Time Space Existence, Venice 2023: reconceptualising urban housing

editorial prologue

‘Reconceptualising Urban Housing’, an exhibition for Time Space Existence at the 2023 Venice Architectural Biennale, collected nine practices, led by women, from around the world with new work within the typology of urban housing that considers diversity, climate, economy, culture and social and environmental sustainability. These factors break into a more granular set of conditions: the balance of shared and private spaces, and the enabling of social connection, identity and agency have become drivers of form, not just hopeful ambitions.

Natural light and air movement, landscape and food production embed each project in a specific local condition and demographic. Each urban housing project is thought of as a collective, not just assuming that a community will readily form in a housing project. The two are different: a collective is facilitated by design; a community forms between people despite architecture, viz. Grenfell which literally denied both individual agency, collective action and liveability to its inhabitants.

How do the architects in this exhibition do this? How much agency does each architect take within the envelope of client, budget and program?

The nine architects in this exhibition presented at least one built project and one in construction in 2023. Despite all of them being much awarded and recognised, this exhibition is not about laurels as much as it is about looking forward through their work.

There is an injustice in collapsing a fairly major exhibition of at least 18 projects, videos, interviews and presentations, into a magazine with limited pages, or even this phone-readable article. However, this exhibition has been well published and has an extensive website, containing all the projects, interviews and videos: https://www.reurbanhousing.com/

Out of each architect's individual statements, one can pick out sentences that go beyond program. Perhaps out of this we can compile a new list of actions that address resilient and sustainable urban housing.

1 Alison Brooks Architects, London, UK

Alison Brooks Architects ‘... advocate[s] for community building, designing for increased social engagement and fostering a sense of civic pride to promote inclusiveness and social diversity.’ This is a wish list. How is it actually done?

Unity Place (2021) is part of a 20-year regeneration plan for South Kilburn in London NW: 240 apartments in three 6-storey blocks, a reinterpretation of the London mansion blocks in the area, to replace two derelict 1960s tower blocks. There is a communal garden overlooked by residents, ground-level entrances, porticos and balconies. Apartments are dual aspect, with windows on both sides, optimising cross ventilation, natural light and views. Ceilings are 2.6m, windows full height. Much is made of being family-friendly and a safe environment, while being threaded into adjoining streets and buildings through gardens and trees.

Unity Place consists of three 6-storey blocks with clear street fronts and an inflected inner courtyard. All units have balconies, some full width, oriented to catch sun, something reflected in the way the blocks are sited. Balconies and the two story porticos allow both identity and delineation.

Extracted text and drawings from https://www.reurbanhousing.com/alison-brooks-architects/ where there are more images, text and diagrams. See also https://www.alisonbrooksarchitects.com

2 Adengo Architecture, Kampala, Uganda

This is a research-based architectural practice grounded in multi-disciplinary collaboration with a two-fold goal: ‘that architects and urban planners can improve people’s everyday lives and can help cities to develop sustainably.’ In the context of rapid urbanisation throughout Africa, Adengo’s housing schemes advocate for local populations who build their own houses.

Affordable Housing II, in Gayaza and in progress, consists of seven 3-storey apartment blocks again fitting the topography to minimise excavation. Stairs are in separate spaced-brick open towers connected to the blocks with open bridges to open corridors, all of which optimise thermal mass and airflow in the towers and transparency and light in the dual-aspect apartments. Local labour and the production of compressed raw-earth brick spur the local economy. Community spaces, sport facilities and retail space for local vendors on site addresses both this development and surrounding communities.

Extracted text and drawings from https://www.reurbanhousing.com/adengo-architecture See also https://www.architecture.yale.edu/news/doreen-adengo

3 Dubbledam Architecture + Design, Toronto

This is a research-informed practice very much situated in building, including Missing Middle housing typologies and pilot projects placed in the gap between single-family houses and apartment buildings — mid-rise and middle-scaled multiunit dwellings which expand housing options in established neighbourhoods and address the restrictive zoning policies found in many Canadian urban centres.

In-Vert Apartments, Toronto (unbuilt), develops the typical postwar 3-storey walkup by adding two additional storeys set back from the street, maintaining the original shell and carving openings that access semi-private outside areas — inverted outdoor spaces in a middle ground between private and public. These inverted spaces are greened, giving each unit a garden, the main appeal of a single-family house on a lot, and much more than a narrow balcony on an apartment block.

houses + housing images and text drawn from https://www.reurbanhousing.com/dubbeldam where there are more images, text and diagrams. See also https://dubbeldam.ca/

4 Fernanda Canales Arquitectura, Mexico

Fernanda Canales re-focuses the relationship between housing and the city through renewing existing or abandoned structures, promoting mixed-use and multi-purpose buildings and community-centric design. Buildings weave into existing fabric, using simple materials, natural light, cross ventilation, re-densifying Mexico’s urban centres. Informal housing, 70% of Mexico’s buildings, is validated as a typology.

Vecindad Monte Alban, Mexico City, 2020. In 2020 Mexico had nine million households in need of adequate housing and five million abandoned homes. Vecindad Monte Alban fits 24 units with six configurations on three levels into an established neighbourhood with considerable vacancies. This is an interpretation of traditional vecindades where apartments surround a central patio where amenities – kitchens and bathrooms – are shared. Each unit has alternative access points, circulation space is through common patios and terraces, and skylights open dwellings in four or even five directions.

images and text drawn from https://www.reurbanhousing.com/fernanda-canales-arquitectura where there are more images, text and diagrams.

See also https://fernandacanales.com

5 Studio Gang, Chicago plus New York, San Francisco, Paris

This is an architecture and urban design practice that collaborates with a wide range of disciplines both inside and outside traditional design fields. Design is used as a medium to connect people with each other and their environment.

City Hyde Park, Chicago, 2016 is located in a neighbourhood evolving from a suburb to something of greater density. It is a mixed-use, mid-rise 12-storey residential tower with an interesting structure: stacked concrete panels form columns, bays, sunshades and balconies. Loads are taken to the ground in a series of stems, from which balconies are like leaves extending living space and introducing a visual open-air social/ spatial network across the facades.

images and text drawn from https://www.reurbanhousing.com/studio-gang where there are more images, text and diagrams. See also https://studiogang.com/

6 Meyer-Grobruegge, Berlin

This firm, always questioning the staus quo, looks for simple architectural expression for complex problems through reduction: reduction of form, material and resources. Sustainability is a given; size, materials and openness are as important as function.

Kurfürstenstrasse, in collaboration with Sam Chermayeff Office, Berlin, 2022: 25 units in six adjoining towers question the traditional boundaries between apartment dwellers and their neighbours by sharing living space: no interior walls or hallways except for bathrooms, living space throughout each tower is continuous, without clear boundaries. Privacy and connection come from level changes, corners and sight lines; a radical co-living approach that stresses flexibility for residents to sort out what can actually be shared and what they want to keep private.

images and text drawn from https://www. reurbanhousing.com/meyer-grohbruegge where there are more images, text and diagrams. See also https://www.meyer-grohbruegge.com/ projects/kurfuerstenstrasse-142t

7 Mecanoo, Delft

Founded in 1984 and led by Francine Houben, Mecanoo has a considerable portfolio of work at all scales, focusing on complex multifunctional projects acknowledging that functions of any building will change over time, and preparing for it. Their social housing centres on affordable living spaces defined by flexibility, the right balance of private and communal spaces, mixed housing types and a connection with the environment. Amstel Design District, in collaboration with KettingHuls, Amsterdam (in progress) emphasizes a flexible framework to ensure long-term resiliency through a range of amenities and functions that build a sustainable, inclusive and varied community: social and market housing, office and retail space, communal facilities and a design museum. Young creatives, young urban residents: the city is their living room, housing is both a departure point and a place of relaxation. This project integrates and enhances spaces-between where chance and heterogeneity can occur.

images and text drawn from https://www.reurbanhousing. com/mecanoo where there are more images, text and diagrams. See also https://www.mecanoo.nl

8 Eleena Jamil Architect, Malaysia

This is a practice that stresses engagement with Asian cities and their nuances, rooting projects in place with a specificity and an engagement with local communities, whether private, public or third sector clients. Local building form, materials and construction methods using local materials and processes focus on environmental, economic and social sustatinability.

Use of bamboo in domestic architecture is generally limited to two extremes: either as temporary low cost homes in poor, mainly rural areas, or as one-off houses located almost invariably in beautiful exotic sites and locations. In this proposal, the underlying idea is to demonstrate that it is possible to build permanent and comfortable contemporary homes in urban and suburban areas for the masses using local natural material such as bamboo. It intends to propel the idea of bamboo as a modern and everyday construction material just like bricks, steel or concrete.

Bamboo Terrace Homes (in progress) uses bamboo as a primary building material. Terraced houses with 22’-wide street fronts have bamboo frames prefabricated off-site; fire-rated masonry walls separate units, bamboo columns and beams span between them; exterior walls are bamboo composite board systems. Bamboo houses are not temporary or regressive, but rather they modernise traditional tropical design, prioritising quality of life through outdoor space at every level.

images and text drawn from https://www. reurbanhousing.com/eleena-jamil where there are more images, text and diagrams. See also https://ej-architect.com

9 Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Paris

Recent work of this firm actively works against climate change and pollution in projects that are tailored to specific sites and contexts, using locally sourced low-carbon materials, bioclimatic and passive energy systems.

Folie Mauguerra (in construction and in collaboration with Estebe-Cathala Architectes) is a housing project in the Mediterranean city of Montpellier, consisting of five towers between 8 and 11 storeys. The project’s design philosophy draws on the local history and natural surroundings. It prioritises environmental and social sustainability by incorporating multi-level landscaping, creating ample communal spaces, implementing passive sustainable systems, and repurposing the 12,000 m3 of soil excavated for the parking garage. It maximises the use of local materials and construction methods, passive sustainable systems and, by repurposing the excavated soil as rammed earth walls, develops a new local construction sector, stimulating the local economy. It is a manifesto for passive sustainable systems, local materials and construction methods.

images and text drawn from https://www.reurbanhousing. com/manuelle-gautrand where there are more images, text and diagrams. See also http://manuelle-gautrand.com

reconceptualising urban housing: afterword

There has been much press notice about Reconceptualising Urban Housing, usually focussing on the diversity, the geographic reach and the gender of the participants. No doubt one could find nine male architects doing sensitive work, but the framing would be different: not about gender, but about that which draws together nine much-awarded, critically-favoured architects at the top of their game engaged in radically re-thinking housing that solves both its shortage and its ability to empower its residents.

My ruthless weeding of the statements describing their ambitions that each architect has written for Reconceptualising Urban Housing has taken out all the worthy generalities that everyone shares – building community, being sustainable. Instead, I’ve picked out the phrases and sentences that seem to be instructive examples of provocative lateral thinking. There are very particular ways that these designers, all women, approach urban housing so that it is instrumental, progressive, full of agency. Each project is a thesis, even a manifesto, on how to proceed for a better, inclusive future.

There is a shared language in this exhibition, and the sense that there are shared goals. Like-mindedness formed groups such as CIAM, the Situationists, or Team 10; the act of grouping like-minded artists and architects is not new. What is new is the claiming of attention and space by women who are saying that they, as women, collectively have something specific to say. If I count my career in architecture from my first year in an architecture school, I have seen 55 years of women in architecture, how they work, how they are presented, what they bring to the table whether acknowledged or not. Although architects all have the same training, what women were allowed to do was different from what they wanted to do and what they could do.

In Reconceptualising Urban Housing, certain words, phrases and qualities keep occurring: heterogeneity, diversity, open access, agency, community and safety. Sustainability of materials, systems, community and use. Surveillance not as police presence but as eyes on the street; privacy when desired. Housing plus the incorporation of retail, shared spaces, gardens, daylight, breezes, shade, trees, neighbours, families that grow and shrink, lives that are in flux; these things are the givens, the non-negotiables in reconceptualising urban housing. These are the things that must be made to fit into budget, site and density calculations, not just blown away as idealistic in the early stages of a project. And the nine architects and 18 projects of Reconceptualising Urban Housing, almost all either built or in progress, demonstrate possible ways to do this.

1. Context is treated as if it is full of clues, rather than as a set of tight rules. An urban building plot is literally a palimpsest of its history; one is free to select aspects, as has Alison Brooks in Unity Place, but not to throw them away entirely: they can be used to advantage. Other geometries, other materials can be used, street walls do not need to be walls, they can be zones. Fernanda Canales uses the fact of abandoned buildings within existing neighbourhoods as an existential context. Context is used where it supports the goal of identity and commonality.

2. Landscape is not generic green space, but appears as gardens – which need tending, and which are seamless parts of shared neighbourly access points: an entry, either to a building or to a unit is not just a hallway to the elevator but rather a porch on the street: semi-private, semi-communal. At ground level, gardens are parks and playgrounds: meeting points, not simply visual green.

3. Materials are often linked to labour and industry: local materials whether the rammed earth of Manuelle Gautraud’s Folie Mauguerra or Eleena Jamil’s use of bamboo as a structural material, or Adengo’s proposal to set up a compressed brick industry that supports her affordable housing — these link the means of production to a very local set of conditions.

4. The number of assemblages of buildings is striking, site dependent but with an eye to staged development: Mecanoo, Dubbeldam, Canales, Adengo all show projects where the dwelling units are not subsumed in a comprehensive envelope, but rather assemble themselves according to rates of construction, specificities of site condition, to program elements beyond the dwelling units that contain supplemental public uses. The glue that holds a community together is given physical identity.

5. Ambiguous boundaries, stated explicitly in Meyer-Grobruegge’s Kurfürstenstrasse, abound in all this work, and this includes the central condition of house as refuge and housing as community: one enters a project through a public part of the city: a sidewalk, a road, a civic plaza. Then one passes through a part of the project that might be retail, might be services, might be park. Then one enters a circulation system of stairwells, elevators and walkways that is public to the project, private to the outside world. Then many of these projects use porches and decks as communication devices, literally in shared entries, as in Dubbeldam’s Incremental Density, or visually as with Studio Gang’s angled balconies on City Hyde Park. Again, this ambiguity is given unambiguous form.

There is a sense of some rather marvellous collective here, developing a vocabulary, a syntax and a direction while showing it isn’t just theoretical — almost all of these projects are built or in construction.

Progressive, in a lateral way.

STEPHANIE WHITE is editor of On Site review. www.onsitereview.ca