The 34th edition of the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) annual conference gets to the end in this last day of debate focused on the new challenges that European cities are facing: tourism and gentrification, as well as sustainability of housing. In addition, workshops have also been held throughout the morning to continue delving into the different perspectives of housing: collaborative housing, housing and new technologies, energy efficiency, social housing, among others.
Regarding the investigation of collaborative housing, the workshop of researchers from the Technical University of Delft (TUDelft), Sara Brysch, Vincent Gruis and Darinka Czischke, analyzes the interaction between co-design and construction costs in collaborative housing designs. New technologies applied to housing, such as modern construction methods and digital technologies, have been the subject of research by the authors: Reyhaneh Shojaei (Cambridge Center for Housing and Planning), Kwadwo Oti-Sarpong (University of Cambridge) and Gemma Burgess (Cambridge University).
Before meeting the speakers of today’s plenary sessions, the ETSAB auditorium has been the scene of the ‘Slide-show competition’. It has consisted of an entertaining group contest on urban problems and improvements in Europe, presented by Iván Tosics, general director of the Budapest Metropolitan Research Institute.
Housing Challenges: Gentrification and Tourism
In the fourth plenary session, the debate has been focused on the changes that cities are experiencing today due to tourism and gentrification. In this sense, the expert voices of: Agustín Cócola-Gant (School of Geography University of Leeds), Dimitris Pettas (University of Berlin) and Nancy Holman (School of Economics of London), have contributed their vision and experience facing these challenges.
The researcher at the Center for Geographic Studies of the University of Lisbon, Agustín Cócola-Gant, focuses nowadays his work on the consolidation of a temporary rental industry, driven by the convergence of the technology, real estate and hotel sectors. In his intervention on the evolution of the tourism industry, after the arrival of platforms such as Airbnb, he has stressed: “In the future, the increase of transnational floating populations in destinations that offer cheaper and more ‘exciting’ lifestyles is expected”.
On the other hand, Dimitris Pettas has focused his research, as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral grant holder at the Institute for Regional Planning and Urbanism (Technical University of Berlin), on the social production of public space, the development of economic platforms and their impact on the urban environment. In his speech, Pettas has introduced the concept of touristification in relation to short-term rentals, giving as an example the city of Athens and the two waves of touristification it has suffered.
London has been the city that Nancy Holman, PhD in Urban Policy (University of Portsmouth), has examined up close because the phenomenon of touristification and policies to control temporary rentals by administrations. Her work focuses primarily on local planning and governance, as well as housing, and how to plan for regulation and deregulation and its impact on communities.
Design oriented towards energy efficiency and sustainability
The day continued with the fifth plenary session to talk about innovative designs with the aim of achieving sustainable and ecological housing that would be able to combat climate change and decarbonisation. They have participated: Jeremy Till (Central Saint Martins, University of Arts London), Gabu Heindl (Institute of Technology in Nuremberg & School of Architecture in London) and Ebru Ergöz Karahan (Özyeğin University, Istanbul).
Jeremy Till is an internationally recognized architect and promoter in the field of sustainability, who has investigated ‘The Language of Climate’, reflecting on the impact on nature as opposed to the idea of modernity and progress. Till, with his projects, has received multiple awards, such as the Civic Trust Award (2002), the RIBA National Award (2004) and the RIBA Sustainability Award (2004) in recognition of his model of sustainable design.
Gabu Heindl is Professor of Urban Planning at the Nuremberg Institute of Technology and Director of the Joint Diploma at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. “The measures that are being employed to combat the environmental crisis are necessary but not enough, because many instruments are necessary to be able to face the climate crisis from different perspectives”, has assured the architect. Heindl’s extensive knowledge of Red Vienna, her experience and activism in the architecture sector support the numerous international presentations and publications related to housing policies and planning, public housing rental strategies and public spaces.
The presentation by Ebru Ergöz Karahan, associate professor of architecture at the University of Ozyegin (Turkey), has revolved around the design of sustainable housing in relation to the behavior of the occupants and their energy use. The expert has insisted on “taking advantage of the ancestral knowledge of thousands of years of history on design, construction and actions, combining it with future and existing technologies” as the most appropriate way to achieve true energy efficiency. Karahan has been part of the ENHR since 2006, and shares the presidency of the ‘Energy Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability of Housing’ work team.
See you soon ENHR
The ENHR has said goodbye to Barcelona with a closing ceremony to celebrate the professional encounter. For the upcoming 35th edition, all eyes are setting on the city where the next conference of the European Network for Housing Research will be held: Lodz, the second largest city in Poland and historically linked to the textile industry.