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Urban Spaces 1 / Dogarilor Apartment Building

The project is located in Mulhouse in a popular district close to the city center, currently under renovation. It includes 59 social rental dwellings developed by SOMCO, operator on public social housing. A few years after the Cité Manifeste experience, our common goal was to pursue the same aims: generous dwellings without increasing the rent.

Urban design
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R50 Cohousing

R50 - cohousing is a joint building venture project in Berlin-Kreuzberg. It was initiated by the architects during the course of a concept-based award procedure for building plots and implemented in close cooperation with the clients. The building proposal is founded on a clear urban design position, robust and precisely detailed architectural design, and both a collective and individual process of occupancy.

Urban design
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Transformation of Tour Bois-le-Prêtre Housing Block

Built in the early 60s along the ring road on the northern periphery of Paris, this high-rise block of 16 storeys contains 96 apartments. Instead of demolition, which was the first option that was considered, a project of transformation of the existing building was decided upon.

Urban design
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Timberyard Social Housing

This project in the historic Liberties area of Dublin arose from the need to relocate the residents of the existing pockets of social housing that had been demolished in order to make way for a new road.

Urban design
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Verdana Blok K

Blok K or Verdana, is part of a master plan by the Architecten Cie, called Het Funen, Hidden Delights , which calls for a total of 500 dwellings and a park. The block contains ten houses and the point of departure for the project was that the urban envelop should be distributed evenly over all of them.

Urban design
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59 Dwellings, Neppert Gardens Social Housing

The project is located in Mulhouse in a popular district close to the city center, currently under renovation. It includes 59 social rental dwellings developed by SOMCO, operator on public social housing. A few years after the Cité Manifeste experience, our common goal was to pursue the same aims: generous dwellings without increasing the rent.

Urban design
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Collective housing for elderly people and civic and health centre

The project organises 105 senior citizens housing into three volumes spread out, on top of a double-height plinth containing a Health Centre and a Senior Community Centre. The building’s common spaces help to create a dynamic community. The mixed-use of the program enable to preserve the existing social network of the neighbourhood.

Urban design
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Shepherdess Walk Housing

Shepherdess Walk is a new residential development in central London, located near to Old Street roundabout, on the border of Shoreditch, London’s technology hub and design district of Clerkenwell.

Urban design
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Puukuokka Housing Block (house 1)

Puukuokka One is the first eight-story high wooden apartment building in Finland. It explores the potential of modular prefabricated CLT construction to meet the goal of providing high quality, environmentally responsible and affordable housing. It has won several prizes including Finlandia Prize for Architecture and Resident Act of the Year 2015.

Urban design
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Rasu Houses

Rasu Namai is a residential quarter consisting of ordinary 18 houses in Pavilniai regional park of Vilnius.

Urban design
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Moholt 50I50 – Timber Towers

Student housing often plumb the depths of mediocrity, with simple units stacked on top of each other in the cheapest way possible and left to themselves without support programs.

Urban design
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Gleis 21 – We bring the village to the city

Lived Urbanity. We bring the village to the city.

Urban design
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Slovakian State Housing Policy

The Slovakian State Housing Programme (SSHP) has used a series of five-year plans and is a good illustration of long-term cumulative housing reform.

Financing Ownership and tenure Policies and regulations Promotion and production
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From silos to systemic reform – The National Housing System strategy of Malta

Malta has recently pursued a new vision for housing policy development. Taking a culturally sensitive approach has been central to this, reflecting on new realities brought about by economic progress, migration, and new household formation trends.

Financing Ownership and tenure Policies and regulations Promotion and production
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ARA – Housing Finance & Development Centre of Finland

The Housing Finance and Development Centre (ARA) is a public agency which operates under the direction of the Finnish environment ministry.  Non-profit organizations can apply for grants, subsidies and guarantees from ARA to fund housing construction, purchase, and renovation.

Financing Ownership and tenure Policies and regulations
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National Mortgage Guarantee – The Netherlands

The National Mortgage Guarantee (Dutch: Nationale Hypotheek Garantie [NHG]) is a guarantee scheme for providers of homeowner mortgages such as banks. It guarantees to repay the residual debt if a bank forecloses on a homeowner mortgage.

Financing Ownership and tenure Policies and regulations
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Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Mortgage insurance plays a significant role in the Canadian housing market.  All national government-regulated financial institutions (and most financial institutions regulated by regional government) are legally required to purchase insurance for mortgages which exceed 80 per cent of the value of the dwelling being purchased. 

Financing Ownership and tenure Policies and regulations
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Bond Issuing Cooperative for Limited Profit Housing – Switzerland

The Bond Issuing Cooperative for Limited Profit Housing (Emissionszentrale für gemeinnütziger Wohnbauträger/ Centrale d’émission pour la construction de logements – EGW/CCL) was jointly established in Switzerland in 1991 by the Government and the non-profit cooperative housing movement. 

Policies and regulations Promotion and production
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The German Building Code – Energy Conservation Act

Another example of a powerful regulation is the German Building Code – Energy Conservation Act (Energieeinsparverordnung – EnEV)[1] – that requires the replacement of combustion units that are more than 30 years old.

Financing Policies and regulations
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Knowledge-providing tools in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the “Energy Saving Explorer”[1] tool is used to inform building owners and private individuals of the possibilities of energy-saving measures, and to illustrate their effects on the energy costs and energy demands of the home(s) [2].

Financing Mismatch Policies and regulations Promotion and production
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Household appliance contracting in Flanders 

In the Flanders region of Belgium, a community-building organization – Samenlevingsopbouw West-Vlaanderen[1] – offers a very interesting contracting scheme.

Financing Mismatch Ownership and tenure
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National strategies integrating a range of policy tools – The Russian Federation and the United States

National energy efficiency strategies, guided by the SDGs and driven by legally binding international commitments, such as the Paris Climate Agreement, increasingly give attention not only to the energy efficiency of new and existing housing and neighbourhoods but also to reducing energy-related poverty.

Financing Promotion and production
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Large-scale roll-out of photovoltaic installations in the social housing sector

With the help of the European Investment Bank’s financial instrument Elena, the national social housing federation, Vlaamse Huisvestingsmaatschappijen (VVH), created an Esco-like vehicle, by and for the social housing providers, which will organize and finance the installation of PV panels on around 90,000 social dwellings in the coming years.[1] The aim is to provide lower electricity costs and lower GHG emissions.

Financing Mismatch Policies and regulations
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National building renovation obligation

The most forward-thinking utilization of the information provided in the EPCs has been seen so far by the introduction of performance-based renovation targets and requirements in France. They discuss a national obligation to renovate all buildings of the energy classes F and G by 2028.

Mismatch Policies and regulations
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The Climate Protection Initiative in Austria

Klimaaktiv is the climate protection initiative of the Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism. Since 2004, Klimaaktiv has covered all central technology areas for sustainable energy use with the main topics “Building and renovation”, “Saving energy”, “Renewable energy” and “Mobility”.

Mismatch Policies and regulations Urban design
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Tax deduction – Luxembourg and Sweden

Tax incentives can be used to steer investment in energy-efficiency measures. The reduction of VAT or tax deductions on renovation activities, mainly on labour costs, has often created win-win-situations for the environment, economic growth, and created/assured workplaces.

Financing Mismatch
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Combating rental market financialization in Denmark

Recent reforms to the regulation of rented housing in Denmark offer a useful insight into how private investors can exploit tax provision loopholes to undermine affordability, and the measures that can be enacted to combat these.

Policies and regulations
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Rent stabilization and monitoring access to affordable supply in New York City

Policies to stabilize rental supply and regulate rents are well established in New York City under the Rent Stabilization Law, which covers three essential areas. The law limits the rate of rent increases, limits the method, manner and grounds for evictions, and requires housing services to be maintained.

Policies and regulations
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Public loans, funds and grants in EU Member States, Ukraine & the UK

State housing development funds are well-established and effective instruments which are used by various member States across Europe. The European Investment Bank (EIB) also provides investment and co-financing for low-carbon technologies and housing projects.[1] This investment by EIB is established under the Emissions Trading Directive.

Financing Mismatch
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Macroprudential mortgage rules in Ireland – responsible bank lending

The provision of mortgage credit to households by financial institutions has a major impact on the sustainability of home purchases and affects housing prices. Poor financial regulation was at the core of the Global Financial Crises of 2007/08 and had roots in irresponsible lending in the housing sector.

Financing