CHARLOTTESVILLE URBAN DESIGN AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Abstract
This paper describes an ongoing project examining urban design and
affordable housing in Charlottesville, Virginia. As architects, we have a
responsibility to respond to the challenges of building within
contemporary society with conviction about the efficacy of design in
ameliorating some of the problems that affect cities. But we should also
be wary of easy formulas in housing that can be appropriated and quickly
consumed. To put these concerns in another perspective, a return to
fundamental principles of pre-W.W.II town planning prevalent throughout
the United States and Great Britain need not produce a simultaneous
nostalgia about an architecture of pure historical quotation. Rather,
housing must begin to address fundamental shifts in the way that it is
produced, various approaches to the needs of different "clients" must be
considered, and a wide range of delivery systems and applications should
be proposed. This project combines and reconciles traditional town
planning principles with essential concerns about modest and low cost
housing. This project, including the text and various forms of graphic
and visual support, is available to anyone with an Internet connection
through the "World Wide Web" (http://www.iath.virginia.edu).
These commands bring up the home page for the Institute for Advanced
Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia which has
sponsored and supported this research; look under "Work in Progress".
This "interactive" access allows community groups and other architects to
participate in the ongoing research as it develops. The presentation at
the ACSA Annual Meeting will utilize the interactive features afforded by
this technology.
Charlottesville Archive
Copyright (c) 1995 by Kenneth A. Schwartz, all rights reserved. This
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