16 Houses
As coordinator of five organizations — DiverseWorks gallery, The Graham Foundation, The Cultural Arts Council of Houston, the Rice School of Architecture and the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation (who served as client and builder) — I commissioned sixteen architects to design a house that could be
16 Houses, Owning a House in the City. project
built within the parameters of a new federal voucher program designed to bring lower income individuals into market rate housing. The exhibition was titled 16
project type
Houses: Owning a House in the City and it opened in Houston on November 6, 1998. At the local level, these houses served the constituency of Houston’s
project
Fifth Ward (a close-knit African American neighborhood with a median income of less than $10,000/year). More broadly, the projects showed the depth and diversity of ways in which a group of American architects, many represented in the book Slow Space, responded to the challenges of moving federal housing
Planning and Architecture
The Venice Bienalle; Glass House @ 2 Degrees. Columbia University GSAPP.
tion and ensuing publicity generated considerable excitement in both the Fifth Ward and at the universities, some of which was directed toward building.
2000 Venice Biennale, 7th International Architecture Exhibition, Glass House @ 2 Degrees.
Construction for seven of these houses, including my own Glass House @ 2, was funded under by the Local Initiative Support Corporation of New York, and
budget
subsidies away from collective housing and towards the market practices of budget, square footage, tight regulations, and community participation. The exhibi-
four are sold and about to enter construction. Two projects are completed at this date. This project is realizing a multi-faceted goal in which architecture simultaneously serves as a template for diverse formal explorations, a pragmatic tool for a grass-roots social organization, and a political instrument of analysis with national implications.
location
16 Houses
16 Houses is a multi faceted redevelopment project for Houston’s Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation. Part exhibition, part building program, part research project—and most importantly a collective work of architecture and planning, it is focused on the redevelopment of the Houston’s historic Fifth Ward. 16 Houses was founded in 1996 by Michael Bell as a study of the economics and design of the single family house and this housing types newly pivotal role in down payment voucher programs initiated at the federal level of United States housing policy. 16 Houses provided a new model of collaborative design between institutions that could respond with innovation and vigor to new federal initiatives in housing policy. The Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, The Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris Counties, The Graham Foundation and most importantly DiverseWorks collaborated over a period of three years. Michael Bell of Columbia University and formerly of Rice University in Houston organized the exhibition with Mardie Oakes of the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation.
Juried Awards 1999 The Architectural League of New York, Emerging Voices Award Grants / Funded Research 2000 The Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, Houston (FWCRC). Project: The Venice Bienalle; Glass House @ 2 Degrees.
Bank United, Houston, Texas Project: 16 Houses, Owning a House in the City. Co-applicant: Michael Bell, Mardie Oakes, FWCRC 1997 Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago. Project: 16 Houses, Owning a House in the City. Preliminary Research Exhibitions and Installations
Columbia University GSAPP. Project: The Venice Bienalle, travel grant.
2000 Venice Biennale, 7th International Architecture Exhibition, Glass House @ 2 Degrees.
The Local Initiatives Support Corporation, New York. Project: 16 Houses, Owning a House in the City.Co applicant: Mardie Oakes, Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation.
1998 DiverseWorks, Houston, 16 Houses: Owning a House in the City, group show includes Glass House @ 2 Degrees. The University of Texas, Austin, 1999.
1998 DiverseWorks, Houston, Texas. Project: 16 Houses, Owning a House in the City.
Books
Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris Counties. Project: 16 Houses, Owning a House in the City.
2003 Having Heard Mathematics, by Michael Bell New York: The Monacelli Press. In Press 2002 Owning a House in the City; by Michael Bell. New York: The Monacelli Press. In Press
Published Design by Michael Bell 2002 Perspecta 33, Mining Autonomy, Yale School of Architecture Journal, Glass House @ 2˚. Commentary on Glass House @ 2˚ by K. Michael Hays. 2001 House, American Houses for the New Century, by Cathy Lang Ho, Glass House @ 2˚. p. 5, 7. 2000 Venice Biennale 2000, 7th International Architecture Exhibition Catalog, Massimiliano Fuksas, Curator. Glass House @ 2˚; Sweet/Gannon Studio; Alsbrooks Residence, p. 50 – 53.
Art Lies, “16 Houses” by Stephen Fox. Number 21, Winter, 1999. p. 46. SallyPort, Rice university, Spring, “This is Pure desire and love and Passion,” by David Kaplan, p. 34. Architecture, “16 Houses: Owning a House in the City,” by Shaila Dewan, Jan. p. 47 - 53. 1998 Houston Press, “Home Despots,” by Shaila Dewan, November. Architecture, August, (ref: 16 Houses).
Radio Appearances & Internet Web Sites Reviews and Articles on 16 Houses Praxis, “Modern Housing at the Millenium,” by Gwendolyn Wright, No. 3, Housing Tactics, p. 116 2000 Dwell, “7 Houses,” February, p 76 – 79. Houston Press, “Not Your Standard Issue,” by Lisa Gray, 11/9/00.
1999 Interview by Rod Price, KPFA, Houston, Local National Public Radio segment, 16 Houses, Owning a House in the City
16 Houses
Architecture = Policy: Centripetal—Centrifugal by Michael Bell
In 1996, the Clinton Administration’s plans to decen-
These initiatives operate at levels that are both prag-
16 Houses: Designing the Public’s Private House
tralize or de-concentrate the density of publicly
matic and demonstrative yet also deeply ideologi-
presents the work of architects and theoreticians
assisted housing in the United States were acceler-
cal—they couple fundamental urban paradigms of
who participated in a research project titled “16
ated by federal funding for housing vouchers. At the
density and centripetal force with issues of poverty
Houses: Owning a House in the City.” The primary
same time, the Quality Housing and Work
and the legislated management and deconstruction
goal was to examine the architectural implications
Responsibility Act of 1998 required public housing
of racial and ethnic territories. Between the years
of decentralization and dispersal, and also the
authorities to adopt strategies to diminish the con-
1996 and 2000 more than seventy thousand rental
degree to which such aims were to be accom-
centration of poverty in federally funded housing.
units of public housing were expected to be razed,
plished by market forces in housing production
Voucher assistance in home buying is intended to
and or converted in the United States as federal
and a more prominent role for the public/private
abet property ownership across a wide and lower
housing policy moved toward a reliance on
partnership model in low-income housing develop-
income spectrum of urban residents. The voucher
public/private partnerships to realize a larger share of
ment. Pragmatically 16 Houses is intended to
program provides a one-time down payment subsidy
federally sponsored low-income housing. In most
address the urgent need for inventive new housing
paid directly to the housing developer at the point of
cases these new housing developments have
for lower income constituencies.
sale—the voucher is in effect a down payment sup-
achieved the desired de-centralization by dispersing
plied for buyer.
former tenants and rental units into traditional singlefamily houses and low-rise housing blocks or combinations of condominiums and town houses within the broader urban landscape.
Theoretically 16 Houses addresses the issue of
The role of the federal government as a policy
The sixteen architects were asked to examine how
These sixteen architects had previously examined
decentralization within a range of spatial, econom-
organization and the government’s protection and
a Voucher House—a term that was assumed with-
the urban as well as the architectural fragmentation
ic, racial, and ultimately technical concerns. At its
endorsement of the market as a site of innovation
out a great deal of scrutiny by the architects during
that results from prototypical development
core, this work focuses on the role of architecture
set the stage for this examination of the potential of
the design process—could be expected to fulfill its
processes in market-rate houses and housing in
in the construction or mediation of a subject that
lower-income housing design. In this case study,
role in the construction of a renewed territory. The
the United States, and they had attempted to
has since the 1930’s been objectified within a
the single-family house is the end product of the
architects each directed practices that had already
moderate these pitfalls in private practice, often to
highly codified political history of housing form and
voucher program and also the evidence of inven-
carefully explored the relationship between archi-
great success. Yet most of these designers had
policy in the United States. The architects who
tion as a node or fragment of a larger political and
tecture and contemporary urbanism and in most
not directly addressed low-income housing or its
participated in 16 Houses were provided with a
urban agenda. The site of the work described here
cases they also teach in schools where urbanism
relation to territorial factors of race, income and
range of both practical and theoretical information
is the Fifth Ward in Houston, Texas. A neighbor-
and architecture merge around themes of subjec-
historic moments in federal legislation. The goal
that made the work specific to Houston and to the
hood on the northeast corner of the city’s down-
tivity and power. Though there are typically divi-
was to bring to this realm of development a
Fifth Ward. They were asked to respond within a
town that is predominantly African-American. The
sions between planning and architecture in many
renewed theory of architecture and urbanism and
set spatial and technical means that are very
Fifth Ward has the city’s lowest household income.
universities here the two fields by necessity inflect
also a critical theory of the city in relation to power
each other and at times fuse.1
and to territory.
directly architectural and often tectonic in nature. They were also asked to respond to issues of subjectivity in regard to the negotiations and the power relations that exist in the construction of housing in the United States.
16 Houses
Exhibition/Research/Building Programs 1997—ongoing
Director/Founder Michael Bell Columbia University Graduate School of Archtecture, Planning and Preservation Formely of Rice University School of Architecture
Exhibition Design and Management Michael Bell, Curator
Construction Funding and Develpment
Funding for 16 Houses Michael Bell Fundraiser
Michael Bell and Mardie Oakes, Managers
Michael Bell and Kerry Whitehead, Installation Designers
Anna Mod, Construction Manager
The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
Partner Organizations
Kerry Whitehead, Steel fabrication and design
Emily Todd Executive Director, DiverseWorks Artspace, Houston (1995-99)
Gunar Hartmann, Logan Ray, Installation design team.
Mardie Oakes Project Manager (1995–2000), Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Agency, Houston,
Visual Arts Director
Jeff Balloutine Bank United, Vice President for Community Reinvestment
DiverseWorks Diane Barber
Rev. Clemons President, Board of Directors FWCRC
The Rice University School of Architecture, Houston
Farés El Dahdah Assistant Professor, Rice University
Bank United, Houston and private donors.
DiverseWorks ArtSpace, Houston Advisory Committee
Assistant Curators Mardie Oakes, Keith Krumweide Photographer “Fifth Ward” Deron Neblett
Aaron Betsky Director, Netherlands Architecture Institute
Stephen Fox Anchorage Foundation, Houston, Texas Robert Toliver Builder, Fifth Ward Resident Emily Todd Director, DiverseWorks
The Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris Counties The Local Initiatives Support Corporation, New York The Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, Houston
16 Houses
3 Phases in Five Years
1995—98: Phase 1: Research Funding The Graham Foundation, Chicago
1998-99 Phase 2: Exhibition at DiverseWorks Funding DiverseWorks, Rice University, Bank United, The Graham Foundation, Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris Counties
2000-____ Phase 3: Houses Move Towards Construction
Left or Right? When the first public housing projects for Houston were proposed in 1938 by the newly formed Housing Authority of Houston there was immediate and strong reaction from home builders and savings and loan associations that accused the programs of being “unfair government competition with the free market.” Today, 60 years later, at the outset of a new federal housing initiative that offers assistance to families to purchase a single-family home the debate has come full circle. Recent housing policies in the United States have, to an unprecedented degree, forgone the construction of collective rental housing types and focused government-housing initiatives in the open market of private developers and the single-family house.
In April of 1998 sixteen architects were invited to assemble teams to design a series of single family houses for the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation in Houston, Texas. An exhibition of this work titled: 16 Houses opened in Houston on November 2, 1998 at DiverseWorks and it moved to the University of Texas at Austin in the spring of 1999. More than a thousand people crowding the gallery on the opening night. Over six hundred invitations to the opening of the exhibition were sent to Fifth Ward residents in addition to DiverseWorks mailing list of nine hundred guests. Two community events supported the exhibition: a noontime discussion with the designers was held for area students and a panel discussion held on December 12, 1998 invited guests from the community including Bank United Vice President for Community Reinvestment Jeff Balloutine. An advisory committee subsequently selected seven of the projects for construction and funding has been secured to build these houses from the Local Initiative Support Corporation of New York.
During the winter of 1999, Mardie Oakes and I sought support from the Local Initiative Support Corporation of New York to provide funding to the FWCRC to allow a selection of the original houses to move forward in construction. The generous funding prompted forming a committee to select six architectural teams that would each receive professional fees to complete a set of contract documents for their project. The committee actually selected seven projects, nominating the house by StudioWorks for special consideration. The seven architectural teams selected were: StudioWorks. Keith Krumwiede, Lindy Roy, Morris Gutierrez Architects, William Williams, Carlos Jiménez Studio, and myself.
16 Houses: Designing the Public’s Private House presents the work of architects and theoreticians who participated in a research project titled “16 Houses: Owning a House in the City.” The primary goal was to examine the architectural implications of decentralization and dispersal, and also the degree to such aims were to be accomplished by market forces in housing production and a more prominent role for the public/private partnership model in lowincome housing development.
Funding
Local Initiative Support Corporation, New York.
The committee was composed of members of the Fifth Ward and the academic and/or architectural communities. Emily Todd, then Director of DiverseWorks, served as the chair of this committee that met at the DiverseWorks gallery for a one-time, closed-door session. The committee was comprised of: Reverend Harvey Clemons (President, Board of Directors FWCRC), Robert Toliver (Builder and Fifth Ward Resident), Stephen Fox, (Anchorage Foundation), Farés El Dahdah (Assistant Professor, Rice School of Architecture), Aaron Betsky (Director, Netherlands Architecture Institute), and Jeff Balloutine, (VP for Community Reinvestment, Bank United). During the spring and summer of 2000 each of these teams worked with the FWCRC acting as contractor and developer to not only document the projects, but also to verify the affordability and practicality of constructing the houses. The funding from the Local Initiative Support Corporation provided each team with consulting fees and also funded the salary of a construction manager who joined the staff at the FWCRC. Mardie Oakes and myself acted as the liaison between the architects and the construction manager and also as the primary liaison between a collection of innovative sub-contractors such as Metalab of Houston. We also worked with Bank United of Houston in establishing the eventual sales prices of the houses, but more importantly, the projected appraisals for a set of houses that had no economic or design precedent in the Fifth Ward. In most cases the projected appraisals were lower than the sales price, thus creating a deficit between the price of construction and the amount of funding available through mortgage financing. This situation is typical in low income or impoverished areas and, in the case of the FWCRC, it forced the agency to serve two roles: the role of developer was anticipated, but in many cases the FWCRC had begun to act as contractor. In both situations the FWCRC essentially removed profits from the construction process and attempted to deliver the project at a cost close or equal to its suppressed appraisal. Aggressive cost cutting techniques by the FWCRC would allow all seven of these houses to be built at reasonable costs, yet in each case the construction costs still exceeded the appraisal. The house by Carlos Jiménez came closest to balancing construction costs and appraisal. This was no doubt due to Jiménez’s experience in building lower costs houses in Houston.
a16 Houses If, after five years, the owner has neither sold or
As many as 70,000 units of existing rental public
The FWCRC: Fifth Ward residents, civic leaders,
sub-leased the property, the down payment is
housing will have been demolished by the year
business owners, ministers and educators organized
completely forgiven and the lien removed. The pro-
2000 to make way for new privately owned hous-
the Fifth Ward CRC in 1989. Its mission is to serve
gram provides down payment and closing costs
es and low rise housing. The 1998 Housing and
as a catalyst for rebuilding a healthy community
assistance and also offers courses in how to buy a
Urban Development budget includes funding for
through housing development, economic revitaliza-
house and how to maintain and manage credit.
100,000 new vouchers and in Houston alone
tion, safety and architectural innovation. Through
The revealing term of “improved bankability” is
there have been ambitious (though unrealized)
creative financing, Fifth Ward CRC has managed to
used to described the program’s educational goals
plans to distribute as many as thousands of down-
build in a community where investment is rare—they
and it gives rise to a critical investigation of the
payment vouchers.
have been able to open the door for architects to
program’s true value in providing representation to
The federal government’s plans for housing are as
return and actively participate in the critical problem
a largely invisible class of citizens.
economically encompassing as they were when
of housing in a low income neighborhood. By mak-
have made payment regularly on their primary
Public housing in the United States currently shel-
they focused on the construction of collective
ing use of a local armature of the voucher program
mortgage.
ters approximately three million individuals. In every
housing, however, in advocating the construction of
and other similar housing grants, the FWCRC is able
major American city it has been one of the most
the single-family house these initiative have largely
to build a $77,000 house yet the homebuyer’s mort-
aggressive and at time progressive attempts to
curtailed architectural and perhaps more importantly
gage totals only $52,000. Unlike other market driv-
orchestrate public policy as architectural and urban
urban design innovation. Houses offered to home-
en developers, Fifth Ward CRC’s mission encom-
design and the results. While often viewed as hav-
buyers in this market often receive little if any pro-
passes innovative housing as a priority over profit.
ing failed, these policies have at times been suc-
fessional design innovation. Designers who have
The very nature of community development is root-
cessful in ways that the voucher program hopes to
participated in 16 Houses have explored standard
ed in creativity and problem solving.
take part in. For example: while the City of New
facets of the affordable house such as modular
York provides housing for almost 600,000 resi-
construction and ease of construction, as well as
dents in more than 3000 public housing “projects”
issues such as climate and natural ventilation. More
it has had relatively less social problems in those
importantly, however, these designers have looked
developments than the city of Newark.
for new ways to relate the individual house to the
Speculations about why or how these projects
collective city. In doing so they have tried to enrich
have at times succeeded often point towards the
the voucher programs goals of civic inclusion by
fact that in New York the housing units tend to be
using design as an entrepreneurial element that
included in the fabric of the city — they are often
synthesizes these disparate houses with each other
smaller buildings atomized throughout the city fab-
and with the urban infrastructures that form this
ric — they don’t stand alone as housing projects.
contemporary city.
The City of Houston, Texas has recently established a program that provides down payment vouchers to assist lower income families in purchasing a house inside Houston city limits. The voucher program provides assistance of up to $9,500 to purchase a new home or up to $3,500 to purchase and renovate an existing single family residence. The funds are in the form of a second lien on the purchased property. The lien is held by the City of Houston during the first five years of ownership and the debt is forgiven if the buyers
Clearly this is one advantage that the Houston program offers.
from top
Interloop Architects David Brown Natalye Appel
16 Houses
Public Housing Becomes Voucher House
The history of Houston’s public housing began in
At times the combination of incentives has instigat-
Further, the programs conceal the history of power
1938 with the formation of the Housing Authority of
ed design decisions: historic-preservation tax
struggles between market and state forces in
the City of Houston (HACH). It was funded by the
credits are often coupled with low-income housing
development practices as well as between racial
United States Housing Authority and was formed
tax credits in a way that essentially mandates his-
groups and urban constituencies that have been
amidst New Deal housing reform which at a
torical housing types and also substantially lowers
historically segregated by housing policies.
national level was controversial from its inception.
development costs. In most cases, however,
The research that proceeded the founding of 16
There was strong opposition from homebuilders
these incentives have no clear architectural or
Houses has evolved through several stages that
and savings and loan associations, who launched
urban expression; the development processes
was initially to have ended with an exhibition and
vigorous attacks on public housing, accusing it of
have nevertheless generally resulted in traditional
publication. Subsequent funding from the Local
being socialist and representing unfair government
types typical of speculative housing design. These
Initiative Support Corporation allowed seven of the
competition with the free market enterprise . . .
types have also generally assumed the same low-
houses to proceed to working drawings and sever-
homebuilders played major roles in organizing local
level building and design practices evident in this
al of the houses presented here have now been
communities to oppose siting of public
speculative construction. Federal subsidies for low-
built and occupied. This new advantage provided
housing. The federal funds made available through
income housing in the United States remain high,
some success but also slowed the publication of
block grants to cities for down-payment voucher
however, the voucher programs moves this subsi-
the complete work and it required a greater depth
programs in 1996 was added to financial incen-
dies point of entry to strategic junctions in the
of investigation. As a collective project these hous-
tives already in place. Tax abatements, historic-
development—the funding arrives at the point of
es demonstrate the means by which political and
preservation and low-income tax credits, as well
sale. Unlike earlier federal housing design and
economic power is revealed or concealed in archi-
as donated city land, have provided important new
development that resulted in centralized and large-
tectural design. Most of the architects were as pre-
financial tools to the public-private partnership in
scale projects, here the subsidies arrive well after
occupied with the labor processes involved in the
housing development.
the design process is complete. The houses and
construction as much as the spatial or program-
housing built within voucher programs is essentially
matic questions of the house. The agency of
market-rate housing and as such the design
architecture is an important concern in these
process is virtually non existent. The voucher pro-
works: how the designs serve as a form of power
gram has a defacto effect of essentially eliminating
in their own right, or as a means to be a less
the professional services of architects. 16 Houses
acquiescent adjunct to other forms of power, has
was based in part on an assumption that the tradi-
been addressed by each architect and in the proj-
tional appearance of recent directly subsidized
ect at large.
housing belies the complexity of political and economic forces at play in the organization of the contemporary city.
from top
Carlos JimĂŠnez Keith Krumweide Szetsung Leong and Judy Chung
16 Houses
Decentralization Decentralization at a practical level and as a con-
This project is deeply steeped in a project of
Between 1996 and 1998 it was possible to see the
than undermined by urban processes of rationali-
cern of political consequence proved to be the
resistance; it intends to highlight an unresolved
crucible of this scenario in brief but strategic pas-
zation, production, and finance—yet also to open
most recurring issue in this endeavor. While the
urban and political crisis in relation to housing, but
sages in essays by Sanford Kwinter and K. Michael
the role of resistance. Each of the works shown in
architectural designs can stand alone, and ulti-
more broadly to address the construction and leg-
Hays. Regarding resistance Kwinter, in his Far
16 Houses at some level exhibits both positions,
mately must operate at an essential level, it is the
islation of social, racial and economic territories in
From Equilibrium column in ANY, described anyone
and directly applies themes that were presented in
question of political consequence that is decisive
housing as a sector of contemporary urbanism.
who “still” relied on the “efficacy of negative dialec-
Slow Space in a theoretical context. Here, proce-
and that remains at the mature phase of the work.
None of the work seeks to reconvene a particular
tics” as “gullible.”3 Hays’ introduction to Architecture
dural and temporal ideas of architectural and urban
16 Houses treads a line between supporting the
historical genre or form of architecture. For exam-
Theory, Since 1968 concluded that a younger audi-
production—systems of management, legislation,
effort to move federal housing initiatives toward the
ple, even as many of the architects rely on attrib-
ence may have such an “altogether altered” relation-
and finance; the role of the state as it protects the
market and critiquing the sub standard quality mar-
utes of modern architecture, none focus on syn-
ship to consumption that they had become hesitant
market—are given architectural manifestation as
ket rate housing in the United States. 16 Houses
tactical or formal transformations as a mode of
to engage in a practice that resist the dominant pro-
means of comprehending territory and of abetting
outlines the goals and techniques for a type of
automomy or self-reference. To a large degree, 16
ductive economies of the city. Hays suggested that
the sovereignty of a specific urban subject.
housing that offers an alternative to the concentra-
Houses is a collective work, and questions of
an overt resistance to the commodity processes
tion, isolation, and segregation that characterize
architectural form are continually plied within
that underlay the production of architecture may no
much federal housing design; it also recognizes
milueau’s that undermine the work’s formal autono-
longer hold appeal to younger architects.4 Hays’
16 Houses situates architecture at a historic transi-
that market practices have yet to produce an obvi-
my. As a generation a large number of these archi-
coda, unlike Kwinter’s, affirms that the role of nega-
tion between socialist and market interpretations of
ous high-quality alternative. In this realm, themes of
tect’s learned formal syntax as well as transforma-
tive dialectics remains in the face of a significant
federal housing policy—indeed most early federal
tional strategies from works byJohn Hejduk and
political and productive crisis, but that the sustained
housing projects were derived from modern housing
tics of urban form and housing policy—of decen-
Peter Eisenman—indeed from the publication Five
expansion of the United States economy had affect-
models and accused of being quasi-socialist by
tralization—become issues that are both practical
Architects—yet in their careeers these architects
ed the degree to which a new generation sought
banking and development interests. In the introduc-
and value laden. 16 Houses is useful as a set of
have opened their work to a broader negotiation
refuge against the market. The pliability of the formal
tion to Five Architects, Colin Rowe spoke of
practical proposals, but its core purpose lies in the
with themes of territory and power. In most cases
work presented here reflects this condition: the
American modern architecture as being devoid of
degree to which both the entire project and the
this opening has diminished the formal clarity of
architects were working between modes of engage-
clear “political pedigree.” In the first wave of United
individual works can be understood to have
the works. Nor does16 Houses also attempt to
ment and resistance and the house in turn reveals
States federal housing in the 1930’s it was in fact
emerged from applying spatial principles common-
re-invent grass roots political-action or the forms of
the strife of its own origins.
understood as a form of socialism ; the federal gov-
ly held in architecture to an arena of public policy,
litigation that accompany contentious housing
Similar themes were the basis of my previous
urban form and political goals. The works in 16
development. Instead, it tests the current potential
book Slow Space, completed with Sze Tsung
Houses gain political and social significance
of both resistance and engagement against the
Leong, simultaneously with the outset of 16
through of spatial transformation —the projects are
conditions of the architectural production within
Houses. The two endeavors share many contribu-
literally volumetric and tectonic responses to policy
current United States building practices.
tors. Slow Space framed the local, small-scale,
centrifugal and centripetal
space2
as characteris-
goals. This group of architects begins what may
volumetric and tectonic ambitions of architecture—
be a generational movement towards renewing the
for instance the introduction with a renewed read-
political purpose of architectural space and pro-
ing of John Hejduk’s Bye House—against the fluid
duction in the history of housing design.
and global processes of urban finance, trade and labor. Slow Space characterized Houston, in particular as an emblematic of post-war United States city with formal and architectural attributes that have become increasingly fragmented and visually inchoate, as its financial, media and production
from top
Lars Lerup with Thumb, Walter Hood, Sanford Kwinter and Bruce Mau Deborah Morris Albert Pope and Katrin Brunner
systems have become unified and virtually selfperpetuating. Slow Space posited that architecture’s renewed urban agency, and its ability to participate in the construction of an urban subject, would find potency in an enzymatic role or as retroactive cohering agent. The goal was and still is to view architecture as being sustained rather
Ever Modern
ernment was understood to be undermining market processes in its housing policy. In Europe, Rowe contended modern architecture was an adjunct of socialism, ideologically rooted in Marxism. American public housing has often been funded in a manner consistent with (or at least easily accused of being) socialist, yet the homogeneity of its population in terms of race, gender or income has continually belied the classless aspirations that social housing was imbued with in Europe. In other words , it is not clear that United States public housing was ever ideologically modern at all, even if its forms appeared to be so. 16 Houses is a collection of small-scale houses, but its potential to lead to a significant shift in the ideology of public housing in the United States is enormous. This is the early juncture these works occupy: these houses are seeking a form and space of architecture in the midst of competing histories and procedures that threaten as well as enable work on a behalf of its constituency.
16 Houses
Numeric Houston: Lost Time
Ownership/ Equity / Representation /
What is the scope of the voucher program
On a given weekday the aggregate population of
Design in Houston
in relation to other Houston expenditures?
gram will not provide more than personal satisfac-
the city of Houston drives an average of
Three questions were posed for the site of
The voucher program will provide housing assis-
tion and self-esteem. This data does not account
53,000,000 miles. Translated at the average
Houston in an attempt to define individual repre-
tance to 25,000 families. The total value of the
for federal income tax deductions that accompany
speed of commuter traffic this amounts to an
sentation as it relates to the house, to real estate,
program depends upon the ratio of new to existing
a mortgage nor does it include added monthly
aggregate drive time of 35 years per day. To drive
and to the financial processes of purchasing a
houses purchased within its guidelines. The pro-
costs such as insurance, property tax, school
those 35 years a day, Houston purchased more
house. The questions attempted to answer the
gram could offer as much as $225 million in assis-
taxes or utility costs. Ownership in this average
than 460 million dollars worth of automobiles in
broader question of how through the voucher pro-
tance or as little as $75 million.1 If compared with
scenario clearly does not provide the economic
1996—the United States accounted for 525.9 bil-
gram does ownership provide, representation,
expenditures by the Texas Department of
empowerment and representation it is assumed to,
lion dollars in car sales that same year. If valued
empowerment, and inclusion? Taken at a practical
Transportation in Houston some startling insights
nor is it necessarily a better economic situation
against one of the more prominent cultural monu-
level the voucher program has created an opportu-
surface. For example: the Texas DOT2 currently
than renting. Is there a way that architectural
ments built in the last decade, auto sales in the
nity for more people to purchase their own house.
administers almost $1.4 billion in Houston area
design could abet a faster accrual of equity? For
United States in 1996 could have funded 525
It is not clear, however, that ownership actually
highway construction contracts. During the last
example: full equity in a $25,000 automobile could
Getty Centers in a single year. These numbers are
abets representation or even economic empower-
year alone road construction in Houston costs
be accrued in five years at a monthly expense of
technology’s numeric benchmarks culled from pro-
ment although it does provides a psychological
reached $457 million and maintenance of existing
$502.34.5 In Houston it may be conceivable to
cedures whose mechanics have outpaced archi-
sense of inclusion and stability.
roadways amounted to an expenditure of $57 mil-
build a $25,000 3-bedroom house. If this house
In answering these questions, data was compiled
lion. In this context the voucher program is relative-
offered even modest innovation in energy efficien-
within design/research studios that I taught at Rice
ly small if not insignificant. Should it be more?
cy it could be possible to allocate savings in
University and Columbia University during the aca-
Could it be more? The construction of one recent
monthly utilities expenditures to the greater mort-
16 Houses asked architects to examine dimen-
demic years 1996–2001. These studios addressed
segment of freeway in Houston costs approxi-
gage payments that would come with a short term
sional and numeric attributes of major urban infra-
the issues of housing within the economic process-
mately $22 million a mile3; at this rate, three and
loan. Equity could be amassed at a tremendously
structural systems in comparison with those of a
es of commercial development. The interests that
one half miles of freeway could fund the entire
accelerated rate. It may be possible to design a
new federal program that provides financial assis-
guided the formulation of the research were not
voucher program at its low estimate and in fact the
house in which full equity were accrued in five
tance to lower income families seeking housing in
aesthetic or even initially architectural; our goal was
total costs of the 8 mile freeway in question were
years, even within the costs guidelines of the
major urban centers. The comparison provided
to ascertain the constituent value of a single-family
more than $182 million. Houston has somewhere
voucher program. Innovation in energy use alone
insight into architecture’s ability to act as a localiz-
house within the larger scenario of Houston’s econ-
in the range of 8,700 miles of freeway; the actual
could make a dramatic difference in how afford-
ing or territorializing armature for the organization of
omy. Houston is almost exclusively a city of single
distance and value is almost impossible to figure.
able these houses are; innovation in labor
life as it competes with economic mechanisms
family houses even though it is the fourth largest
Is it possible to design a house in Houston whose
whose prowess in shaping urban space has been
city in the United States. The following data is
equity could be accrued at an accelerated rate?
presumed to be omnipotent if not predatory.
offered as a survey that reveals what home owner-
tecture’s attempts to dimensionally shape space— public space, work space, living space, productive space, etc.
ship is within the larger mechanism of urban finance. In terms of the voucher program this data is only the beginning of a renewed comprehension of how ownership apparently abets representation, empowerment and inclusion. It is clear that architectural design has much to offer, and that the voucher program as it stands has no way of gain-
processes involved in construction could also alter the affordability and quality of the houses.
The average single family house in Houston is sold approximately every nine years. At that point, assuming an initial mortgage of $50,000, the average home owners would have amassed $5,622 in equity. To amass this equity they would have made mortgage payments that total $33,984 or approximately $354 per month.4 As these calculations demonstrate, ownership within the voucher pro-
ing access to its potential. from top
Blair Satterfield and Marc Swackhamer Taft Architects and Nonya Grenader William Williams and Archie Perez
16 Houses How Does the Market Develop Houses in Houston? The voucher program assumes that the market will
Building materials that compose a single house at
1 This estimated value of the voucher program is
and can produce houses more efficiently than fed-
Sable Ridge have a relative value of approximately
based only on value of vouchers and does not
eral or city housing agencies. Developer houses in
$10,000 per house if bought on a per house basis
include costs of administration of program. It is
Houston are routinely offered for sale at prices as
at a retail hardware store. The rest of the costs is
based on the program’s plan to provide assistance
low as $55,000 and these houses are within the
accounted for by labor, advertising, and profit. The
to as many as 25,000 home buyers.
reach of many families who would rely on the
market provides no incentive to build in the city
2 Texas Department of Transportation information
voucher program.6 Innovation, however, in simple
center or to use architectural services. Clearly the
gathered from T.D.O.T. internet web site.
functionality, design, or quality of materials is non-
market does not provide the components or the
existent. The voucher program hopes to rely on
innovation that could make the voucher program a
the free-market to provide a decent level of hous-
success in terms of providing meaningful civic rep-
ing. Will it? Does the building industry have the will
resentation. It will build houses and it will assert
to innovate? Clearly architects have had little suc-
that the geometric dimension of the box, the plot
cess in infiltrating the machinations of housing. The
of land, and the street are all capable of providing
term “housing starts” that often indicates the health
economic representation, but the simple fact
of the economy almost invariably indicates the
remains that this is only a psychological boost.
demise of architecture as we have valued it.
The four, five, and even asymptotically n-dimen-
Consider the following case study of Sable Ridge.
sional permutation of housing finance have fully
(The following data was culled from private inter-
outpaced the three-dimensional box or street.
views with its developer; the name Sable Ridge is
While architects may offer formal solutions that
fictitious to provide anonymity.)
Harris County in the year 1995 was
mime topology, it is certain that architecture’s criti-
77,774,000,000 dollars.
Sable Ridge is a Houston subdivision of 347
cal role in the city will find its resonance in the infil-
houses (boxes) built in the early 1980s at a total
tration and re-arrangement of the clandestine and
cost of $16 million. It is situated outside the
essentially predatory forms of finance and develop-
Houston Beltway or Loop in an area currently
ment. How can architecture not represent the
5 Equity and payment based on a 25,000 dollar
growing in population at a rate of more than 10%
topological, but instead take part in averting its dis-
loan at 7.9% for 5 years.
per annum. Compaq Computers, whose head-
ciplinary machinations. Can architecture involve
6 The average weekly wage in Harris County in
quarters are in this area, alone accounts for much
itself with the morphologies of investment capital?
1992 was $554.03; advertised mortgages on
of this growth. The square foot costs of construc-
Can architecture involve itself with the spatialized
Sable Ridge homes were approximately $550.00
tion for housing built at Sable Ridge was $33 sq/ft.
chemistry of new materials and their relation to
per month.
Architectural fees for this project of more than
investment and labor?
500,000 sq/ft were $4,550 or 0.00028% of total
The guidelines set by the Houston voucher pro-
construction. The entire subdivision of Sable Ridge
gram are drastic but not without potential or even
could have been constructed on an average
aesthetic challenge. A family of four must earn less
downtown Houston city block at a height of 5 sto-
than $36,800 to qualify for assistance. Proposed
ries (there are countless empty downtown Houston
designs for new and renovated houses built within
blocks) Architectural fees for such a low rise proj-
the limits of the market as it applies to this income
ect would have amounted to more than $1.4 mil-
group could mark a real and significant contribu-
lion7—the developers of Sable Ridge made a profit
tion not only to this strata of our population but to
of about two million dollars.
our conception of the contemporary city as a
3 The freeway costs estimate describes an 8 to 10 lane portion of Texas I-8. The costs estimate is based on an 7.97 mile stretch of mostly concrete pavement. The duration of the contract extended approximately one year from March of 1993 to October of 1994. The final costs is estimated at 182,824,356 dollars. Another segment of freeway, State Highway 99, was built the same year was estimated at 3,850,000 dollars per mile, or a total costs of 63,220,000 dollars for a 16.42 mile segment of 4-6 lanes. The total personal income for
4 Equity and mortgage payments based on a 50,000 dollars loan at 7.9% for 30 years.
7 This estimate assumes that a downtown building could be built for the same costs as the subdivision.
whole. We might very well be able to show that these voucher houses could be some of the best
from top
works of architecture of our time.
StudioWorks Stanley Saitowitz Lindy Roy
Small Scale Action: Large Effect. First in San Francisco, then in Houston and now in New York City, I have been preoccupied by the program of the house. At each location the direction of design and accompanying writing, research and teaching has been affected by the new urban contexts, but what has remained constant has been a focus on the program of the house. With the initiation of the research that lead to 16 Houses the program of the house gave way to the programming and the political history of housing. The consistency provided a control factor as my architectural practice evolved towards an increasingly urban agenda—it also allowed the design project to evolve and to address new scenarios. Architecture reveals as much about the complexity of its site and context as it does about itself. In a similar way, it has allowed architecture to reveal political, social and economic circumstance. A small-scale architectural practice rooted in the design o f the house has the undeniable potential to serve as the basis for a large-scale and collaborative endeavor in housing.
above
Michael Bell, Glass House @ 2Ëš
Notes 1 According to Lawrence Anderson, Wurster’s directives while dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning segregated the concerns of planning and architecture. Planning faculty were not trained in design but in economics and public policy; the planning department created analyst, public policy makers and activist. The architecture department focused on training designers. See Anderson in, Inside the Large Small House: The Residential Design Legacy of William W. Wurster, ed. R. Thomas Hile, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1994), 10. 2 Michael Bell, “Having Heard Mathematic’s: The Topologies of Boxing,” and Michael Bell and Sze Tsung Leong, “347 Years: Slow Space,” in Slow Space, Michael Bell and Sze Tsung Leong, eds., (New York: Monacelli Press, 1998), 22, 107. Themes of urban decentralization are essential to the editorial direction of Slow Space and to the essay“Having Heard Mathematic’s: The Topologies of Boxing.” Peter Eisenman’s analysis of Guiseppe Terragni’s Casa Giuliani-Frigerio is referenced in both essays. Eisenman’s analysis is used to describe a spatial ambiguity developed from two opposing conceptions of space in Terragni’s work. Terragni’s architecture was ultimately understood to encapsulate an expansion and contraction of two types of space or the simultaneity of both centrifugal and centripetal space. 16 Houses applies this work to the analysis of federal housing policy and recent goals toward decentralization in relation to poverty and to the potential use of the market as a technique for decentralizing federal housing initiatives. 3 Sanford Kwinter, “Playboys of the Western World,” ANY, Number. 13, (New York: Anyone Corporation,1996), 62. 4 Michael Hays, “Introduction,” Architecture Theory Since 1968, K. Michael Hays, ed.,(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998), xiv