Redesigning the Single-Family House: A Critical Look Back, and a Glance Forward

The chapter develops a twofold reflection. On the one side, it critically assesses some design approaches dedicated to single-family housing that influenced the academic and professional discourse in the last five decades such as sprawl containment, the replacement of low-density fabrics with more compact settlements and the densification paradigm. On the other side, it indicates an alternative projective perspective based on selective demolition, alteration and retrofitting of the existing housing stock, which places the potential of single-family housing centre stage into the wider transformation process of low-density settlements.