The pressure on the housing market is clearly not abating. At the same time, the desire for a single-family home is more widespread than ever among the generation of family founders. Under current conditions, at least in the next few years, this desire will not always be countered by sufficient offers or offers that are suitable for the situation. New construction projects compete with the required protection of open spaces. Apartments in existing multi-storey housing often have shortcomings, such as poor construction quality and clairaudience, often do not meet demand due to density, and lack a sufficient supply of accessible green and open spaces. Any deficit can be increased by densification.
Standard solutions have thus reached their limits, but are far too often still implemented "on the fly". The housing markets need innovative, locally adapted solutions in existing buildings, through conversion, but also through new construction, if possible on fallow land or where inner development is possible without demonstrable impairments for the neighbourhood population. The question arises as to the future of living. For this reason, in line with the catalogue of measures of the Alliance for Affordable Housing (2022), attention is to be drawn to unusual forms of housing in cities and municipalities of various sizes.
It stands to reason that the pandemic has increased awareness of the quality of housing. It is therefore about attractive forms of housing that compensate for a lower living space per capita in individual apartments with common rooms and attractive, green areas in the immediate vicinity (such as multi-generational houses, building groups, reused and converted monastery complexes and other historic buildings for residential function, etc.). A greater dissemination of such projects serves both urban health and climate adaptation, promises more robustness of the neighborhoods and can take into account the building planning principle of socially just land use.
New forms of housing in urban and rural areas will not completely distract demand from detached and semi-detached houses. But: if, in addition to the community possibilities, they enable the necessary private retreat through good layouts and good building fabric, they may represent space-saving alternatives that are worth trying out and developing further.
The research project is intended to provide an overview of the needs and possibilities of innovative forms of housing. The aim is to answer questions about the housing of the future, land consumption (sufficiency) and feasibility.
See "Description of Services"