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A House is a House is a Home
Looking at Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal and the ship like affordable housing brings up an interesting question about the significance of materials and space. One of the readings last week pointed out that while we’re a consumerist society we suddenly get conservative when designing affordable spaces. It is interesting that while that does often feel true, we also tend to have an all or nothing mindset when it comes to solving social problems. I understand the idea that we don’t want to just give someone four walls and a roof and call it a house, but on the other hand isn’t it more important to start housing people than it is to give everyone the perfect suburban home? I don’t know what the correct approach is to affordable housing, but I do think it's curious that we fight so hard to allocate funding for public spaces but accept the bare minimum in trying to give everyone a private space.
I feel like affordable housing is an issue that will never be solved and it's so sad to think that. I completely agree that it's more important to simply HOUSE people rather than design the perfect space for people but the quality of the "imperfect" spaces is so cold. It's like this is where minimalist living creates a trend because a designer/architect doesn't want to be like "Oh I created this really cheap, cold, and boring private space so it's more affordable for the lower class." it's shifted to "I designed these minimal, blank canvas private spaces so they're affordable but can also be made into something personal for the individual who occupies the space." I don't know if that related much at all to your post but that's what came to mind!
ReplyDeleteHahaha no you totally got my point! The line between simple and affordable vs cold and unfinished is so thin but so important.
DeleteThis may just be my digital ecologies talking, but this was a premise we explored quite in-depth last semester in Dustin’s fluid studio, and looked at how providing a community a hub in which to base rehabilitation operations out of may be more beneficial than trying to provide the housing on its own. Kind of a give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish philosophy, but through the implementation of digital fabrication technology in such a space, it can become an affordable, repeatable, sustainable catalyst for communities in need.
ReplyDeleteThat's a super interesting idea for anyone who has the time and physical capabilities!
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