Reconstruction and the Self-help Housing Movement: The French Experience

The destruction during the Second World War made the city a crisis of looming proportions throughout Europe. In the case of France, over three-quartersof the country was struck by the war. Cities and towns were in ruins. Over 2 million buildings, a quarter of the housing stock, was destroyed or damaged (Croize, 1991, pp. 253-257). A million families were left homeless. Millions of others lived in temporary shelters and run-down apartments without access to basic services. This tragic situation made the housing crisis-that is finding a place of live-one of the most serious and explosive post-war domestic issues in France, as it was all over Europe. One way the crisis was addressed was for men and women to build their own homes, or to simply occupy vacant buildings. This paper looks at the role of the organised self-help housing movement within the massive effort of reconstruction and building after the Second World War, from 1945-1954. The movement comprised three phases: the squatter movement; the mouvement Castors or Beavers movement, which became a limited effort at auto-construction; and lastly, the housing campaign launched by the Abbe Pierre.     

Self-help Housing in the Weimar Republic: The Work of Ernst May

This paper examines the work of the architect Ernst May with regard to self-build housing initiatives during the Weimar Republic (1918-33).Among the many attempts to assuage the housing shortage in early 20th-century Germany, self-build housing initiatives were the last resort, emerging only in times of dire economic crisis. During the hyper-inflation years from 1919 through to 1924 and then with the onset of the world depression in 1930, the state encouraged housing authorities to develop self-build strategies, along with experimentsin 'recovered' vernacular building materials and techniques. This paper examines the work of the architect Ernst May with regard to these initiatives. May's career is unique in its productivity,in the inventiveness of his strategies and the relentlessness with which he pursued economising measures. At the same time, it is typical in the types of self-build experiments he developed to deal with the crisis. Further, the paper traces through May's career the formative impact of the political and social context that shaped and delimited the building programme, its meaning and ultimate utility to society self-build programmes in the Weimar years.     

House for Sale? The Self-help Housing Market in Pereira,Colombia

This paper aims to contribute to the discussion of the nature of the self-help housing market by analysing its extent and mode of operation in four self-help settlements in the intermediate sized city of Pereira, Colombia. The evidence from the survey settlements suggests that the market for self-help houses is small. Self-help settlements are dominated by a land market rather than by a housing market, although the distinction between the two is far from clear cut. Few self-help houses enter the property market because: many self-help households have no intention of selling their house after all the hard work that went into building it; it is difficult for households who wish to purchase dwellings in self-help settlements to raise the necessary finance; and the lack of title deeds is probably also a limiting factor.     

The State and Self-help Housing in Urban Finland, 1920 to 1950

This paper examines self-help housing and state housing policies in urban Finland from 1920 to 1950. In Finland self-help housing consisted primarily of self-building of one- and two-family houses. It is often assumed that self-building used to be the typical urban form of housing production. It was certainly the form that housing reformers preferred. However, most urban housing production was private speculative production. Self-building became relatively important only when other production was depressed. The state supported self-building by providing subsidised housing finance. Of the three successive housing finance systems examined, only the last concerned only self-building. The loan policies also included an attempt to control the quality and design of self-built housing. The policies were, however, so limited that they did not have a large impact on urban housing in normal times. In Finland, as in many other countries, the government's attitude towards self-building can be characterised as guarded support.     

The Social Exclusion Perspective and Housing Studies: Origins,Applications and Limitations

The idea of 'social exclusion' has emerged over a relatively short space of time to take centre stage in political and popular debates about social disadvantage in many European states. In Britain it now dominates policy discourse on strategies to combat disadvantage.This paper explores the origins of the concept of social exclusion and the meanings that have been ascribed to it. The paper poses questions which remain outstanding in the debate over social exclusion. It then considers the relationship between housing and social exclusion and introduces each of the papers in the special issue. It finishes by noting that the papers in this issue make a significant contribution to enhancing our understanding of processes of disadvantage,but that there is much that remains to be done.     

Jewish Nationalism,European Colonialism and Modernity: The Origins of the Israeli Public Housing System

Since the middle of the 19th century, housing the growing number of Jews immigrating to Palestine demanded resources that were not available to all immigrants. Housing projects were initiated either by Jewish philanthropists or building associations established by leaders of local communities. Numbers of immigrants rose sharply with the increasing involvement of the Zionist national movement in Palestine and the establishment of the British Mandatory regime. Most houses were built then by the private sector, widening the gap among different socio-economic groups. Only after the 1948 war and the termination of the colonial regime, was the newly established State of Israel able to initiate large-scale housing projects, due to its control of former Arabowned lands. The distribution of those lands raised conflicts between different sectors of the Israeli society, such as in the following two cases of public housing projects initiated in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.     

房屋建筑裂缝产生原因分析与预防

房屋建筑裂缝是常见的建筑问题,导致这些裂缝出现的原因是多方面的。本文分析了房屋建筑裂缝出现的原因以及防范措施。     

浅析混合结构房屋墙体裂缝的产生与预防

在现场调查的基础上,对混合结构房屋墙体产生裂缝的形态、原因进行了分析,并提出了相应的预防措施,为工程设计和施工人员提供参考。     

Revitalising Singapore's Central City through Gentrification: The Role of Waterfront Housing

Global cities in the post-Fordist and digital era require the support of specialised services and functions as global city competition accelerates and intensifies. Young and professional gentrifiers are key providers of such services highly concentrated in financial districts. Since the 1980s, gentrification has also aimed to enhance liveability and accessibility to a better quality of life with landscaping and greenery provisions. Since the 1960s, the Central Area of Singapore has eliminated its dualistic character and slums, and has transformed itself into a modern business district skyline. However, the early emphasis had neglected a 'balanced' commercial cum residential setting, leading to a largely deserted downtown after office hours. The post-1990 policy to regenerate the downtown core of Singapore is embryonic but has strong governmental support. The success or failure in making Singapore a leading position in the global city competition will much rely on the outcome of gentrification, including the integrated resort programme in the new Central Business District—the waterfront Marina South. The article analyses gentrification efforts undertaken by key world cities and their limited success. From a theoretical perspective and international practical experience, the future of Singapore's revitalisation programme is intricately investigated. Determinant variables are multiple, inter alia, 'centrality' values in attracting talent in different areas of expertise, international capital in high-value operations, recreational and cultural input, quality housing and state-of-the-art entrepreneurship in global linkages.     

博尔内奥岛上的居住建筑 阿姆斯特丹，荷兰

规划设想 该工程位于阿姆斯特丹港的博尔内奥岛上，处在三面环水的岛屿之端这样一种非常特殊的环境中，它是一个凹凸不平的低矮建筑群，从功能上说，这些公寓楼构成了一个巨大的集合空间，侵入了那里的整个地块。那些卧室及其他专用设施像小塔一样从这片空间中伸出来．光从众多的空隙穿透进来，     

现浇楼板裂缝的防治

现浇楼板裂缝是一种常见的通病,本文通过分析其产生的原因,提出防治的措施和办法。     

A级住宅系统性分析

可持续发展已成为社会发展的重要主题,也是A级住宅提出的社会大背景。本文阐述了A级住宅发展的推动力,在分析A级住宅系统的特征及结构体系的基础上总结了A级住宅的推广策略。     

Housing Policy And The Underclass: The United Kingdom,Germany, and the Netherlands

ABSTRACT: The urban underclass has gained considerable currency as a concept to describe the changing face of poverty in the United States. Locating the urban underclass within the theoretical framework of citizenship and social class, this paper broadens conceptualizations of the urban underclass to allow a comparative analysis. Using the conceptualization developed, the author analyzes the role of housing in the social and spatial segregation and isolation that have been the hallmarks of the urban underclass in the United States, as well as in the Netherlands, Germany, and England. After comparing the divergent housing policies in the three European countries, the author examines local-level data in one old industrial city in each country. While there is some spatial concentration of poor and minority populations, the neighborhoods in question remain ethnically heterogeneous and do not lack social institutions. In short, they are far removed from the US hyperghetto.     

The Theory and Practice of Housing Sector Development for Developing Countries, 1950-99

In terms of welfare, development, and overall distributional impact, the study of whole sector housing development is more significant than attention to parts of a housing system. Housing policy development is increasingly taking the more comprehensive approach. The first phases of international housing policy, 1972-83, represented in sites and services (and related in situ slum upgrading) projects, could never become completely effective. These approaches had only fragmentary relationships to general land policies, to the development of housing finance systems, and to the broader economic, social and institutional conditions for enhancing the qualities and supplies of housing. In due time the theoretical and practical limitations became apparent and various international aid agencies, including the World Bank, adopted broader, more sophisticated thinking in housing, leading to a quest for whole sector housing development. But in the late 1990s, within managerial reforms in the World Bank, the specialist housing section was disbanded and the staff dispersed to other sections. This paper provides an historical explanation for the change, along with critical commentaries on the potential dilemmas with the modern, more comprehensive approaches. It is argued that policy and research agendas should be more evidently based upon understanding of the developmental dialectic between the economic, the social and the political. The developmental welfare of such a dialectic has authority and legitimacy from several Nobel prize winners in the 1990s. This paper reflects upon the relevance of their theoretical contributions.     

The Emerging Dominance of Immigrants in the US Housing Market 1970-2000

The article summarizes growth trends in occupied housing in the USA and in five individual states with the largest immigrant populations—California, New York, Florida, Texas and Illinois. The analysis covers the decades between 1970 and 2000 and documents the explosive growth of immigrant housing demand. Foreign-born households constitute increasingly large shares of total households in the USA (11 percent in 2000), especially in renter-occupied housing (17 percent in 2000). In particular, immigrants constitute much of the growth in demand and are emerging as a dominant force in the US housing market. In the 1990s, they accounted for 32 percent of all household growth and 67 percent of all rental growth nationwide. In California and New York, immigrants accounted for 100 percent of all rental growth and over half of all growth in owner-occupied housing. The article also addresses the surprisingly steep upward trajectories into homeownership as immigrants settle longer in the USA. This upward mobility occurs equally in all the gateway states for immigrant settlement.     

Demands,Expectations and Responses: The Shaping of Housing Management

There have recently been a number of claims that housing research is too much driven by the agendas of professionals and policy-makers, and that it should aim to be more conceptually focused through utilising analytical and interpretative methodologies. This paper represents an attempt to provide such an analytical and interpretative approach to one area of housing research, namely housing management as practised in the UK. The paper first examines the structural context of housing management, specifically the implications of the current social and legislative climate, before moving on to an analysis based on an Economic and Social Research Council funded project on the social construction of the occupational role of housing management. Both secondary sources and interview data are drawn on to show how there are multiple constructions of housing management, and that these reflect and reproduce institutional, organisational and personal responses to the demands and expectations placed on the delivery of housing management.     

昆明市上东城回迁安置房改造设计

回迁安置房作为＂城中村＂改造的一个重要环节,受到越来越多的关注。昆明市正在大力进行城中村改造,虽然从政策层面出台了不少有关回迁安置房的政策法规,但目前在设计层面还没有真正的举措,所以有关＂城中村＂改造中回迁安置房的设计还存在一定的问题。大多设计只是关心指标是否达到,项目是否可以报规通过等硬性的指标,而很少有人关心到底适不适合回迁居民的居住与生活。该文通过对昆明市上东城回迁安置房进行现状调研分析并做出试验性改造设计,在此基础上提出回迁安置房设计应该从回迁居民自身特点出发进行设计,并提出相应的设计要点及对策。