Urban Families in Dense Cities

Abstract

With the population growing worldwide and the ideal number of squared meters used per person increasing, cities such as Amsterdam are facing new expansion challenges; needing more dwellings whilst less buildable space is available. This dichotomy causes several groups of people in our society to move out of the cities. One of these migrating groups are families. Recent research has shown that many young families in Amsterdam are dissatisfied with their homes and with their living environment and as a result many of them move away from the city. As a consequence, the diversity within cities decreases, resulting in the segregation of the population. However, families have a preference towards living in the city, but the problem is that the housing supply is not sufficiently tuned to their needs. In other words, the right houses are missing. Families with a modest income are usually dependent on the outdated housing stock. As a result, they either stay dissatisfied in their current dwelling or move outside the city. A straightforward solution is building enough suitable dwellings for families. However, building dwellings with gardens for everyone is not feasible because of the lack of space and the high prices of the land. These issues that cities are facing, have brought me to my graduation topic. I have researched how we can design affordable and good quality family apartments in dense areas such as in a city. How we can design dwellings with the right size, the right layout, the right number of rooms and the right costs.