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Residential Innovation Under Budget Constraints: Affordable Housing Can Also Be Comfortable and Beautiful

Release Time:

2025-08-21

Residential Innovation Under Budget Constraints: Affordable Housing Can Also Be Comfortable and Beautiful

In the face of a tight budget, #住宅 is it necessary to sacrifice quality? The 5 social housing cases we have selected in this issue provide a negative answer. In Spain, South Africa, the Netherlands, and other places, architects have transformed cost control into design opportunities through spatial structure optimization, local material translation, and climate-passive strategies, proving that affordable housing can also take into account comfort, aesthetics, and long-term sustainability, allowing low-income people to have a decent and comfortable life.

Adjustable green metal facade brings a fresh tone to the residence

Spain: NSA 14 – 205 Social Housing Units for EMVS

Company: Ricardo Sánchez González

The residential project is located in the "Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles" neighborhood, covering an area of 9,798.26 square meters, with a maximum construction area of 15,930 square meters for the residential part. The whole is composed of two volumes, each about 70×18 meters, with a maximum of eight floors.

In order to weaken the heavy feeling brought by the large volume, the scheme introduces a light zigzag line on the facade, which adds dynamism to the building without affecting the function of the apartment type. The turning point of the broken line naturally forms a lighting well, allowing sunlight to shine into the corridor, and cleverly combines with the traffic core.

The main entrance is located on San Diego Avenue. Passing through the porch-style overhead floor, you can reach the central garden, which is both a shared living room for residents and a green social place. Each building has two stairwells and a group of four elevators. The apartment types are arranged along the longitudinal corridor, with clear separation of movement and stillness, simple flow lines, and open sight lines; the layout of the terrace has been carefully considered to further amplify the space experience.

The project fully implements the concept of barrier-free: zero height difference paths, full-floor elevators, and landscape micro-ramps are all available. The exterior wall adopts SATE external insulation system, The outside of the terrace is a slidable perforated metal grille, which can adjust the sunlight and ensure privacy. The overall scheme achieves a balance between function, environment and social interaction, creating a high-quality and warm living atmosphere.

Red brick and blue aluminum alloy frame together build a residential space with local cultural atmosphere

South Africa: 9 on Nares Apartment Building

Company: Two Five Five Architects

Observatory (referred to as "Obs" by locals) is a vibrant and unique suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, located east of the city center. It has a strong bohemian atmosphere, diverse residents, and a strong artistic atmosphere. Old Victorian houses coexist with residential areas, commercial streets, and old factories. Cafes, restaurants, bars, and independent shops are lined up. It is a gathering place for students, artists, and young white-collar workers. Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town are also nearby, making this area more humanistic and academic.

Located in the heart of Obs, the 9 on Nares project has a total of 45 apartments, accurately responds to the soul of this neighborhood within a limited budget 。

The biggest highlight of the building is the facade: the designer uses economical and durable NFX (Non-Facing Extra) exterior wall bricks to arrange layers of changing textures, like a breathing building block. The "push-pull" technique of brick advancing and retreating not only shapes the volume level, but also strengthens the structural stability. Compared with the common NFP plastered bricks, NFX is more moisture-resistant and cheaper. The pattern transitions naturally on the wall. It looks like a melody from a distance and has details when viewed up close.

The window openings and balconies are uniformly framed with royal blue aluminum alloy, which jumps out of a bright color in the main tone of brick red and tan, which is full of modernity. 9 on Nares proves with limited cost that economics can also make good designs; it seamlessly integrates with Obs's street art, old buildings, and free spirit, becoming another new landscape in this community that tells stories.

Use local materials to create sustainable social housing that is beautiful, durable, and complements the urban environment

Spain: 11 Social Houses in Palma

Company: Carles Enrich Studio

The project is located on a narrow plot at the intersection of Rut Street and Darwin Street in the El Coll d'en Rabassa district of Palma, which was once the Mares stone quarry. The program aims to complement the irregular urban fabric and, with the goal of directly addressing the climate crisis, proposes to build 11 houses, allowing the new volume to embed and adapt to the existing environment.

The design strategy first separates the building as a whole from the side wall of the neighboring house, preserving the original geological remains , thus forming a dual volume logic: the street facade facing southeast is compact and regular; the inner courtyard side retreats layer by layer to avoid filling the red line, while generating shadows and aerial courtyards of varying scales, configuring multiple outdoor spaces for each household. The ground floor residents have a water-permeable paved inner courtyard, and the second floor residents have a terrace.

In order to cope with climate change, the design returns to local passive strategies . All rooms have openings on opposite facades, and the top of the stairwell is equipped with a lighting well and solar chimney to achieve full cross ventilation. The west facade is recessed to provide self-shading for the most difficult orientation to shade. The ground floor drainage garden and low-water-demand native vegetation reduce the ambient temperature, and rainwater is collected for irrigation. The window layout and extremely shallow depth optimize daylighting and artificial lighting needs throughout the year. The facade is covered with white lime plaster (jabelga), which has both waterproof and joint sealing functions, and the protruding components further reduce the overheating of the outer wall.

The construction system emphasizes standardization and prefabrication, and the selection of materials is based on locality, durability, economy, and low environmental load . Each household directly faces the street, and the building as a whole is presented as a row of houses, without the need for elevators, responding to contemporary living needs in an efficient and sustainable manner.

Green walls and red windows recreate the spatial memory of traditional Spanish courtyards

Spain: Illa Glòries Social Housing

Company: Cierto Estudio

The project includes a total of 238 apartments, of which Building A, designed by Cierto Estudio, accommodates 51 units, fully responding to the complexities of contemporary urban life. The design is guided by a gender perspective throughout, with fairness, safety, and shared responsibility for family care as core objectives. Through spatial strategies that encourage neighborhood interaction, mutual support, and the visibility of caregiving, the building provides a truly inclusive living environment for diverse family structures.

Illa Glòries attempts to establish a new balance between high density and urban permeability. Two large inner courtyards and surrounding public balconies form the framework for neighborhood interaction. The residences are arranged around the inner courtyard in a "corrala" style, which not only continues the spatial memory of traditional Spanish courtyards but also forms a natural safety monitoring network through cross-views, effectively reducing the risk of gender violence. The inner courtyard avoids the hustle and bustle but maintains visual contact with the street, while the balcony becomes a daily resting node connecting the interior with the roof and courtyard, making the public space an extension of the residents' lives.

The apartment design eliminates the traditional "main hall" concept, with similar areas and lighting for each room, allowing residents to freely allocate functions according to their needs, reducing internal spatial power differences within the family. . The kitchen is placed in a key position to promote interaction, combined with a rotatable partition and a central multi-functional room, to achieve seamless switching between solitude and entertaining, working and caregiving.

The project is based on the NZEB (Nearly Zero Energy Building) standard, and the main structure is made of cross-laminated timber (CLT), which greatly improves thermal insulation performance; passive design strategies—cross ventilation, external shading, and green roofs—reduce energy consumption. More than 60% of the land is designed as green space, which effectively alleviates the urban heat island effect and implants a breathing green lung into the high-density community.

Modular prefabricated housing to solve the housing crisis in a social and sustainable way

Netherlands: Moos Euterpe

Company: concrete

Moos is an innovative housing concept that aims to provide high-quality housing for everyone, addressing the housing crisis in the Netherlands in a social and sustainable way. Moos' prefabricated houses have a circular and modular design, which can be completely disassembled and reused if necessary.

Moos Euterpe is located in Maassluis, the Netherlands, and the construction of two building blocks has begun in Amsterdam, with a total of 149 flexible housing units to be built. The entire complex consists of two buildings facing each other, with a garden between the buildings, which becomes the core space connecting residents and promoting social activities. The exterior of the building adopts a stepped design, and the corridor becomes a balcony, providing residents with ample space for personalized transformation. . In addition to meeting individual needs, this design also emphasizes the transition between public and private spaces, which helps promote interaction between neighbors.

The modular design can provide a variety of types and sizes of housing. Therefore, whether it is an individual or a family, they can find suitable accommodation in Moos. The types of modules range from studio apartments to four-bedroom houses. Since residents' living needs vary and are constantly changing, Moos is committed to providing personalized options while ensuring high-quality standards . Therefore, each 2, 3 or 4 bedroom house consists of two modules. One is the “basic” module, which contains all the basic living facilities. The other is the “personal” module, which is a freely configurable space that residents can customize according to their needs and lifestyles.

Moos' vision is not only to provide high-quality and affordable housing, but also to create a vibrant community. Public areas have been carefully integrated into the overall design . For example, the Moos apartment complex has a Moos Plein, which is a public space located at the entrance where residents can gather. Corridors and green spaces are fully utilized as interactive spaces. The design of these spaces aims to encourage interaction and connection between residents.

The mixed and recycled materials used in the Moos project set it apart from traditional construction methods. Traditional materials are replaced by sustainable, recycled and reused materials from its partners. In cases where recycled materials cannot be used, the design team uses bio-based alternatives.

Although Moos homes are permanent structures, they are fully demountable, making them also suitable for temporary housing projects without compromising the quality of long-term living. These temporary homes also meet the building permit requirements for permanent buildings and can be moved to new locations in the future. Moos offers a temporary housing buy-back guarantee, promising to buy back these homes after their useful life. This ensures recycling and reduces the impact on the environment.