Over-the-counter housing design: the city when the gap between architects and laypersons narrows

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to focus on the impact that new automatic architecture design systems may have on the buildings’ refurbishment dynamic in the city. We argue that this impact consists of increases in the architectural quality of housing and in the social and ecological sustainable renewal of cities. European cities are faced with stocks of housing from the past centuries that do not respond to contemporary ways of living. For the required modernisation of these stocks three general options are available: inhabitants making small improvements to their housing, large-scale centralised refurbishment, and new construction after demolishment. These options all have their disadvantages. Improvements by owners may lack architectural quality, say it may undermine structural integrity of buildings when whole walls are demolished. Centralised modernisation imposes a homogeneity on the refurbished buildings that may disrupt the social fabric in neighbourhoods by chasing away the original inhabitants. Modernisation by demolishing is increasingly recognised in architecture as ecological unsustainable by its use of energy and other resources.