the government promised a separate, state-owned apartment for every family, to a market-based and mortgage-dependent model of home ownership. In 1992, the post-Soviet Russian government signed an agreement with the United States to create the Russian housing market. The vision of an American-style market guided housing policy over the next two decades. Privatization gave socialist housing to existing occupants, creating a nation of homeowners overnight. New financial institutions, modeled on the American mortgage system, laid the foundation for a market. Next the state tried to stimulate mortgages—and reverse the declining birth rate, another major concern—by subsidizing loans for young families. Imported housing institutions, however, failed to resonate with local conceptions of ownership, property, and rights. Most Russians reject mortgages, which they call "debt bondage," as an unjust "overpayment" for a good they consider to be a basic right. Instead of stimulating homeownership, privatization, combined with high prices and limited credit, created a system of "property without markets." Frustrated aspirations and unjustified inequality led most Russians to call for a government-controlled housing market. Under the Soviet system, residents retained lifelong tenancy rights, perceiving the apartments they inhabited as their own. In the wake of privatization, young Russians can no longer count on the state to provide their house, nor can they afford to buy a home with wages, forcing many to live with extended family well into adulthood. Zavisca shows that the contradictions of housing policy are a significant factor in Russia’s falling birth rates and the apparent failure of its pronatalist policies. These consequences further stack the deck against the likelihood that an affordable housing market will take off in the near future.

Missing Middle Housing

Missing Middle Housing
Author: Daniel G. Parolek
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2020-07-14
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1642830542

Today, there is a tremendous mismatch between the available housing stock in the US and the housing options that people want and need. The post-WWII, auto-centric, single-family-development model no longer meets the needs of residents. Urban areas in the US are experiencing dramatically shifting household and cultural demographics and a growing demand for walkable urban living. Missing Middle Housing, a term coined by Daniel Parolek, describes the walkable, desirable, yet attainable housing that many people across the country are struggling to find. Missing Middle Housing types—such as duplexes, fourplexes, and bungalow courts—can provide options along a spectrum of affordability. In Missing Middle Housing, Parolek, an architect and urban designer, illustrates the power of these housing types to meet today’s diverse housing needs. With the benefit of beautiful full-color graphics, Parolek goes into depth about the benefits and qualities of Missing Middle Housing. The book demonstrates why more developers should be building Missing Middle Housing and defines the barriers cities need to remove to enable it to be built. Case studies of built projects show what is possible, from the Prairie Queen Neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska to the Sonoma Wildfire Cottages, in California. A chapter from urban scholar Arthur C. Nelson uses data analysis to highlight the urgency to deliver Missing Middle Housing. Parolek proves that density is too blunt of an instrument to effectively regulate for twenty-first-century housing needs. Complete industries and systems will have to be rethought to help deliver the broad range of Missing Middle Housing needed to meet the demand, as this book shows. Whether you are a planner, architect, builder, or city leader, Missing Middle Housing will help you think differently about how to address housing needs for today’s communities.

From the Ground Up

From the Ground Up
Author: Peggy Tully
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2012-10-24
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9781616890926

It is said that the history of modern architecture can be observed through the evolution of the single-family home. Over generations, each has hoped to improve on the last, rethinking and reinventing this seemingly simple building type. At certain historic moments in the discourse, new ideas about domesticity have given form to radically different configurations of home and community. Current emphasis on sustainability presents a unique opportunity to design affordable houses that respond to specific economic, social, and environmental challenges. In From the Ground Up editor Peggy Tully presents the results of an international competition to create new models for affordable high-performance green homes in urban residential neighborhoods. Developed for a vacant infill site in Syracuse's Near Westside, these ambitious projects offer an array of innovative designs that provide a new vision for once-vital urban residential neighborhoods and well-designed energy-efficient homes throughout the United States.

A History of Housing in New York City

A History of Housing in New York City
Author: Richard Plunz
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 470
Release: 1990
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780231062978

Since its emergence in the mid-nineteenth century as the nation's "metropolis," New York has faced the most challenging housing problems of any American city, but it has also led the nation in innovation and reform. Plunz traces New York's housing development from 1850 to the present, exploring the housing of all classes, discussing the development of types ranging from the single-family house to the high-rise apartment tower.

Live-Work Planning and Design

Live-Work Planning and Design
Author: Thomas Dolan
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2012-03-01
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1118144066

“Although the live-work concept is now accepted among progressive urban design and planning professionals, the specifics that define the term, and its application, remain sketchy. This encyclopedic work is sure to change that, providing the critical information that is needed by architects, planners and citizens.” -Peter Katz, Author, The New Urbanism, and Planning Director, Arlington County, Virginia Live-Work Planning and Design is the only comprehensive guide to the design and planning of live-work spaces for architects, designers, and urban planners. Readers will learn from built examples of live-work, both new construction and renovation, in a variety of locations. Urban planners, developers, and economic development staff will learn how various municipalities have developed and incorporated live-work within building codes and city plans. The author, whose pioneering website, www.live-work.com, has been guiding practitioners and users of live-work since 1998, is the United States' leading expert on the subject.

A New Vision

A New Vision
Author: Bola Ogunkoya
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2015-06-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1784622044

Focusing on the condition, contribution and plight of the black population, A New Vision aims to shed light on the journey taken by those forcibly removed from their homes in Africa. As well as documenting their struggle with the slave trade, this book explores various topics relating to the black community, including how they are represented, defined and perceived by society. This book also asks important unanswered questions such as: Why is there an over-representation of young black men who are failing in school, committing ‘black on black’ violence and struggling to maintain long-term relationships? In a world driven by determination to succeed, author Bola Ogunkoya addresses why rappers, footballers and athletes seem to be the only role models available to young black men in a world where many other public figures can be embraced and admired. Concentrating on both the UK and the US, A New Vision raises questions about why the US – a country concerned with the brutal legacy of slavery – has produced a black president, a black attorney general and four star black generals, while the UK, a less segregated country, has not. Stressing the need for greater attention to be given to encouraging the black community to excel within the field of education, A New Vision will appeal to those interested in social and cultural heritage, and particularly to those with a strong interest in black history.

Building on the Past

Building on the Past
Author: Malpass, Peter
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2006-03-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781861347510

Despite the improved supply and quality of housing in the UK and Europe, the future of housing remains uncertain. Is decent, affordable housing an achievable goal? How far will governments seek to shape the market and respond to demographic pressures? This book looks at the big questions housing as a key indicator of social and economic well-being.