08: housing and single parents

11/04/22 • 27 min

Several of our friends and colleagues are currently going through divorces and other changes in their family household structure. Many of them were homeowners. However, Seattle - as many other cities in the US, has a pretty severe housing shortage. There are very limited options for housing that is affordable for single parents or those co-parenting... Let alone housing specifically designed for single parents. Over the last year, I have had numerous discussions like this – by and large parents with younger children – who, until their divorce, had been homeowners and housing secure. In the process of getting divorced, they found themselves on the other side of housing precarity. Some even being technically homeless.
Today, on the Livable Low-Carbon City podcast – we’ll be talking about some housing solutions for single parents that I think cities should be prioritizing, so that they have a good economic and social mix of residents.
Further reading...
Gender in Mainstreaming Urban Development, via the City of Berlin.
Apfelbaum, an innovative housing project centered on radical inclusivity and accessibility in Vienna. via IBA Wien.
Affordable Housing for Single Parents (German), via MeinBezirk.at.
Baugruppen, via Larch Lab.
Bring on the Clusterwohnungen, Mike Eliason's piece on cluster apartments, via the Urbanist.
Mehr Als Wohnen, Zuerich from cooperative to community. via Architektur Aktuell.
Mit den Augen der Anderen (Through the eyes of others), a (stunning) short film highlighting life in Mehr Als Wohnen.
These single-mom friends joked about buying a house together. On a whim, they did it, via the Washington Post.
Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.

Previous Episode

07: Freiburg, a Model Green City

Nestled at the southwest edge of the Black Forest, close to where France, Germany and Switzerland all come together - is the Green City of Freiburg. I spent a year living and working in Freiburg in 2003-2004, with a really amazing architecture firm ( Pfeifer.Roser.Kuhn Architekten) doing incredible things around low energy buildings and dowel laminated timber. The city, despite its smaller size - with a population of roughly 220,000 - is one of the most livable cities I have ever experienced.
Literally all of the things that I am interested in as an architect - Mass Timber, Passivhaus, ecodistricts, pedestrian zones, baugruppen - all have extensive roots in this region. Many of you many know about the car-light ecodistrict of Vauban - a family-friendly quartier. What you may not know, is that a number of the projects here are baugruppen - self-developed urban housing. There are also several Passivhaus projects here - and in fact, the first Mass Timber Passivhaus project - which also happens to be a Baugruppe. Mind Blowing? Indeed.
In today's episode, I reminisce a little about some of the things that made this such an amazing city - and how nearly 20 years later, those same subjects are central to who I am as an architect, a husband, a father. And those ideals, those concepts are foundational to Larch Lab.
Further reading...
The Freiburg Charter - Requirements on Urban Development and Planning for the Future, Wulf Daseking, et al.
In German Suburbs, Life goes on without cars, via NYT.
Stadtteil Vauban, project website.
Ecoquartier of Dietenbach, via the City of Freiburg.
Baugruppen, via Larch Lab.
Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.

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09: On Lost Opportunities

Our cities are full of ghost projects. Lost opportunities. Potentialities that could have prioritized safe streets or public health. Transit station with homes for cars, instead of a neighborhood for people. Streets that prioritize speeding cars, instead of safety and sustainable mobility.

But the reality of our cities, at least in the U.S. – is that we don’t realize those opportunities.

Often, these ghost projects were eliminated or watered down to preserve single family zoning or parking.

We waste these opportunities - opportunities to make our cities better, more equitable, healthier... And we do it largely to preserve a deeply unsustainable and inequitable status quo.

And so...
I see ghost projects.
I see dead districts.
They haunt my dreams.
They’re... everywhere.
Further reading...
Schumacher Quartier - the mass timber, social housing ecodistrict underway outside Berlin's Tegel Airport and the Urban Tech Republic. Fort Lawton Redevelopment Plan (pdf), via the City of Seattle.
The Case for Guerilla Crosswalks, by David Zipper, via Bloomberg.
Envisioning a Car-Free Aurora Avenue, Mike Eliason's piece on a visionary transformation of a local highway, via the Urbanist.
Mercer Island and Bellevue Squander Housing Opportunities Near East Link, Stephven Fesler's piece on lost opportunities to address our regional housing shortage around transit stations in wealthy areas.
Tactical Urbanism Guides.
Ein Masterplan fuer Hamburgs Magistralen, the city of Hamburg's Bauforum on re-envisioning its arterials (Magistralen) as urban living rooms.
Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.