Housing in the 21st century
Housing and urban infrastructure need to be provided at an unprecedented scale and speed, as an additional 2.5 billion people are expected to be living in cities by 2050 (UN DESA, 2019). Already today, the number of people without access to adequate and affordable housing is constantly rising. More than 1 billion people around the world live in inadequate housing conditions, in conditions of vulnerability, overcrowded spaces, and informal settlements (UN-HABITAT, 2018) and this number is expected to double by 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) therefore aim at ensuring access to adequate and affordable housing by 2030 (SDG 11.1) and national governments around the world have committed to scale up their housing delivery.
“Housing at the center”, however, is up against economic gains and a neo-liberal vain. While incentives (and regulations) for private investors have been developed to provide affordable housing, there are few examples of how to ensure the quality of these buildings. In addition, the issue of limited accessibility to land resources in inner city locations is seldomly addressed. One of the mayor problems, however, is that local governments lack budget and capacities and often rely on land resources as a mayor income sources. This calls for a multi-scalar approach and the need for rethinking how to deliver affordable and sustainable housing for all.
In this seminar we will critically reflect on the global agenda on access to adequate and affordable housing and discuss cross-cutting issues based on international reference cases, including both the global North and South, bringing them into dialogue.
This seminar aims at familiarizing students with a broad overview of the global discourse on adequate and sustainable housing as well as specific approaches and strategies to coping with the housing challenge in the 21st century through a series of lectures and core readings. Upon successful completion of the seminar, students will gain the ability to
• develop an informed and diverse understanding of the housing challenge in the 21st century;
• critically reflect on housing in terms of sustainability;
• access and structure knowledge;
• formulate and structure critical reviews;
The assignment will be split into two complementary parts:
Individual critical reviews (around the core topics)
key readings are shared with the students. Each student is asked to select 1 key reading (for each topic) in order to write a critical review on the theme individually, containing 2 to 3 pages max (excluding references). Submissions are done individually as per the date indicated on the schedule. Furthermore, the critical reviews are discussed in class.
Group student case study presentation
Students form groups of 4 (depending on the number of students). Each group must select a recommended case study under the topic of housing the 95%. The aim of this task is to critically reflect on the global agenda on housing and to analyse a case study to identify cross-cutting issues as well as exemplary approaches.