About the Server
Creating 1 million homes
There is an urgent need for affordable housing solutions in the Netherlands before 2030. However, the focus should not only be on producing new dwellings, but rather on creating homes and neighbourhoods that meet the needs of the future population. Through academic research and education, the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment explores solutions for creating homes for people.
There is a change in the Dutch residential culture and lack of affordable and suitable homes in the Dutch urban regions. Dutch citizens simply do not have the income to buy a new expensive house or apartment and due to changes in legislation housing associations are only allowed to offer dwellings to lower income groups. There is a huge housing demand for in particular middle income households. Productions lags behind for several reasons among which the high quality requirements and the desire for urban densification and compact cities. This results in a shortage of available homes and a rise of real estate prices in urban regions. The Dutch housing markets offers few to no opportunities for new comers and this can have serious repercussions for the rapid changing urban regions in future. Recently the Dutch government send a letter to the Parliament (April 23) about the Nationale Omgevings Visie (NOVI) which stressed out that the need of a million homes in the Stedelijk Netwerk Nederland.
Figure 1 Source: Nationale Omgevingsvisie - Duurzaam perspectief voor onze leefomgeving, September 2020
However, there is also a shortage of affordable homes in the urban regions. Decline in population in regions outside the Stedelijk Netwerk, an increase of the number of single occupied homes and change in the housing provision in general, have led to less affordable homes in these areas. Most dwellings are no longer occupied by traditional families but by a single person, many of whom are elderly in need for cure and care. Cohousing and sharing amenities of singles of all ages is a new trend. The Dutch society and the Dutch housing market are in a radical change in the new millennium.
The 1M Homes Initiative is an interdisciplinary platform of researchers of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment that aims to promote the development of knowledge towards an inclusive, affordable, climate friendly and healthy living environment.
Through living labs we test our transdisciplinary approach and solutions on different scale levels, from the home to the city, conducting live scale projects and experiments in cooperation between researchers & educators, public sector such as BZK, municipalities, Panorama Lokaal, Bouwcampus and housing associations and society. Social, economic, geographical, technological and environmental aspects are equally important and intertwined. A clear vision on the housing challenge was lacking in the NOVI. In this initiative, we bring together experts to work on this societal issue to ensure an integral, coherent vision across scales, disciplines, and expertise’s.
1M Homes addresses research questions like:
- How to shape mass housing production that fits the needs of households?
- How should the built environment be shaped, how dense and how high should houses be built?
- How to make homes and living environments fit for ageing at home?
- How to accommodate values such as equity and sustainability in housing strategies?