Urban Housing Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Housing has always been a central issue for human welfare, in both rural and urban societies. Nonetheless, for many centuries it was marginally an issue for planners who were more focused on urban infrastructure and public buildings. The situation changed in the second half of the nineteenth century, in part related to the expansion of urban areas as a consequence of industrialization, and the concomitant public conscience over poor housing conditions. This was also a period in which urban housing became an issue for utopian, socialist reformers, philanthropists and for government too, namely through the production of housing for families with limited income. During the entire twentieth century, with the world moving to a predominately urban society, urban housing became a central issue in urban policies; with the need to adapt to the consequences of climate change, it will certainly be even more so in the future.

Some of the pioneer initiatives responsible for current urban housing and public housing policies include efforts of pioneers such as Jean-Baptiste Godin in 1859 with the Familistère de Guise in France, a model of family apartments in communitarian blocks; the influence of the writings of Charles Fourier and his followers in North America, who aimed to combine city and country and new forms of housing; Ebenezer Howard and the single family home, in the 1898 garden city model; and the urban housing for the working class provided by industrialist philanthropists to their workers, on both sides of the Atlantic. After these pioneering experiences, urban housing was built according to different house models. The French hotel, the London row house, the American apartment buildings, the family home of the garden cities, and the apartment block of the Athens Charter are just some of the numerous examples of urban house models in the last century and a half.

During the last two decades of the twentieth century, new approaches reflected housing characteristics of previous periods, under the name of neotraditional architecture, while at the same time, three other major developments are now likely to lead to a different type of future urban housing. These include, first, the development of an inclusive urban housing design more focused on persons with disabilities and the aging urban population, as well as other groups of users with special needs, including the special forms of accommodation for nomads, gypsies and travellers. A second feature entails the development of the digital or intelligent house—a rupture with traditional forms of housing due to information and communication technologies; this includes automation techniques for the security and comfort of the residents (e.g., control of light, climate, doors, windows, multimedia systems, etc.).

A third development relates to the concept of sustainable urban housing and green or bioclimatic architecture, which better uses natural conditions, as well as new materials and renewable energy sources—in new buildings and in-house renovation—and the application of new technologies to reduce energy and water consumption. In this context, the concept of a net-zero carbon home, a home that returns the same amount of power to the general energy network than the power it uses, over a period of time, is now central in any approach to urban housing. In practice, however, the concept of a net-zero carbon home has been used until now with a more pragmatic meaning to produce homes that will not contribute to global warming more than traditional homes, by having, for example, solar panels or wind turbines that produce electricity, among other features. In this sense, it is a label that means essentially reduction of carbon emissions. From the point of view of those who argue that there is enough empirical evidence of climate change and that it is caused by human action, the concept of a net-zero carbon home may prove to be an important contribution for the reduction of global warming, since more than a quarter of carbon emissions come from households. Therefore, in the context of the expected post-Kyoto vision on climate change, proposals in favor of a carbon-positive, digital, and all-inclusive home will probably find enough public and market support to become the twenty-first–century urban housing paradigm.

Bibliography:

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