Incremental Housing

Abstract

This text presents an historical review of incremental housing approaches. It examines the different terminologies related with the production of housing and the design of house types that can accommodate growth and change through time. This historical account analyzes policies, narratives, and practices based on the progressive social and spatial development of residential communities designed for or built in different geopolitical contexts, spanning one century, from the 1920s until the turn of the 2020s. This chapter examines how managerial and design decisions are interwoven in the different incremental housing approaches and discusses how this cross-disciplinary approach can contribute to shape new architectural narratives and practices and to contest the commodification of housing. Architects and urban designers, the text concludes, can explore incremental housing approaches as a field of operation, where they can become key players in processes of negotiation and mediation involving multiple stakeholders, and stimulate a reconceptualization of incremental housing approaches to frame it as a tool to promote spatial justice and an equitable city.