EAH Housing’s Post

Innovation not only with SIPs & Energy Sustainability, but also with "Social Sustainability" along with the Spirit of Community Gardens.

This week’s Salon on Affordable Housing was really a terrific discussion about different strategies for design of affordable housing. Wonderful to share info and see the work of my esteemed colleagues. A lot of the discussion centered around how to drive down costs and innovate. And how to design in such a way that communities can accept affordable housing in their midst. My take was that affordable housing needs to happen at scale, and we need density at transit and high ground. A healthy city has a mix of incomes and uses around transit. Great walkable neighborhoods should be accessible to all. We have a defecit of 135K affordable housing units in Miami Dade county. In previous generations, designers and developers were able to design and integrate housing with dignity for all incomes. I have lived in garden apartments in Miami Beach and other places in Miami and they were designed beautifully with access to green areas and plenty of natural light. There is a pressing need for all of us designers to do better for more people and to advocate for healthier, sustainable and more equitable communities. In this, I believe the Eames motto is correct. We should strive “to make the best for the most for the least”. #designmatters #AffordableHousing #SustainableCities #EquitableDesign #ArchitectureForAll #HousingCrisis #InnovativeDesign #CommunityDesign #TransitOrientedDevelopment #SustainableLiving #DesignForChange #HousingForAll #GreenArchitecture #DesignEquity #ResilientCities #ArchitectsForChange #DesignWithPurpose #InclusiveDesign #MiamiDadeHousing #WalkableNeighborhoods #DesignForGood

Hopefully this article sheds some light on a program of successful projects carried out by the City. I wrote the article some time ago, as is apparent when it refers to childcare in the QVM Munro Building. The childcare became the City's lending library and completed what has been an enormously rewarding project. Soon to follow, at QVM, is the final project in the suite, which is the Southern Site. That was pulled together by the City in 2014 through the consolidation of Council and State Government sites. The return from this site will help cover almost all the costs of the QVM Renewal Project and deliver further activation of this important precinct. One of the next phases of the Renewal Project will be removing cars from the surface-level carpark and creating a 1.7-hectare Market Square—a welcome addition to a city that was first planned without any public squares and an important public space for one of the densest precincts of the central city.

A new year presents exciting opportunities for the residential sector. It's an opportunity to address housing affordability and supply while putting people and community building at the forefront of design decisions. ⁠ ⁠ Plus Director, Sumedh Kataria, joined a team of industry experts to provide commentary on the 2024 residential outlook.⁠ ⁠ “The industry must shift away from the short-term, quick-profit, build-to-sell model. Greater consideration must be given to growing the alternative housing market and investment models, such as the build-to-rent and affordable housing."⁠ ⁠ 🔗 Read The Urban Developer article here: https://bit.ly/4aUS7ED #PlusArchitecture #AustralianArchitecture #ResidentialDesign #BuildToRent #AffordableHousing

The aging population is reshaping the housing landscape, and senior-friendly multifamily housing is at the forefront of this transformation. This demographic shift is driven by several factors, including longer life expectancy, a desire for independence, and the preference for a supportive community environment. To address these evolving needs, architects are reimagining multifamily buildings as versatile, senior living homes. With the growing desire to age in place, that reimagining requires architects and designers to consider designing senior living homes that do double duty as multifamily architecture. Read our full blog on "Adapting Multifamily Architecture for Aging in Place: Designing Senior Living Homes for the Future" here: https://lnkd.in/dYNDz8Ww

Thank you to the Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons School of Design for hosting this interesting event last week. Sheetza McGarry, a former Hines NYC intern (one of the best) currently seeking her masters in architecture and a research assistant at the Healthy Materials Lab, invited me to speak alongside my great friend Charlotte Bell (she/her) with Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County, Drew Vanderburg with RiseBoro Community Partnership and Brandon Pietras with Bernheimer Architecture about design techniques for affordable housing to create spaces people want to live, feel safe and feel healthy. My career has not been in affordable housing and I am certainly not an expert in affordable housing design, but I do have extensive experience having worked with Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County through ASHRAE NYC Chapter along with deep experience in seniors housing design and how designing spaces purposely built for those that are going to use them with extremely thoughtful design can turn a project from ok into exceptional. The Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons School of Design has built quite a data base of different materials and techniques that is available for everyone to utilize. Sheetza McGarry and the co-founder of the Healthy Materials Lab Alison Mears have also started and built an impressive database of ACTUAL healthy, affordable projects all around the United States as part of the Building Healthy Homes initiative. They already have about 8000 units of housing in the data base and are looking for more! Check it out and see if adding your building would make sense.(https://lnkd.in/eqjPhpjt) I enjoyed hearing from and learning from the other speakers. Some takeaways 👉 Exceptional design does not have to be expensive or use the highest ends materials. It needs to be thoughtful to ensure the end user, regardless of wealth or class, is able to efficiently, effectively and comfortably use and live in their space. 💰 Keeping utility costs low for those that can least afford it is critical (especially for Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County). A constant balance between construction costs and energy saving/zero carbon/healthy material design techniques and systems is key. 🚃 Many factors including supply chain disruption, manufacturing source, performance, aesthetics and cost can impact the materials chosen for a project. When selecting materials, find levers you can pull for the 'biggest bang for your buck' with cost, impact on the tenant (directly and indirectly), embodied carbon, durability and energy performance. A few home runs can make up for a lot of strikeouts. 🙍♂️ 🙍♀️ Stakeholder and community engagement is critical. Make sure what you're choosing to build and the materials utilized are something the potential or current tenants WANT rather than what you THINK they want

Elevating Urban Planning: Where Communities Take Center Stage Ever wondered what happens when urban planning becomes a community-driven symphony? It's not just about buildings; it's about weaving the heartbeat of the community into the very fabric of our cities. Had an amazing time exploring community planning at TSA, Toronto Society of Architects , focusing on how we can design our cities to be the reflection of the people that inhabit them. Equity in all its stages is an essential tool in design thinking. Looking forward to future aspects of designing urban fabric for the people. #CommunityFocused #UrbanPlanning #CityBuilders #SustainableCities #CommunityEngagement #TSA

Last Friday, Element5 Founder and VP, Corporate Citizenship Patrick Chouinard spoke to ULI Toronto's Curtner Urban Leadership Program cohort at the BDP Quadrangle offices to discuss the City of Toronto's return to the housing development market as one piece of the broader affordable housing mix, and more broadly on architecture and design as it relate to public housing. We of course, are big proponents of the use of #masstimber for #affordablehousing. As the affordable housing crisis is fundamentally a supply problem, the solution involves industrializing the supply chain by building more multi-unit housing in factories - and this can be done with #masstimber and have the biophilic benefits that go with it for the occupants.

Why do people buy a grapefruit from Borough Market rather than their local store? How do we craft joyful, authentic architecture that creates experiences and serves people, place and community?   In this episode of Building Insights, Trevor Morriss talks to James Parker about our approach to masterplanning large complex schemes and designing experiential spaces that inspire. He reflects on his involvement in transforming London districts, a city he describes as "the DNA of who I am as a person."   Trevor shares his insights on: - Community engagement: Lessons from the exemplary community consultation process at OlympiaUK and a recent planning meeting that brought into question the way the housing crisis is being tackled - Heritage: Adopting a conservation, rather than preservation, approach to give historic buildings a modern lease of life   - Improvement vs. gentrification: Understanding the nuances between enhancing an area and gentrifying it - Joyful yet measured design: The thoughtful integration of elements needed to ensure our building stock is not all ‘vanilla’, but also features ‘raspberry ripple’ moments   Don’t miss this insightful conversation on the transformative power of architecture with the right approach and community involvement!   Listen now: https://lnkd.in/eyqZ-EmK #SPPARC #spparchitecture

Buying a home, especially for young and first-time buyers, has become increasingly difficult. Multifamily housing is emerging as a critical component in developing equitable cities. ”Across generations and socioeconomic backgrounds, a mix of housing options makes cities more lively, sustainable and human…. Equitable housing begins with policy and planning, but it’s also tied to design. Architects worldwide are considering this idea and how to create more beautiful, integrated housing that reflects how we live today.” – Eric Baldwin In the following essay, the author compares multifamily housing concepts in projects designed for both rental and ownership, from around the world. These initiatives not only reflect a cultural transition, but also highlight the current architectural emphasis on housing's vital role in the construction of urban environments. To view the projects, visit https://buff.ly/3wdBSTa. #housing #architecturenews #cityplanning #realestate #architecture