Housing and the City

Housing and the City explores housing histories, theories, and projects in diverse geographies. It presents a geographically dispersed history of the twentieth-century modern housing project and its social diagram, juxtaposed with case studies from the past and the present that suggest that we can live and work differently.

While the contributions are diverse in their theoretical approach and geographical situation, their juxtaposition yields transversal connections in the conception of the home and the city and highlights the diversity of architectural solutions in the formation of housing and its communities. The collection also reveals architecture’s contribution to the construction of the self and communities, the individual and the collective―as both urban spatial entities and socio-political concepts.

Housing and the City provides essential reading for students, academics, and practitioners interested in the history, theory, or current design of housing. At a time when cities are witnessing new ways of working, changing social demographics, increased geographical mobility, and mass migrations, as well as the pervasive threat of the climate crisis―all trends exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic―Housing and the City presents a historical and theoretical reflection on the question: what does it mean to be at home in the city in the twenty-first century?

Katharina Borsi is an Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Nottingham. She teaches design and architectural and urban history and theory. Her research focusses on the intersection between housing, domesticity, and urbanism. She has lectured and published extensively on the history and theory of housing and urbanism in Berlin and elsewhere.

Didem Ekici is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Nottingham. She has held fellowships from Wellcome Trust, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Wolfsonian-Florida International University, and the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities. She is the co-editor of Healing Spaces, Modern Architecture, and the Body and author of articles on modern architecture, health, the body, asceticism, and urban memory.

Jonathan Hale is an architect and Professor of Architectural Theory in the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Nottingham. He is Head of the Architecture, Culture and Tectonics research group. He has published extensively on architectural theory and criticism, phenomenology and the philosophy of technology, the relationship between architecture and the body, and museums and architectural exhibitions.

Nick Haynes is an architect and runs a master's design studio at the University of Nottingham exploring the immanent strategic potential of architecture within the city. He is a PhD candidate at the University of Nottingham with his research titled "Primary Elements: Typological Innovation and Urban Performances".