scholarly journals Secondhand Architecture: Finding value in the existing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vi Huynh
Keyword(s):  
Public Housing ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
High Density ◽  
Inner Cities ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Post War ◽  
Architectural Significance ◽  
High Density Housing

<p>Secondhand architecture explores the potential for significant high-density housing models to be revitalised and offered a second life.  Much of the medium to high-density housing stock built in the mid to late twentieth century is tired, derelict and under threat of demolition. Buildings from this period, both here and internationally, are increasingly dismissed as outdated for not meeting a range of today’s housing needs. A combination of technical and functional obsolescence have contributed to their downfall along with numerous social and management issues, of which local authorities are failing to recognise and act on.  Today the demand for housing is considerable. Governments and private developers seek ways to address this demand yet frequently overlook the upgrade potential that this current housing stock possesses. To some extent, this is due to failure by authorities and the public to value their intrinsic heritage and architectural significance. The impetuous decision to demolish risks compromising our living heritage and losing a portion of our significant built environment.  In New Zealand and overseas, there is a general lack of recognition for the historical significance of our modern architecture. Amongst modern buildings, the post-war high-density public housing models is considered of lesser significance here due to the higher appreciation for detached suburban housing being entrenched as the desired norm.  This thesis makes a case for adapting and reusing modern public housing to operate as living patrimony - exploring their inherent value through design and reviewing their potential to assist increasing density within our inner cities. The George Porter Tower, designed by prominent architect Ian Athfield in the 70s, faces demolition due to its perceived poor living conditions and susceptibility to earthquakes. Using the Tower as a case study, this thesis explores strategies to repair, improve and reform our significant public housing models. These strategies are explored through five layers, providing a methodology that identifies the successes and failures of the case study and guide the iterative design process.  This thesis argues for the rehabilitation of a building to address the contemporary housing requirements. In acknowledging the value of these as a critical part of our built heritage, it demonstrates how history can exist within the present to maintain links to our past. In doing so, it celebrates the continual metamorphosis of the building, adding to its heritage values.  Secondhand architecture considers that buildings should be constantly evolving, not something that is frozen as icons of the past.</p>

scholarly journals Secondhand Architecture: Finding value in the existing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vi Huynh
Keyword(s):  
Public Housing ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
High Density ◽  
Inner Cities ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Post War ◽  
Architectural Significance ◽  
High Density Housing

<p>Secondhand architecture explores the potential for significant high-density housing models to be revitalised and offered a second life.  Much of the medium to high-density housing stock built in the mid to late twentieth century is tired, derelict and under threat of demolition. Buildings from this period, both here and internationally, are increasingly dismissed as outdated for not meeting a range of today’s housing needs. A combination of technical and functional obsolescence have contributed to their downfall along with numerous social and management issues, of which local authorities are failing to recognise and act on.  Today the demand for housing is considerable. Governments and private developers seek ways to address this demand yet frequently overlook the upgrade potential that this current housing stock possesses. To some extent, this is due to failure by authorities and the public to value their intrinsic heritage and architectural significance. The impetuous decision to demolish risks compromising our living heritage and losing a portion of our significant built environment.  In New Zealand and overseas, there is a general lack of recognition for the historical significance of our modern architecture. Amongst modern buildings, the post-war high-density public housing models is considered of lesser significance here due to the higher appreciation for detached suburban housing being entrenched as the desired norm.  This thesis makes a case for adapting and reusing modern public housing to operate as living patrimony - exploring their inherent value through design and reviewing their potential to assist increasing density within our inner cities. The George Porter Tower, designed by prominent architect Ian Athfield in the 70s, faces demolition due to its perceived poor living conditions and susceptibility to earthquakes. Using the Tower as a case study, this thesis explores strategies to repair, improve and reform our significant public housing models. These strategies are explored through five layers, providing a methodology that identifies the successes and failures of the case study and guide the iterative design process.  This thesis argues for the rehabilitation of a building to address the contemporary housing requirements. In acknowledging the value of these as a critical part of our built heritage, it demonstrates how history can exist within the present to maintain links to our past. In doing so, it celebrates the continual metamorphosis of the building, adding to its heritage values.  Secondhand architecture considers that buildings should be constantly evolving, not something that is frozen as icons of the past.</p>

scholarly journals Design for Disassembly and the rehabilitation of public housing stock. A case study

2021 ◽  
pp. 181-191
Author(s):  
Lidia Errante ◽  
Alberto De Capua
Keyword(s):  
Public Housing ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Design For Disassembly ◽  
Sustainable Building ◽  
The Public ◽  
Principles Of Design ◽  
The One

This contribution presents the meta-design research scenario of the sustainable building redevelopment of the INA Casa “Sbarre Inferiori” district in Reggio Calabria based on a twofold reflection. On the one hand, the transformative potential, both technological and formal, of the public housing stock created under the INA Casa Plan. On the other, the extension of the life cycle of the buildings and the improvement of the spatial quality of the housing according to a circular, low-tech and ecological approach. The result is an abacus of technological additions in bio-xlam conceived according to the principles of Design for Disassembly, which allows the reuse of the modules in new spatial and functional configurations, and the remanufacturing and recycling of the elements at the end of their life.

scholarly journals Phantom Housing: The Rise and Fall of Public Housing in North America

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Gianni
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Public Housing ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Sustainable Community Development ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
The City

This paper examines the rise and fall of public housing in North America in order to explore the principle of sustainability. By extension, it addresses the concept of sustainability as it relates to the city. Urbanity is simultaneously the most and least sustainable form of development. While extremely sustainable from the point of view of density (economies of scale, efficient use ofinfrastructure, etc.), it is highly vulnerable to social, political and economic forces. Such forces can easily trump the environmental sustainability of any building or community.The death and transfiguration of key portions of our public housing stock provides insights into this phenomenon – for which I will use Toronto’s Regent Park as a case study. The redevelopment ofthis 69-acre parcel aims to transform a failed social vision into a model for sustainable community development.

scholarly journals Designing for Complexity: A Systemic Approach to Spatial Relationships in High Density Housing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiloh Lazar
Keyword(s):  
High Density ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Activity Spaces ◽  
Residential Design ◽  
High Rise ◽  
The Social ◽  
Interactive Environment ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
High Density Housing

The functionalism and reductivism behind post war modernist high-rise housing typologies like the slab block, failed to understand the impact of this highly condensed circulation on the social interactions of residents. Contemporary high-rise architecture typologies like the point tower still don’t account for the complex social needs of inhabitants - providing isolated group activity spaces in lieu of addressing and elaborating the shape and form of the transitional spaces between the street and the unit door. This thesis asserts that understanding the complexity of social needs and normative social behavioral patterns will inform an approach to design that will allow for a more humane and socially interactive environment. This thesis design explores Systems Theory, Pattern Language, recent precedents and tactics like clustering, layered gradients of privacy, visual buffering, transparency, texture and materiality in a high-density residential design for Toronto’s rapidly intensifying core.

scholarly journals Experiences of political mobilization and popular participation in Milan's working-class neighbourhoods: 1945–1967

Urban History ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Marco Soresina
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Public Housing ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post War

Abstract The years 1945–55 were a period of reconstruction for Italy; the following decade was one of economic growth. An aspect of this transition is analysed here, in relation to the forms of social integration created in working-class neighbourhoods. The case-study focuses on Milan, and the two organizations studied are the consulte popolari (the ‘people's councils’), created by the left in the immediate post-war period, and the ‘social centres’ created in the mid-1950s by the IACP (the Autonomous Institute of Public Housing). Both were attempts to involve the new, outlying suburbs in the city's political life, each of them trying to adapt to different political phases. Both, I would like to suggest, succeeded in achieving certain results.

Neighbourhood attachment and satisfaction: a Hong Kong’s case study

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrienne La Grange ◽  
Yung Yau
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
High Density ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Hierarchical Regression Analysis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
High Density Housing

Purpose This paper aims to study neighbourhood attachment and satisfaction in a middle-class, high-density and semi-gated neighbourhood in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the findings of survey on 356 households, a principal component analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted to assess how attachment and satisfaction were manifested and whether they were manifested as separate phenomena. Findings Attachment and satisfaction in neighbourhoods were manifested as separate phenomena. It was further found that residents were broadly attached to and satisfied with their neighbourhood. Of the neighbourhood characteristics identified as influencing satisfaction in previous research, the support was found only for the physical environment and safety but concluded that satisfaction was also influenced by status, neighbourhood youths’ ambition and schools. Contrary to the expectation, the authors did not find support for deeper social bonds as an element of satisfaction. The hierarchical regression analysis indicated that satisfaction may lead to increased attachment. Social implications This study offers policymakers and housing managers’ valuable insights into the management of increasingly large and complex residential neighbourhoods. It helps us understand which initiatives are likely to lead to greater attachment. Originality/value Previous studies have focused on neighbourhood attachment and satisfaction in typical low/medium-density settings. This study extends previous efforts to a high-density housing estate of Hong Kong.

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