Global Housing

In the coming decades the rate of urbanisation will increase dramatically in the low- and middle-income countries. This process will create many opportunities but also challenging problems regarding the access to adequate housing for low-income groups and special groups, such as elderly, disabled, students or starters. The aim of the Global Housing research group is to contribute to promote more inclusive, sustainable and resilient urban communities through projects that analyse, evaluate, and develop knowledge on housing design combining situated approaches with a global perspective.

The research group Global Housing is mainly focused on the architecture of housing, dwelling practices and protocols, and design and research methods that investigate the relation between spatial design, technology, policy, livelihoods, and patterns of inhabitation. This research group is particularly interested in investigations that explore cross cultural practices in the architecture of housing exploring historic, theoretical and methodological perspectives.

Focusing on housing both as a process and a product, the Global Housing research group accommodates projects and scholarship that contribute to create and disseminate knowledge on housing design as a key component to investigate solutions to the global challenges of urbanisation, learning from contemporary challenges, as well as critical accounts of experiences developed in the past.

The group’s research and development activities privilege methodological approaches that address global housing from within the field of the architecture discipline. While the role of the architecture discipline and the architect will be central aspects of the group’s research, they will be examined within a wider disciplinary perspective to promote intersections of architectural studies with research fields focused on governance, technology, ethnography, and history.