Global Dimensions in Housing ― Approaches in Design and Theory from Europe to the Pacific Rim

In London there is a chronic shortage of affordable housing. In Beijing, capital of the twenty-first century’s political powerhouse, the displacement of long-standing communities is a daily occurrence. In Mumbai, the biggest health risk faced by the city today has been identified as overcrowded housing. This book is inspired by the need to deal with a critical issue at a critical time—the provision of affordable and decent housing. While the focus of the series has been on design approaches around housing, it is clear that design cannot, and perhaps should not, be isolated from the social, economic, political, and cultural issues that are inevitably in play when we discuss housing. This book comes out of the Housing—Critical Futures research program led by the academic non-profit organization AMPS (Architecture, Media, Politics, Society). It has been produced in collaboration with Swinburne University.

Dr Graham Cairns, PhD is based at Columbia University, New York and is Honorary Senior Research Associate at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Dr Kirsten Day is a registered architect, lecturer (Interior Architecture, Swinburne University of Technology) and researcher (Centre for Design Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology).