Tag: incremental-housing | ArchDaily

PREVI Lima and the Politics of Resident Authorship in Social Housing

Ananya Nayak — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Architects are accustomed to being credited for buildings long after construction ends. Names remain attached to projects through photographs, publications, and histories, often decades after the original drawings were produced. Buildings, on the other hand, rarely remain faithful to that narrative for long. Families grow, technologies change, businesses emerge, and daily life introduces demands that no plan can fully anticipate. Over time, architecture accumulates modifications, repairs, additions, and improvisations that gradually distance it from its original form.

Designed to Repeat, Forced to Adapt: The Parallel Architecture of Socialist Housing

Ananya Nayak — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 07:30:00 +0000

A housing block in New Belgrade appears orderly from a distance. Concrete slabs repeat with disciplined consistency, windows align into measured grids, and balconies stack with the confidence of a system certain of itself. However, proximity changes the reading. One balcony is enclosed in aluminum glazing, another softened with improvised shading. Insulation thickens part of a façade while laundry frames another edge like an accidental elevation study. The district still reads as planned, though occupation has made its order less uniform. Within that order, repetition has gradually been rewritten through occupation.

Legacy in Matter: Material Traditions in South American Architecture

Daniela Andino — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 08:30:00 +0000

Across South America, architecture endures through the materials it uses, those that persist over time. Bamboo, brick, wood, and concrete appear across regions, connecting climate, labor, and culture in ways that ensure their persistence through generations. Their continuity does not depend solely on preservation or heritage. It depends on use.

Denver Affordable Housing Challenge Winners Revealed by Buildner and AIA Colorado

Rene Submissions — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 03:30:00 +0000

Buildner, in collaboration with the City and County of Denver and AIA Colorado, has announced the winners of the Denver Affordable Housing Challenge, an international ideas competition exploring how affordability and design excellence can reinforce one another within the specific urban, social, and environmental context of Denver.

What Informality and Incrementality Reveal About Sustainable Urbanism in India

Ankitha Gattupalli — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

The magic of Indian architecture lies in an invisible order amidst visceral chaos. When an uncertain future knocks on the doors of local practitioners, one might begin to look within the four walls they occupy to discover an opportunity for reinterpretation.

How Architects Are Responding to Technology That Turns Buildings into Carbon Sinks

Kiana Buchberger — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 06:45:00 +0000

During the Time Space Existence exhibition, organized by the European Cultural Centre in Venice, the building-solutions company Holcim and Pritzker Prize-winning architect Alejandro Aravena, with his firm ELEMENTAL, unveiled a full-scale prototype that introduces a new approach in incremental housing solutions.

Between Housing Demand and Environmental Goals: Alejandro Aravena on Incremental Solutions and Net-Zero Concrete

Maria-Cristina Florian — Fri, 16 May 2025 07:30:00 +0000

During the Time Space Existence exhibition, organized by the European Cultural Centre in Venice, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Alejandro Aravena and his firm ELEMENTAL unveiled a full-scale prototype for a new approach in incremental housing solutions. Titled the USB Core, standing for Basic Services Unit housing prototype, this proposal aims to demonstrate how efficient construction can provide all the essential housing components in a minimal space. The prototype is also the result of a collaboration between the architecture office and concrete manufacturer and researcher Holcim, and is built out of a newly developed type of net-zero concrete mix. It also incorporates fully recycled aggregates, in alignment with circular economy principles. The collaboration aims to demonstrate a more environmentally conscious yet cost-effective way of providing essential services to at-risk communities without harming the planet.

How Do You Design for Informality?

Paul Yakubu — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 07:30:00 +0000

Informal architecture is the dominant mode of urbanization in rapidly growing and industrializing cities worldwide. In Delhi, the city with the largest population in India has half of its residents living in informal settlements. Lagos, with a population of over 22 million, also has 60% of its residents living in informal settlements. This pattern is also observed in Cairo, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, and other cities in the global south that face similar challenges of inequality and housing shortages. As their population grows and urbanization progresses, the exploration of informal architecture schemes to address the demand for affordable housing and basic services will only increase. While the primary purpose of design is to provide structure, lessons from informal architecture offer insights into how architects can respond to such schemes.

Incremental Iconation: A Path for Developing Monumental Buildings in the Global South

Paul Yakubu — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 08:30:00 +0000

Buildings that are designed to layer stories and memories, evoke a sense of aspiration, define cultural narratives, and build a national identity will always be important in all societies. When buildings have this power to shape communities, make an impact on a city’s image, and change the course of socio-economic growth, then they can be identified as iconic. Though the term “iconic” is subjective, it is one that pushes the boundaries of architecture in any context. It calls for spatial originality, proposes innovative material technology, and necessitates a radical socio-economic investment to be realized.

Architects Propose 120 Incremental Social Houses for Iquitos, Peru

Delia Bayona — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Building and growing are two actions that should be considered more often than not at the same time. This is how the 2017 "Build to Grow" social housing competition, looked to establish bases that sustain a flexible way of living. The event took place in the Belén district in the city of Iquitos, on 3.7 hectares plot of land. The project that received first place proposed to locate 120 incremental homes, that alternatively allowed users to modify and expand it according to their needs and economic means. In short, a home with a solid nucleus formed by a structure that supports changing activities.