Description: A travel blog investigating the relationship between the design of the built environment and the sustainability of communities.
france (7682) social housing (87) saint nazaire (80) lacaton vassal (2)
Improving in Place: Three Social Housing Regeneration Projects in France Travel Report
Decaying public housing is a tremendous problem in the United States. Planners and housing officials debate how best to redevelop the country’s ailing housing stock, yet they rarely look abroad for possible answers. The prevailing approach in cities like Chicago and Atlanta has been large-scale public housing demolition and replacement. Unfortunately, this has often led to resident displacement and turnover, disrupting the support systems and economic security of communities. Demolition has mostly been off
Across the Atlantic, France faces a similar challenge. There, a group of architects have attempted to tackle these problems in a way hardly imaginable in the U.S. Three completed and ongoing projects by the team of Druot, Lacaton, & Vassal show how the experience of inhabiting an apartment—from the quality of light and space to the cost of the utility bill—can be greatly upgraded without resorting to demolition, and at a price considerably lower than rebuilding from scratch. I traveled to France to speak wi