Additional information
by Alexander Eisenschmidt (Author)
The housing shortage is a global problem that cannot be resolved through market-driven models of home ownership. This book, therefore, postulates a radical shift from house to housing and from the individual to the collective. The reintroduction of the term "collective" is here understood as a mechanism to refocus housing as a community-building, solidarity-building, and city-building activity.
The book addresses the topic in four chapters--from alternative urban housing typologies and concepts of communal construction to historical models from which the current housing struggle can learn. The individual essays include examples from five different continents.
Author Biography
Alexander Eisenschmidt is an
architect, writer, and Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois
at Chicago. He directs the Housing Futures Initiative and leads the
architecture and urban design practice Studio Offshore. Eisenschmidt is the author
of The Good Metropolis (2019) and editor of Félix Can dela from Mexico City to
Chicago (2024), among other volumes. He has curated and his work has been
exhibited internationally in venues such as the Architecture Biennale in
Venice, the Art Institute of Chicago Museum, and the Shenzhen Biennale on Urbanism.
