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Housing Adaptability

Housing Adaptability

This special issue advances the understanding and implementation of housing adaptability and flexibility across a range of issues: spatial, social, environmental, economic, time and multi-use and multiuser adaptability.

The adaptability of our homes is a social, emotional and cultural issue as much as a technical or construction challenge. The need for housing adaptability and flexibility became apparent during the pandemic, when an increasing range of activities, such as working, studying, home-schooling, exercising etc., occurred in homes that were never designed for this purpose and thus ill-suited. However, the need for adaptability and flexibility is also necessary at other times during a building's lifespan. Dwellings need to accommodate new working practices promoted by digitisation, or a changing demographic (ageing population, migration, fluctuation of household members).

Guest editors: Sofie Pelsmakers and Elanor Warwick

This special issue explores how to best adapt spaces to accommodate different and changing user needs (on a daily, seasonal, long term basis) and user generations. The papers in this special issue explore:

  • Concepts of adaptability and flexibility in housing and their implications
  • The potential for existing and new housing to become more adaptable over time
  • Drivers and barriers to implementing housing adaptability
  • How residents may overcome unadaptable spaces
  • The benefits and unintended consequences
  • What shapes inhabitants' needs, perceptions and expectations for adaptable spaces

The papers in this special issue challenge policymakers, planners, clients, developers and designers to make new and existing dwellings more adaptable. This special issue makes clear both the needs and benefits that accrue from providing adaptability in housing. Moreover, it is financially viable to do so. When embarking on retrofitting strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from the housing stock, it would be wise and cost-effective to include adaption in retrofit programmes. But there is an equal justification for making the housing stock more widely adaptable - especially given the decreasing size of dwellings and changing nature of work and education. A home's adaptive capacity supports an individual's and community's resilience when faced with different life events and their associated disruptions and consequences.

Launch Events - Videos

To promote a wider international dialogue, an international virtual event was hosted by a leading UK building industry think tank, The EDGE, on 27 February 2023 (chaired by John Palmer, UK Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities).

Speakers


Introduction to Adaptable Housing

Elanor Warwick (Clarion Housing Group)


The Value of Adaptability to Residents

Jyrki Tarpio (Tampere University)


Housing Adaptability: Design Strategies

Astrid Smitham (Apparata Architects)


Balcony Design: Do We Know What Inhabitants Need?

Marta Smektala (Wroclaw University of Science & Technology)

Respondents

Three key respondents from industry, government and academe briefly consider the whether and how adaptability in housing can be fostered:


Kirk Archibald (Director, Think Three)

Amy Burbidge (Head of the Master Development and Design Team, Homes England)

Philip Graham (University of Cambridge)

Latest Peer-Reviewed Journal Content

Journal Content

Analysing cold-climate urban heat islands using personal weather station data
J Taylor, C H Simpson, J Vanhatalo, H Sohail, O Brousse, & C Heaviside

Are simple models for natural ventilation suitable for shelter design?
A Conzatti, D Fosas de Pando, B Chater & D Coley

Impact of roofing materials on school temperatures in tropical Africa
E F Amankwaa, B M Roberts, P Mensah & K V Gough

Acceptability of sufficiency consumption policies by Finnish households
E Nuorivaara & S Ahvenharju

Key factors for revitalising heritage buildings through adaptive reuse
É Savoie, J P Sapinski & A-M Laroche

Cooler streets for a cycleable city: assessing policy alignment
C Tang & J Bush

Understanding the embodied carbon credentials of modern methods of construction
R O'Hegarty, A McCarthy, J O'Hagan, T Thanapornpakornsin, S Raffoul & O Kinnane

The changing typology of urban apartment buildings in Aurinkolahti
S Meriläinen & A Tervo

Embodied climate impacts in urban development: a neighbourhood case study
S Sjökvist, N Francart, M Balouktsi & H Birgisdottir

Environmental effects of urban wind energy harvesting: a review
I Tsionas, M laguno-Munitxa & A Stephan

Office environment and employee differences by company health management certification
S Arata, M Sugiuchi, T Ikaga, Y Shiraishi, T Hayashi, S Ando & S Kawakubo

Spatiotemporal evaluation of embodied carbon in urban residential development
I Talvitie, A Amiri & S Junnila

Energy sufficiency in buildings and cities: current research, future directions [editorial]
M Sahakian, T Fawcett & S Darby

Sufficiency, consumption patterns and limits: a survey of French households
J Bouillet & C Grandclément

Health inequalities and indoor environments: research challenges and priorities [editorial]
M Ucci & A Mavrogianni

Operationalising energy sufficiency for low-carbon built environments in urbanising India
A B Lall & G Sethi

Promoting practices of sufficiency: reprogramming resource-intensive material arrangements
T H Christensen, L K Aagaard, A K Juvik, C Samson & K Gram-Hanssen

Structural barriers to sufficiency: the contribution of research on elites
M Koch, K Emilsson, J Lee & H Johansson

Disrupting the imaginaries of urban action to deliver just adaptation [editorial]
V Castán-Broto, M Olazabal & G Ziervogel

Nature for resilience reconfigured: global- to-local translation of frames in Africa
K Rochell, H Bulkeley & H Runhaar

How hegemonic discourses of sustainability influence urban climate action
V Castán Broto, L Westman & P Huang

Fabric first: is it still the right approach?
N Eyre, T Fawcett, M Topouzi, G Killip, T Oreszczyn, K Jenkinson & J Rosenow

Social value of the built environment [editorial]
F Samuel & K Watson

Understanding demolition [editorial]
S Huuhka

Data politics in the built environment [editorial]
A Karvonen & T Hargreaves


See all

Latest Commentaries

A session from a participatory drawing workshop at the Rumi Library, led by Sadia Sharmin in 2019

While Living Labs are often framed as structured, institutionalised spaces for innovation, Sadia Sharmin (Habitat Forum Berlin) reinterprets the concept through the lens of grassroots urban practices. She argues that self-organised knowledge spaces can function as Living Labs by fostering situated learning, collective agency, and community resilience. The example of a Living Lab in Bangladesh provides a model pathway to civic participation and spatial justice.

Climate Mitigation & Carbon Budgets: Research Challenges

Thomas Lützkendorf (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) explains how the research community has helped to change the climate change policy landscape for the construction and real estate sectors, particularly for mitigating GHG emissions. Evidence can be used to influence policy pathways and carbon budgets, and to develop detailed carbon strategies and implementation. A key challenge is to create a stronger connection between the requirements for individual buildings and the national reduction pathways for the built environment.

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