Accommodating diversity in housing design and delivery : failures, successes and opportunities

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to give an architect’s perspective on the various issues listed for discussion in the workshop. Housing policies, ownership options and management structures of housing organisations need to accommodate for the needs of all sectors of the population including women, youth, old aged, children and the disabled. How these needs impact on the spatial/physical/visual aspects of a project is sometimes neglected- or more accurately, housing design and layouts have become linked to one planning and building type that it is not being questioned enough and new, alternative building typologies and urban layouts are not being investigated. This paper is a brief contribution to the general discourse on the above issues.