Join us on April 26th for an international, online symposium on flexibility, resident input, and modular building in contemporary housing. From new models of social housing in Berlin and Barcelona to new applications of prefab construction in Beijing and Brooklyn, panelists will share architectural strategies that connect to broader, structural issues in housing today, including local economies of construction labor, densification in the suburbs, and more.

This symposium extends the themes explored in the exhibition Mass Support: Flexibility and Resident Agency in Housing, now on view at the Spitzer School of Architecture, City College. The exhibit investigates the legacy and contemporary relevance of the Stichting Architecten Research (SAR), a Dutch architectural think tank active between 1964 and 1990 that proposed a radical new way of thinking about housing, one that fused the efficiency of industrial construction with the flexibility of user customization. Initially led by John Habraken, the SAR suggested new functions for the construction industry, for households, and, crucially, for architects.

Today, in the midst of a profound global housing emergency, we need many new ideas to address the quality, availability, and attainability of shelter. We also need to examine the promise and pitfalls of overlooked knowledge from the recent past. The work of John Habraken and the SAR offers useful pathways to consider a range of seemingly contradictory contemporary imperatives. How do we balance a commitment to the self-determination of residents with the need to build more housing units quickly and economically? How do we leverage a detailed understanding of the minutiae of zoning and building codes in the service of bold visions to reshape the built fabric of our cities and suburbs? How can we utilize sustained observation of demographic change and household diversity to inform concrete design proposals for housing that empowers its users, that overcomes political and financial inertia, that anticipates change?

Join practitioners and researchers from around the world to discuss these questions in light of a range of contemporary design strategies to increase the supply of housing without sacrificing the self-determination of residents. New York State and AIA CEUs are available to all participants.