Macallen Building: Housing Development

High Density, NADAAA, Project, Territory and mobility, Urban Paradigms

Alternative Domesticity, Architect’s role, Architecture, Boston, City development, Collaborative work, Community, Courtyard, Design process, Design strategies, Design-based research, Efficiency, Flexibility, Functional unit, Green roof, Greenery, Housing, Housing market, LEED, Lifecycle, material, Programmatic coexistences, Project, Public vs. Private, Rain Water Harvesting, Recycling, Renewable resources, Residential, Sustainable, Urban design, Urban landscape, USA

Photography: John Horner

The design of housing remains one of the least researched areas within the current debate in the United States – this despite a recent era of massive growth in the housing market. With the focus of development being in the suburbs, a good deal of building has fallen into the hands of developer/contractor alliances – and often without the agency of the architect. Meanwhile, much of the current work in the inner cities has been entrenched in the politics of compromise, negotiations with local communities and design review boards, coupled with the aesthetics of “simplistic” contextualism.