ABSTRACT
For far too long, housing has been restricted by a limited range of procurement routes, housing tenures and typologies. This chapter seems to be a challenge to housing professionals, a new generation of students interested in public sector projects and those architects and urban designers interested in entering the sector to rethink current norms. It celebrates the role of the architect in enabling incremental change to existing homes and neighbourhoods. Summoning up the utopian spirit of previous generations, the case studies show architects across Europe are successfully addressing the failings of built fabric and realising the latent potential of housing estates and the communities who live there. The chapter demonstrates that architects can again reclaim their historic role and be part of the solution to housing shortage if they are prepared to challenge development status quos, to collaborate and to adopt a diversity of roles.
