The annual conference of the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) kicks off with a first day, called ‘New Housing Researchers Colloquium (NHRC)‘, focused on networking and mentoring the projects of the housing sector’s new researchers, today happening in Barcelona city.
In this introductory session, the NHRC colloquium is established as an open space for new researchers related to the housing sector. In addition, this meeting focuses on making public their projects which try to deal with problems and challenges of housing in European cities, such as: affordability, sustainability, rental prices, rehabilitation of homes and neighborhoods, variations and implications in the real estate market, housing policies, etc.
NHRC welcome
The day has been lived in an academic environment from the first moments with the welcome and reception. In addition to new researchers; teachers, students and professionals from the field of housing have attended. Montserrat Pareja-Eastaway, professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Barcelona and vice-president of the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR), has shared in her welcome speech how she has been part of the ENHR since she was a PhD student. “The goal is to build bridges between professionals and institutions, to find common ground and find solutions with different perspectives about the challenges of housing today,” according to Pareja-Eastaway.
Following, the president of the ENHR, Peter Boelhouwer, has highlighted about this introductory day “the exchange of ideas, establishing new contacts with other potentially important professional colleagues, both in the academic field and for the development of the professional career”. Richard Sendi, research advisor to the Institute of Urban Planning of the Republic of Slovenia, has highlighted the work of the working groups of new housing researchers in their investigation regarding the new scenarios currently presented in this area. The students’ welcome has ended with the intervention of the British architect, Mark Stephens (Polytechnic University of Catalonia), who detailed the processes, tools and structure followed by the publication and academic writing.
Workshops with new research
In the new researchers workshops, new investigations has been showed to face the different challenges that are already happening in European cities. In this sense, the workshops of Alejandro Fernández, doctoral researcher at the Technological University of Delft (TUDelf), have been highlighted. There, the housing affordability and sustainability policies in Europe have been analyzed. Regarding European policies to promote efficiency and energy saving, the author has stated that: “the sustainability of housing generates renovation costs that must be kept in mind when building social housing, and therefore, in its search for funding”.
The researcher at the Barcelona Metropolitan Housing Observatory (O-HB), Mireia Sender Martí, has focused her work on legislation related to social housing in Catalonia and Spain. “From a legal point of view, there is no single framework to regulate social housing. In the future, the idea is to build a single framework that will have to coexist with previous legislation still being in force”, she has said.
“The housing measures in Barcelona, such as the Neighborhood Plan, make the city an example of social transformation and urban planning on vulnerable areas”, has stressed Gonzalo Piasek, doctoral researcher at ETSAB, regarding his study on the neighborhoods of Barcelona and the relationship between social budget and urban vulnerability.
ENHR in El Born
This first day, dedicated to the colloquium between the new and the wise researchers, has ended with a networking activity: a visit to a 1876 building by the architect Josep Fontserè, which preserves the structure of the old Born market. In this way, it is intended to build up interaction, to create and to strengthen bonds between this sector professionals.