Reimagining Urban Living: Beyond Building Housing – Building a Community.
Affordable, Sustainable, and Innovative Housing Solutions for better
Quality Living
Authors
Erez ELLA, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, HQ Architects (Founder), Israel
Abstract
In response to rising housing needs, changing demographics, and climatic challenges, we acknowledge the
need to challenge the standard Housing typology. Housing, usually synonym to dull and standard design,
one that is unimaginative, made to basic living standards and often associated with building types such as
the mundane, contextually isolated tower blocks. As architectural scholars and practitioners, we strive to
develop innovative architectural and urban models that combine affordability, community, and
sustainability. The intention here is to create engaging architecture that responds to the diverse needs of a
wide demographic and be effortlessly part of urban context, embracing topography and climatic conditions,
proving both a sustainable and humane environment for dwelling, while at the same time acknowledging
the market demands and system as well as align with the developer’s perspective. Overall housing is part of
a multi-layered system that needs to be approached simultaneously and work together with multiple
stakeholders and bodies, on which housing is made of and made for. This paper, through housing and
planning projects, seeks to demonstrate how challenging the housing typology and embracing a wider
design vision, has the ability to create quality housing resilient, inclusive neighbourhoods by linking
architecture with social, economic, and environmental ambitions.
Keywords
Housing, sustainable, mixed-use development, inclusive urbanism, residential
