13: the future of single family homes

01/27/23 • 21 min

Two years ago, a German newspaper ran a piece hinting that Green Party Bundestag member Anton Hofreiter was calling for a ban on new single family homes. Hofreiter had not been calling for a ban on single family homes, but rather an end to subsidies that cater to sprawling detached single family homes, as well as the lower energy efficiency standards they were required to meet, compared to attached homes.
After this, the Wuestenrot Stiftung - a foundation focusing on arts, culture, education, and questions around the future - published criteria for a design award on future-oriented single family homes.

In this week’s episode, we’ll be talking about some of these projects, and what we believe the future of single family homes in the U.S. will be.
Further reading...
Catch Mike Eliason's piece on Seattle's single family zoning history on the Urbanist. Larch Lab's page on Baugruppen, with several links and examples.
Bauen im Luecke, a single family home slotted into an 11'-6" wide parcel between two buildings in a perimeter block in Koeln, by Wolfgang Zeh.
Alles Unter einem Dach - a 24 home family friendly, multigenerational, low energy mass timber baugruppe in rural Bayern, by Arc architekten.
Oosterwold co-living, a 9-unit baugruppe outside Almere, by Bureau SLA and ZakerMaker.
The Wuestenrot Stiftung's publication on the winners and entrants for the future-oriented single family home (pdf, German).

Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.

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

12: Strike Zone

Strike. Verb. A disaster, or other unwelcome phenomenon that suddenly occurs and has harmful or damaging effects on something.
Zoning has afflicted our cities - some might say even damaged them - through their lack of flexibility and sterility. A hundred years on, the experiment of zoning is a massive failure.
However, it doesn't have to be this way. Other countries don't even have single use zoning like single family zoning in the US... Many others have zoning that is dictated at the federal level.

In this week’s episode, we’ll be talking about the absurdity of zoning in the USA, and why other countries are able to see better outcomes in their versions of zoning.
Further reading...
Catch Mike Eliason's piece on Seattle's single family zoning history on the Urbanist. Larch Lab's page on Baugruppen, with several links and examples.
‘Cities across America Question Single Family Zoning,’ Emily Badger, New York Times.

‘Japanese Zoning,’ Simon Vallee, Urban Kchoze.
Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.