This article discusses the transformation of the traditional Iranian courtyard house type and neighbourhood structure in the early 20th century Iran, and focuses on the design of public housing in the country’s early years of modernisation, after the second World War. It explores how (urban) legislations by Iranian reformists and modernists, and the compulsory unveiling law implemented between 1936 and 1943 contributed to change the image of urban areas and the everyday life of Iranians, particularly in Tehran. While this article provides a short overview of these transformations, it discusses how Iranian architects, educated in Europe, attempted to reconceptualise the ideal form of living, the courtyardgarden house (Khaneh-Bagh), for large-scale housing production, in the country. This article shows how the transformation of this house type became an instrument of accommodating both change and resistance in terms of local customs and habits, in Kuy-e Chaharsad-Dastgah, built between 1946 and 1950 in Tehran. To illustrate these, the design and development of this experimental housing project is analysed in details. It is also demonstrated how this project was developed based on a “planning document” revised by a group of modernist Iranian architects, who intended to improve the hygiene condition of living environments and to accommodate a large number of low-income civil servants in post-World War II, Tehran. It is argued that dual characteristics of the Iranian courtyard house allowed for both incorporating imported models, and simultaneously resisting universalising tendencies towards homogenisation, in the case of Chaharsad-Dastgah.

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In developed countries, the share of the elderly (65+) is growing quickly. In the Netherlands it might reach 25 to 30% of the population by 2040 (see Figure 1). We design best living concepts for the elderly, based on a research in their residential preferences. Our novel methodology combines insights from social sciences and architecture. A stated choice experiment retrieves the willingness-to-pay of the elderly for a set of relevant attributes of the dwelling, building and location. The attributes with the highest valuation are used as an input for a flexible architectural design.

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In this paper we combine the insights from social sciences and architecture to design best living concepts for a specific target group, elderly homeowners. We perform a stated choice experiment to study residential preferences of this group and translate the results into an architectural design of senior-friendly housing. This methodological approach is novel to the literature. We derive the willingness-to-pay for different residential attributes and show how these attributes can be traded off against each other to create best living concepts. We discuss how these living concepts can be translated into customized architectural design
while making use of standard architectural elements.@en

This essay reviews critical design pedagogies developed recently to explore the complexities of designing affordable housing in the global South. The essay examines in particular the pedagogical approach and the student work produced for the Global Housing design studios, offered by the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at the TU Delft (The Netherlands). The essay discusses the extent to which TU Delft's Global Housing studios contributed to build up an alternative approach to the methodological protocols inherited from the 'techno-social' moment that dominated architectural education in the postwar period. The essay concludes that the Global Housing studios' combination of critical accounts of vernacular social and spatial patterns of inhabitation with disciplinary methods and positions inspired by cross-cultural practices plays a key role in the student's projective methodology, avoiding the pitfalls of paternalist 'social models' of design education.@en

Charles Correa (1930-2015) was arguably one of the most important and influential Indian architects to have worked post-Independence. As an architect, planner, activist and theoretician, he realized an extensive oeuvre, both built and unbuilt, in drawings and in writings. With this book, we want to pay tribute to Correa’s legacy as a leading and inspiring authority on housing design by highlighting the main concerns and themes that guided his work. The vast range of Correa’s designs for housing is remarkable for the consistency with which he addressed the various complex issues of generating habitat. Through both, his built and unbuilt work, deceptively simple ideas expressed with great clarity of thought help identify clear lineages between ideas and projects, whether they be for single-family homes or townships, built for the poor or for the rich.@en

Ethiopia is an old country with a long history of political change, both domestically and towards the rest of the world. Internally, Ethiopia’s ever-changing socio-political behavior was manifested by a tradition of relocating its seat of government. Axum, Lalibela, Teguelat, Gondar, Magdala, Ankober, and Mekele are only a few examples of such temporary headquarters, and many other “roving capitals” are excluded. The most recent shift was the foundation of the current capital city Addis Ababa in 1886. In the 131 years since then, this city has evolved from a simple village of hot springs and encampments into a global diplomatic center. The city’s diplomatic relevance has grown especially rapidly since 1950. Today, it hosts continental and global institutions such as the African Union (AU), a number of United Nation institutions (UN-ECA, UNDP, UNESCO) and others, in addition to diplomatic institutions for bilateral relations. Until today, Addis Ababa contains only fragments of the disruption caused by the brief period of Italian occupation between 1936 and 1941, when the occupiers attempted to erase the existing city and build a new colonial capital. This paper looks at the evolution of Addis Ababa through the agency of diplomacy. It focuses on the morphological and architectural manifestations of diplomacy in the city, based on a timeline of five recognizable periods. Using exemplary cases, it illustrates the physical and spatial impact and architectural influences associated with diplomacy and diplomatic institutions. Subsequently, we argue that the emergence of Addis Ababa as a diplomatic center in its first couple of decades anchored it as a lasting political center, while the diplomatic developments that followed and their physical manifestations played a vivid formative role in the city’s urbanization. Within Addis Ababa’s poly-nuclear structure, the diplomatic institutions prevail as frames and points of reference, spread out over the whole city.@en

‘The shock waves of the new political economy steering housing policies are widespread across the globe’. To tackle this global crisis, we must look at people as a vital infrastructure for 21st century cities, not just to systems of pipes or cables.@en

With the exhibition ‘Global Housing – Affordable Dwellings for Growing Cities’, DASH presents its latest issue at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at Delft University of Technology.@en

Golbal Housing Exhibition at the Ethiopian National Theatre Gallery, Gambia St, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.@en