“Urban form” and the housing crisis: Can streets and buildings make a neighbourhood more affordable?

By Cem S. Kayatekin, Assistant Professor of Architecture / Urbanism, IE School of Architecture and Design, IE University
Lorenzo Uribe Sanmiguel, Junior Architect at OMA, IE University

As of 2007, most humans live in cities. Though this is a relatively recent trend, many of our settlements contain street, block, and building patterns that have developed over centuries. These patterns – which collectively make up what we call “urban form” – are far from a neutral backdrop: they influence who lives where, what businesses find footholds in which locations, and what makes some areas more diverse than others.

“Bottom-up” and “top-down” are terms which are often used to pin down the two ends of the vast…

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