Update #1: Building Homes not Houses: Adding Value to Affordable Housing Developments without Adding Cost
As someone involved in community development, your goal is not simply to provide basic shelter; it is to create homes and communities where people can live and work with pride. You can get everything else right - the political support, the funding, the permits - but when you hand the new residents their keys, it is design quality that will make the houses you've built feel like home and the open spaces you've created feel like enjoyable and usable "places." Best of all, design quality isn't a big budget item and often doesn't cost anything at all. Often it's simply just a different way of thinking about how to meet peoples' needs.
Unfortunately, design is perhaps the most underutilized and least understood resource in affordable housing development - often because people mistakenly think that better design is unnecessary, expensive, and frustrating. Many also mistakenly think of design as no more than an aesthetically pleasing extra or frill.
This is simply not true. Good design is an essential component of developments that really work. Yes, well-designed housing can be more expensive than code minimal shelter but it doesn't have to be, and there are many examples of well designed affordable housing developments from all across the country to prove it. The Gallery section of the Affordable Housing Design Advisor showcases more than 80 exemplary case studies from across the country. And far from being frustrating, the actual process of designing a building can be extremely enjoyable and rewarding for all the participants- affordable housing developers should never let the architects have all the fun.
Most importantly, however, as you'll see throughout this series, design is much more than an end product, it is actually a challenging and exciting process focused on meeting the needs of people and communities - a process which optimizes the large impacts that small, and often inexpensive, decisions can have on the quality of affordable housing.
For example, in this Los Angeles apartment complex which houses families with low and very low incomes, someone made the basic observation that people needed a place to sit next to the play area and that this could be accomplished by simply thickening the concrete edge which kept the sand in the play area. The result is a great set of outdoor "seats" that blend into the landscaping and create a truly special "place" for residents and visitors.
That's good design: the process of asking questions that lead to simple, inexpensive, but highly effective ways to improve everyday quality of life.
At a smaller scale, the entry gable on this attached townhouse in Colorado uses color and a very simple wood lattice to create an open, welcoming, yet protected feeling. Without these simple, quite inexpensive, design "extras," the entrance - and the townhouse itself - would appear bland and uninspiring. With them, a house becomes a visually warm and, welcoming "home." And the neighborhood gains an attractive, valuable asset.
That's the difference design makes - and is making - in affordable housing developments across the country. Stay tuned to future Design Updates to see many more real-world examples of how and where this is happening and how you, too, can unlock the power of design in your developments.
