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:
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.
Housing adaptability: new research, emerging practices & challenges (Editorial)
S. Pelsmakers & E. Warwick
Sharing a home under lockdown in London
F. Blanc & K. Scanlon
Adapting owner-occupied dwellings in the UK: lessons for the future
T. Hipwood
Architects’ ‘enforced togetherness’: new design affordances of the home
E. Marco, M. Tahsiri, D. Sinnett & S. Oliveira
Inclusive Living: ageing, adaptations and future-proofing home
V. McCall
Balconies as adaptable spaces in apartment housing
T. Peters & S. Masoudinejad
The use of apartment balconies: context, design and social norm
M. Smektała & M. Baborska-Narożny
Residents’ views on adaptable housing: a virtual reality-based study
J. Tarpio & S. Huuhka
Lack of adaptability in Brazilian social housing: impacts on residents
S.B. Villa, P.B. Vasconcellos, K.C.R. de Bortoli, & L.B. de Araujo
Housing Adaptability: Some Past Lessons
A. Rabeneck
Key Lessons for Adaptable Housing
F. Holliss
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).
Elanor Warwick (Clarion Housing Group)
Jyrki Tarpio (Tampere University)
Astrid Smitham (Apparata Architects)
Marta Smektala (Wroclaw University of Science & Technology)
Three key respondents from industry, government and academe briefly consider the whether and how adaptability in housing can be fostered:
Evaluating mitigation strategies for building stocks against absolute climate targets
L Hvid Horup, P K Ohms, M Hauschild, S R B Gummidi, A Q Secher, C Thuesen, M Ryberg
Equity and justice in urban coastal adaptation planning: new evaluation framework
T Okamoto & A Doyon
Normative future visioning: a critical pedagogy for transformative adaptation
T Comelli, M Pelling, M Hope, J Ensor, M E Filippi, E Y Menteşe & J McCloskey
Suburban climate adaptation governance: assumptions and imaginaries affecting peripheral municipalities
L Cerrada Morato
Urban shrinkage as a catalyst for transformative adaptation
L Mabon, M Sato & N Mabon
Maintaining a city against nature: climate adaptation in Beira
J Schubert
Ventilation regulations and occupant practices: undetectable pollution and invisible extraction
J Few, M Shipworth & C Elwell
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
Gender and the heat pump transition
J Crawley, F Wade & M de Wilde
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
European building passports: developments, challenges and future roles
M Buchholz & T Lützkendorf
Decision-support for selecting demolition waste management strategies
M van den Berg, L Hulsbeek & H Voordijk
Assessing social value in housing design: contributions of the capability approach
J-C Dissart & L Ricaurte
Electricity consumption in commercial buildings during Covid-19
G P Duggan, P Bauleo, M Authier, P A Aloise-Young, J Care & D Zimmerle
Disruptive data: historicising the platformisation of Dublin’s taxi industry
J White & S Larsson
Impact of 2050 tree shading strategies on building cooling demands
A Czekajlo, J Alva, J Szeto, C Girling & R Kellett
Social values and social infrastructures: a multi-perspective approach to place
A Legeby & C Pech
Resilience of racialized segregation is an ecological factor: Baltimore case study
S T A Pickett, J M Grove, C G Boone & G L Buckley
Latest Commentaries
Time to Question Demolition!
André Thomsen (Delft University of Technology) comments on the recent Buildings & Cities special issue ‘Understanding Demolition’ and explains why this phenomenon is only beginning to be understood more fully as a social and behavioural set of issues. Do we need an epidemiology of different demolition rates?
Where are Women of Colour in Urban Planning?
Safaa Charafi asks: is it possible to decolonialise the planning profession to create more inclusive and egalitarian urban settings? It is widely accepted that cities are built by men for other men. This male domination in urban planning results in cities that often do not adequately address challenges encountered by women or ethnic and social minorities. Although efforts are being taken to include women in urban planning, women of colour are still under-represented in many countries, resulting in cities that often overlook their needs.