Design Matters: Best Practices in Affordable Housing
Catalog
Launched Fall 2001
The City Design Center has developed a new and pioneering Internet-based
program, "Design Matters: Best Practices in Affordable Housing".
Design Matters is the first Internet catalog of nationwide exemplary housing
that is affordable for people with limited incomes. Design Matters illustrates
that: quality design can be affordable and affordable housing can
embody quality design.
Design Matters is being developed with the support of nationally recognized
architecture firms, for-profit developers, community development corporations,
representatives of governmental agencies, and others who are committed
to functional and innovative affordable housing. The catalog documents
case studies of permanent housing for independent living, built in the
U.S. in the last twenty years; both new construction and rehabilitated
projects of all sizes, all building and construction types, serving any
type of household, and for any type of tenure, whether it be rental or
ownership.
Catalog projects were selected by the City Design Center team and the
catalog advisory committee from a pool of submissions identified through
multiple means: a search of the print and digital media; through nominations
from the City Design Center team and the catalog advisory committee; and
a nation-wide open call for submissions. Catalog projects were chosen
from this pool because they were exemplary in meeting one or more design
objectives such as:
• Contain construction and life cycle costs
• Support household and neighborhood fit
• Adapt to household changes
• Be universally accessible
• Meet high aesthetic standards
• Promote energy and resource efficiency
• Ensure healthy indoor environments
• Support physical safety and security
Selected projects represent both the highest quality and range of solutions
characterizing contemporary affordable housing design.
Extensive project information is documented in the Design Matters catalog
including: the architect, developer, location, financing, type of household,
building construction costs, type of tenure, owner/renter costs, number
and type of building, units, and resident households, descriptions of
key design strategies, and images to fully illustrate the projects.
The Design Matters catalog was launched in Fall 2001 with a national
symposium and digital exhibit (see ‘Public Forums’ section).
The catalog serves as a free resource for design professionals, developers,
builders, community groups, consumers, policy makers, researchers, educators,
and students - anyone interested in affordable housing.
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Map of project domain:
The United States
Splash page of “Design
Matters” web site.
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Web Site
City Design Center Affiliated Faculty and Staff
Current
Project Director and Catalog Editor
Roberta Feldman, Professor, School of Architecture, and Director, City
Design Center
Project Team
Drew Browning, Associate Professor, School of Art and Design
Philip Burton, Associate Professor, School of Art and Design
Tasneem Chowdhury, Coordinator, Affordable Housing Program, City Design
Center
Michael Iversen, Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Architecture
Elizabeth Kocs, Design Research Associate, City Design Center
John Shuler, Documents Librarian, UIC Library
Alex Stern, Associate Director, Adjunct Associate Professor School of
Architecture, Technology Coordinator College of Architecture and the Arts
Former
Dana Buntrock, former Assistant Professor, School of Architecture
Collaborating Community Organization
The Resurrection Project
Funding
Fannie Mae Foundation
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation
Private Donors
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