Housing in an Era of Change 2010 Housing Studies Association conference University of York

Dynamic global and local impact on housing and those who live there

ELISABETTA PEROarchitect

phd student in Urban and Architectural Design - Politecnico di Milano

Housing in an Era of Change2010 Housing Studies Association conference

University of York14th - 16th April

Elisabetta Pero Politecnico di Milano

The theme of the house appears as a complex one, as it involves different disciplines and reflects the changes we are approaching, mostly with no qualifications.


In the Italian context the necessity for a political vision is becoming increasingly clear, so as to activate sustainable projects from the social, economic and environmental viewpoint. The rehabilitation of housing politics, as an aswer to the increase in demand, started some years ago.The Italian state had essentially set the issue aside since the eighties of the last century, as the 80% almost of the residents owned (as a result of pursued policies) an apartment.


The ongoing transformation, migration, changes in lifestyle and work, the economic crisis have raised once again the issue in terms of a real emergency. “The data make clear that the demand is not due to an absolute shortage of housing, but to the relative scarcity of homes for rent (the national availability is 5 house each 100 families)”. For those who previously couldn't become home owners it is now, in practice, very difficult to access to the rent trade, because of the supply shortage and high costs. The framework for this new application is very broad and covers a wide range of subjects which, for economic reasons, joined the usual categories "weak" in the last years: new single-person households (elderly persones especially, but also singles, young people, adults, and students), single-income families, lone parents, separated, young couples with their first incomes, etc. ...


“The profiles of this question are very articulated and differentiated by age, profession, family composition, culture, etc.. and require more targeted responses, distributed in mixed and integrated action settlements, according to the different tissues, characterized by house models with an equally targeted lodging reduction; which may sometimes be linked to social inclusion programs, varied in terms of time permanence and access modalities” [1].

[1] R. Pugliese, Casa sociale, città territorio in L’abitazione sociale. Un anno di colloqui a cura di C. Bergo e R. Pugliese, Edizioni Unicopli, Dipartimento di Progettazione dell’Architettura, Milano, 2007, p.13.


Non-EU immigrants, in particular, can hardly access to the rankings for the allocation of affordable houses, managed by the institutions, and live in promiscuity and exploitation conditions, in private, illegally rented houses. Houses for rent in good conditions are mostly unaffordable, or hardly handed over to non-EU immigrants. Only those who have managed to build a good economic solidity during the years succeed, with efforts, to settle in decent homes, purchasing the house through a mortgage bank.


The condition of Rom people is particularly serious.


Francesco Giunti Hotel Industria Hublab Edition 2006


The proposed policies, at the moment, (to build new houses and investments: the Lombardy Region, for instance, has set aside, just for the two-year period 2002-2004, 1.250 millions of euro), have quantitatively and qualitatively inadequate solutions. As for the situation of the Lombardy Region in particular, the institutions are now planning:

○ The alienation of public real estate, so as to mainly raise funds for new houses.

○ The involvement of private investors, who are attracted by the concrete possibility to recover their investment (for houses with a moderate rent, for instance)

○ A home concept as a service, and not as a real property anymore

○ A more varied offer


These reflections are brought by the analysis and policies which the present administrations carried out, according to the objective difficulty, caused by the economic crysis, in the access to credit, to the depletion of public, traditional resources, to the unaffordability of exclusively social districts, from an economic and social point of view. A part of these reflections is influenced by the italian history of the “A home for anybody” project, an other part represents the interests of the local productive realities. One could maintain that the substantial choice, made by the institutions for the phenomenon control, is not so much the convinced realization of a virtuos direction, but the recognition of the available reosurces on the territory, so as to use them for investments with positive effects.


Proposed directions

The here expounded research is part of a wider work, lead by the research group of Professor Pugliese from the Politecnico di Milano University.


First, it starts by establishing the fact that the italian context is influenced by the lack of a multidisciplinary comparison, which could really direct the investment dynamics and the home politics. Some aspects, which architectural and urban projects broadly include, are hardly accepted by the politics and investitors who just follow strictly commercial criteria, as far as a house with easier prices is nowadays expected to get a good deal too. Sure is the deep and uncritical refuse of what the sixties and seventies realized about the home question.


The sixties and seventies have been marked by the practice of a urbanistic idea, based on the zoning , the realization of big structures to live in, which have often been built without applying the original project, as for the quality of execution and the service equipment.


For the contemporary inhabitant it is difficult to identify himself in a high-density and uniformed looking building. In time of mass individualism, the anonymity of big blocks of owner-occupied flats is rejected, anybody strives to identify his own home. In an era where much is debated and culturally restructured, it is necessary to find the reasons for building, free from the ideologies of the past era. The house isn’t a machine for living, as Le Corbusier maintained.“The house is primarily a place of extraordinary and unique relationship between the person and the space, where the conscious and unconscious emotions take place and in which, in the relationship with one's own loved ones, hope is placed”

[1].

[1] Raffaele Pugliese, La casa: ideologia o architettura?, in QA24. Casa e città, Quaderni del Dipartimento di progettazione dell’Architettura del Politecnico di Milano, Mondovì (Cn), Araba Fenice, 2009, p.202.


The identity factor gets viewpoint for the uneasiness which many citizens experience in their district and the so-called urban sprawl.

Milano e il suo sviluppo territoriale


If globalization and the commercial dynamics of contemporary architecture seem, in fact, to cancel the spatial dimension of the project, by questioning primary concepts in the italian, but also spanish and portuguese architecture [1], such as urban context, local tradition, environmental pre-existences, genius loci, some conservative tendencies develop, as an answer to the need for reassuring and comfortable houses, according to a design which differs from the one which has just been explained, because of the exclusively imitation of the traditional-conceived house.

[1] Montener Josep Maria, Dopo il Movimento Moderno. L'architettura della seconda metà del Novecento, Laterza, Bari, 1993, p. 203.


The column, the arch, the pitched roof, the brick (chosen not for their building qualities) characterize big parts of house buildings, which shape the so-called urban sprawl. These are archetypal elements which voice, perhaps, the residents' desire to confer on one's own home permanence and tradition.


One may consider the search for the identity characters of the home as a desire for beauty, and try to place this aspiration within the discipline of architectural design in the broader, current global context. Beauty is a very topical subject, raised by the aspiration to identify oneself in shared values, within an urban development devoid of a strategic vision, but also by the innovations which the sustainable design introduced.


Sometimes you have to make sustainable, from an environmental perspective, an architectural project which was not born as a sustainable one. An example is the brie-soleil on glass walls facing south (a not sustainable choice in Italy) has become an aesthetic, very fashionable element. From an economic, but also social point of view of course, this often produces unsustainable homes. In fact they do not trigger those processes where one's own home is recognized and positive resources in the collectivity are stimulated. Just the lacking idea of a shared and public city generates the desire to take root, as for what is said at least, in something that shows the will of permanence


The city of Milan has yet an important building tradition matured between the wars, characterized by the desire of an architecture that could integrate the acquisitions of the Modern Movement, the new industrial processes and the continuity with the important historical heritage.This architecture conceived itself as a profoundly civil one. The background of this research was the city.


Gio Ponti, a prominent member of this school, argued that the architecture of the house was not only a problem of art, but a problem of civilization. The homes of tomorrow must be a “representation of our civilization itself” [1] . From this viewpoint we have to interpret he façade-study, the care for details such as the entrance, the corner solutions, the choice of materials, the proportions. The apartment buildings, the collective habitation are what is missing today: the idea of an inhabitable city.

[1] Gio Ponti, “Quale sarà la casa di domani?” in Gio Ponti La casa all’italiana, Milano 1933.


PHOTO Gabriele Basilico






Beauty and sustainability, contemporary universal aspirations need to meet, as expensive and invasive technological elements are applied to homes which hardly suit innovations.


In the new paradigm of sustainability, the global-local conflict can have a way out. Before the addition of expensive engineering solutions, the comprehension of the nature of the place, of the context can really make sustainable a project. The comprehension of a place does not come to an end through the analysis of its weather, but also through the analysis of its inhabitants' lifestyle and traditions. To build in continuity with the local aspects responds to the global need of a sustainable building. The recognition of one's own home stimulates positive resources in the territories.


It seems that the city of Milan, doubtful as to the imitation of global, trade-asserted models or as to the nostalgic reaction, does not want to make itself responsible for this heritage.


For the apartment-plans also it is difficult to adapt themselves to the new requirements. Europe is experimenting with varied apartment-models, marked by different levels of flexibility in the internal distribution. The italian law prevents the enforcement of some strategies which were applied in other countries and at other times. Even the productive building system shows serious backwardness which hinders an industrialized building method. We can say that it is a structural Italian problem, exemplified by the possibility to design middle high houses, able, through the advantages of an increased brightness and a good air circulation, to make up for the possible small dimensions.


FOSTER AND PARTNERS BUILDING LOW COST, DUISBURG, GERMANIA, 1997-2001


POPP.PLANUNGEN, ESTRADENHAUS, BERLINO, GERMANIA, 1998-2000


Contemporary city without an idea of public space but developed according to a simple juxtaposition of parts


The link with the city and the sustainability-factor raise the question of density, whose low index were among the reasons for the development of urban sprawl and for the consequent waste of land.In the Italian context, characterized by the scarcity of land, it is necessary to support a building that promotes a high density living, which may have the power to attract services and infrastructures, a guarantee of quality housing as well. High density can also depreciate the cost of areas and divide it into more apartments. If the residents' hostility to tall buildings is caused by the formal and functional uncertainty of the open space, solutions that offer low and high-density homes seem to be very interesting.

TRANSLATED BY Matteo Ghidotti

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Housing in an Era of Change 2010 Housing Studies Association conference University of York

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