Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University’s Post

"If you could change one thing to enable better design in housing, what would it be?" The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies recently surveyed 1,300 professionals involved in every aspect of housing production Nationwide. The top responses to this question; 📜 Overly restrictive zoning ✏ Onerous design guidelines 🏘 Increase in allowed density 🧗♀️ Two means of egress rule 🏛 Efficient municipal and community review process 🏠 Allowing smaller housing https://lnkd.in/eWFYTZWp

A big moment in my author journey! I am pleased to present our new book ‘Low-income Housing, from Theory to Practice’! This book was written in collaboration with Dr. Abdolmajid Nourtaghani. I believe there is something in here for you. It is published by Golestan University. will be available for purchase. This book serves as an introduction to the contemplation in residential spaces and environments, highlighting the relationship between the socioeconomic status of occupants and residential architecture. This relationship is crucial for in-depth research into the theory and design of affordable housing. First, the book examines different countries' approaches to providing housing for low-income populations to illustrate the key concepts and challenges related to housing quality. It then presents design solutions based on a range of low-income housing typologies, ranging from low-rise to high-rise. The main aim of this book is to move away from a quantitative and superficial view of low-income housing. By addressing housing design issues and topics, the goal is to alleviate concentrated poverty and improve the quality of life for residents. Effective housing planning and design requires an understanding of how to promote social interactions between different income groups in a variety of housing settings, from individual homes to neighborhoods. #affordablehousing #lowincome #povertyalleviation #housing #architecturedesign

🏙️ Master Urban Planning in Mattapan! 🏙️ Want to have a real impact on the development of our neighborhood? Here are some essential tips to get you started in urban planning: 1. **Engage with Community Meetings** – Your presence and voice at community meetings are vital. It's your opportunity to hear updates and express your views. 2. **Understand Zoning Laws** – Knowing these laws helps you understand what can and cannot be done, enabling you to advocate effectively. 3. **Contribute Ideas** – Your innovative ideas can drive change. Whether it's a park, improved roads, or community spaces, your contributions matter. Get involved today and help shape the Mattapan we all dream of living in! 🌆✨ #UrbanPlanningMattapan #CommunityEngagement #ZoningLaws #CityPlanning #MattapanDevelopment #CivicParticipation #ShapeYourCity #PlanningTips #CommunityMeetings #ContributeIdeas #LocalImpact #BetterNeighborhoods #InnovateMattapan #UrbanDesign #PlanMattapan

Housing, and how we conceive of community infrastructure, is a key component to adaptive resilience.

Want to learn more about community equity and resilience, as well as urban design and arts and culture? There’s still time to register by February 16 (https://bit.ly/3SsUaaJ) so that you can learn best planning practices in land use, urban design, housing, and more. https://bit.ly/4brgRER #onegreatregion

Thanks to Scot Hein. "Political leaders simply need to roll up their sleeves and take the time to understand that there are better ways to achieve the shared goal of cities that work for everyone. This assumes our leaders care about what is truly important.  Hopefully better ideas will be habit forming." Scot is a retired architect, former senior urban designer and development planner at the City of Vancouver, adjunct professor of Urban Design at The University of British Columbia, lecturer at Simon Fraser University and British Columbia Institute of Technology, founding board member of Urbanarium and author of the book Zoning Must Evolve. #vanpoli https://lnkd.in/gfcVhF8Z

Why is boosting housing supply so tough? In this episode, Jill Garner, Victorian Government Architect, explains why meeting housing targets isn't as simple as it seems. We discuss the challenges of balancing the need for more homes with good design and explore the obstacles that are holding back development. Don't miss this deep dive into the realities of urban planning and the "Future Homes" initiative in Melbourne! https://lnkd.in/d_8qVDta

"It is hard to imagine a more opportune time in which to publish a compendium on #housing, given our current escalating homelessness and our chronic maldistribution of wealth, both of which give an implicitly political significance to this encyclopaedic study," writes Kenneth Frampton in his review of 'Housing Atlas', by Orsina Simona Pierini, Carmen espegel, Dick van Gameren and Mark Swenarton (published by Lund Humphries) The book details the best housing schemes built across Europe in the 20th Century, serving as an invaluable resource for architects seeking solutions to the current #housingcrisis. Read Kenneth's review in full, in the link below ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eZqzA5nh

The crisis of affordable housing supply cannot be resolved with just building more housing. The report from Harvard demonstrates that a targeted approach focused on location and housing types is needed to connect people to jobs, services, and amenities that are also affordable to access.

How do we achieve affordable housing, without destroying neighborhoods, out of context development? “Critics will say that our local affordability crises can be root-caused to Vancouver’s longstanding, hyper-capitalistic, approach to rewarding development proponents with density, height and other land use entitlements in exchange for better livability, neighbourliness and contextual response. There is truth to this criticism of what, at the time, was considered world leading best practice. Our highly discretionary zoning simply never went far enough to secure affordable housing in exchange for taller, denser buildings. Reaching back to the advent of this type of zoning, a unique system that awarded economic wealth in exchange for making cities and their neighbourhoods better, we can hopefully appreciate the proactive intention of “enjoying” the market in a way that served all interests, not just those of development proponents. And we became decently effective at administrating this win-win approach after a few decades of practice. The entire world was interested in how we would work more creatively with the development community in a way that secured public benefits for all to enjoy. We practiced, through our home-grown approach to regulation, how to share. And we were able to achieve an amenity rich city without overly rewarding speculators who contribute nothing to making our lives better. The development industry prospered while we strengthened the city by focussing on our distinctive neighbourhoods. Our shared “zoning wealth” was attributed to social, cultural and recreational needs. Housing was not out of reach, and somewhat aligned with local incomes. Property taxes were kept low and contributed to political stability. Senior levels of government were participating in non-market housing that, while always insufficient, at least augmented what the city could generate via the market. And urban design mattered too, with the market financially benefitting from best practices that made projects more saleable.”