Exemplar Affordable Housing Projects?

[Wooster]

I am wondering if any one knows and can post some examples of some really well-designed affordable or transitional housing buildings, particularly of fairly big scale.

This abomination of a building is in the early stages of planning in Calgary and the community is looking for examples of how a project like this (ie something off-market with presumably a lower budget) can be pulled off so it is not a giant eyesore. The community is not opposed to the project as there is a critical affordable housing situation and increasing homelessness, but we want to make sure it is something the community will be proud of, rather than this:

[bryson662001]

The picture you posted is small and dark and hard to see but that building appears to be just a victim of bad taste rather than any financial constraints.

The best looking housing I ever saw built for low income residents is Taino Towers in East Harlem (1977) although I think it ended up costing alot more then then it was intended to. Unfortunatly this picture doesn't do it justice. The four buildings are white concrete with floor to ceiling windows. Paul Goldberger said it looks like rich people's housing in Caracas

[mikeelm]

Lxury housing projects? Now I've seen everything.

I'm not saying those who are disadvantaged shouldn't live in nice places but this is silly.

[Awkab]

Originally Posted by josh white

Does that building say "The Seed" at the top? Would be kind of strange wording to put on low-income housing...too close to "seedy".

[slide_rule]

in most peoples' minds, 'good' affordable housing must not look like; affordable housing. it's generally not about the housing itself, but how people react to it.

the residents of affordable housing almost always have to overcome vague yet deeply ingrained negative classist, and often racist stereotypes. thus, successful affordable housing generally conforms to the normative aesthetic standards of the pricier projects.

in developed societies, prefab housing is the most economical. unfortunately, low density prefab is synonymous with trailer parks, and high density prefab is synonymous with... cabrini green and its dysfunction. these supposed 'commieblocks' can work as viable housing, as evidenced by the public housing projects in hong kong and singapore.

in developing societies with abundant labor, more labor-intensive methods can be employed. the indian architect charles correa has published many high-quality, low-cost charrettes.

in any case, the low-cost housing should not be segregated from the rest of the built environment. ideally public transport should be available, and the residents of the housing should have some hope. there are too many viable ideas for affordable housing to state right now. i'll try to add to the thread later.

[Visiteur]

What about all those apartment towers near Toronto? Aren't some of the suburban towers "affordable". They aren't anything great, but they don't look all too bad.

[slide_rule]

yeah, some of those are affordable housing. they may look like the robert taylor homes, but they're usually perfectly functioning. it helps because the gap between the rich and the poor in canada isn't as pronounced, the school and healthcare systems haven't abandoned the inner cities, the decline of the industrial economy isn't as severe, etc. most of these aren't related to the architecture itself.

[mhays]

Seattle is a leader in good-looking low-income housing. In addition to the tax credits, federal grants, and so on that every city uses, we also have a voter-approved levy since probably the early 90s, which currently provides $16,000,000 per year. Most of this goes to nonprofits that leverage the money with other sources. The following groups have built dozens of buildings around Downtown and throughout Seattle. Plenty of pictures:

http://www.lihi.org/
http://www.hrg.org/
http://www.plymouthhousing.org/
http://www.chhip.org/

[Raraavis]

Are you talking about privately owned low-income housing where units have subsidized rents and discounted prices or actual government owned housing projects?

I didn't think any new government owned housing projects were being built anywhere. I don't believe they are being built in the United States at least. I think it has been accepted in the U.S. that the government housing projects were a disaster foor the poor and destroyed the neighborhoods they were built in.

I know in my city all of the housing projects have been torn down and the residents are spread throughout the city in apartments and single family homes. The land the housing projects were located on has been redeveloped into brand new housing units which were sold at a discount to lower income working families. This has lowered the crime rate and revitalized the surrounding neighborhoods.