The Future of Affordable Housing: Design & Planning Innovation
A research initiative offering a glimpse into what tomorrow’s affordable housing in Canada might look like — along how to plan cities and developments to meet housing demand, while being financially smart through partnerships and delivering on quality and performance targets.
Cities will be a critical arena for delivering innovative solutions to address the affordable housing challenge and tackle climate change. The Cities, Policy & Planning Lab has taken strides to meeting these goals in Canada.
Dr. John L. Brown
Dean
The federal government introduced its first National Housing Strategy in 2017. One year later, the Cities, Policy & Planning Lab at the University of Calgary launched the Affordable Housing Initiative, in partnership with the Community Housing Affordability Collective (CHAC) and Opening Doors. In 2019, the lab’s three-day research initiative, The Future of Affordable Housing, is offering a glimpse into what tomorrow’s affordable housing in Canada might look like — along how to plan cities and developments to meet housing demand, while being financially smart through partnerships and delivering on quality and performance targets.
The lab has already established a nation-wide network of policy makers, scholars and housing experts all focused on brokering new knowledge in affordable housing, fostering partnerships with industry and communities, and advocating for policy change and action — with the shared goal of increasing the supply of affordable homes. Rigorous independent outputs are available through the Affordable Housing Knowledge Hub – an open access resource for developers, planners, investors, community activists and politicians.
“Our research initiative is timely and innovative in its approach. It has provided the first collection of best practices in Canadian and global cities that explore design and planning strategies to create mixed income affordable housing in compact, connected urban development,” says Dr. Sasha Tsenkova, the lab’s research lead, and SAPL professor. “Global in scope, the initiative has provided rigorous independent outputs that are available through a knowledge hub to be used as an open access resource for developers, planners, investors, community activists and politicians.”
The Future of Affordable Housing took place from October 30 to November 1, 2019, and marked the second annual gathering of its network. The initiative included a public panel featuring three award-winning architects from London, Paris and Amsterdam, a symposium, and an exhibition featuring 25 award-winning social housing projects and new short documentaries. The goal was to challenge the ‘business as usual’ path and make a compelling case for change in large Canadian cities.
This initiative is generously supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, City of Calgary, City of Edmonton, Alberta Real Estate Foundation, Haskayne School of Business - Westman Centre for Real Estate Studies, Community Housing Affordability Collective (CHAC) and Opening Doors.
October 30, 2019 News Release
Click on image to download
Housing Design Excellence: European Narratives
View the full recording of the public panel discussion that took place on Wed Oct 30, 2019. The panel was called “Housing Design Excellence: European Narratives” and featured presentations of award-winning social housing projects in Amsterdam, London and Paris.
Schedule
The research initiative comprised three components:
Public panel “Housing Design Excellence: European Narratives”
Wed Oct 30, 2019 | 5pm reception, 6–8 pm panel
The panel featured presentations of award-winning social housing projects in Amsterdam, London and Paris:
Christelle Avenier, Avenier Cornejo Architects, Paris
Jeroen Atteveld, Heren 5 Architecten, Amsterdam
Paul Karakusevic, Karakusevic Carson Architects, London
Moderator: Dr Sasha Tsenkova
Multi-media exhibition “Housing & Inclusive Cities”
Oct 22–Nov 24, 2019
This exhibition features 25 award-winning projects of social housing in Europe; it was previously exhibited at RIBA London and AIA Center for Architecture New York. The exhibition complements other community events celebrating National Housing Day, which takes place on November 22 this year. It explores design excellence to achieve housing affordability, equity and resilience in cities.
International symposium “The Future of Affordable Housing”
Thu Oct 31–Fri Nov 1, 2019
The international symposium focuses on mixed-income affordable housing, widely recognised as a successful model to create inclusive communities through a diversity of housing types, social mix and neighbourhood revitalization strategies. The symposium brings researchers, designers and policy makers together for an interdisciplinary discussion and presentation of innovative design and planning approaches for affordable housing in Canadian and global cities. Attendance is limited to 60 invited scholars, experts and leaders of not-for-profit organizations.
Future of Affordable Housing Image Gallery
Symposium 2019 Presentations
Innovative Planning Strategies For Affordable Housing
- Sean Gadon: “Delivering Affordable Housing in Toronto”
- Abigail Bond: “New Mixed Income Affordable Housing in Vancouver”
- Stéphane Dauphin: "Paris Habitat Experience in Mixed Income Urban Regeneration”
Housing Policy Innovation for Inclusive Communities
- David Hulchanski: “Affordable Private Rental Housing in Canadian Cities”
- Mark Joseph & Joni Hirsch: “Learning from City-Led Mixed-Income Initiatives in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.”
- Christel Kjenner: “Inclusionary Housing in Inner City Edmonton”
- Vincent Tong: “Redeveloping Social Housing Communities: Lessons from Toronto”
- Sasha Tsenkova: “Mixed-Income Affordable Housing Projects: Experiences in Canadian Cities"
- Martina Jeleckova: “Social Mix: Horizon Model of Affordable HousingAffordability"
- Jason Tait: “Towards a Real Estate Driven Approach to Non-profit Housing”
Design Excellence & Innovation in Affordable Housing
- Sarah Woodgate: “Design Innovation & Mixed Income Housing in Calgary”
- Marc Boutin: “The Integrated Project Naturalizing Affordable Housing in Calgary”
- Esther de Vos: "Intersectionality and the Future of Affordable Housing"
- Christelle Avenier: “Design Innovation in Social Housing: A View from Paris”
- Paul Karakusevic: “Design Innovation in European Social Housing”
- Jeroen Atteveld: “More Than a Social Housing Project”
The Future of Affordable Housing builds on the success of the 2018 conference
This international research initiative aims to create an engaging platform for housing practitioners and researchers to provide the first systematic evaluation of mixed income affordable housing models in Canadian cities. Building on the success of the Partnerships for Affordable Housing Conference in 2018, we continue to explore planning and design innovation for better housing futures.
Take a look at the publication and videos from the 2018 conference.
Unlocking Doors Panel 2018
This initiative is generously supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, City of Calgary, City of Edmonton, Alberta Real Estate Foundation, Haskayne School of Business - Westman Centre for Real Estate Studies, Community Housing Affordability Collective (CHAC) and Opening Doors.
