Archinect - Features

Housing after Debt? A discussion with Alastair Parvin

2017-10-20T11:28:00-04:00

This month Archinect looks closer at our housing economy—how we commission and produce homes in today’s financial climate. This year a primary index tracking residential real estate value in major US cities revealed American house prices are now rising at a rate of 5.9% per annum—a three year high—significantly outpacing relative income gains. This growth now more than doubles the hourly earnings of the average American, pricing many families out of the market and out of the city. Similar trends can be found across major metropolitan areas in Europe and Asia, fueling acute housing crises such as the well documented situation in London, England. I speak to designer and civic entrepreneur Alastair Parvin of London-based studio Architecture 00 who, frustrated by a select number of poor quality homes for sale at sensational prices, is now actively looking for ways to reshape the market itself; starting by rethinking the business model.

HGTV Theory: Tiny House Hunters, Debt Resistors

2017-02-08T12:05:00-05:00

On the episode “Family of Six Goes Tiny” of HGTV’s Tiny House Hunters, Cindy, Dan, and their four daughters, ranging in age from 14 to two, downsize from their 2,500 square foot house in Santa Clarita to a 600 square foot home in Corning, New York—100 square feet per person. The real estate agent thinks they’re insane. What motivates such an extreme move? Debt aversion, in part.

The State of Debt and the Price of Architecture #2

2015-01-16T09:45:00-05:00

Do you know anyone who is not a debtor, at least in some sense? The idea is practically unthinkable. To participate in modern life, one must take on debt: credit cards, housing loans, medical bills, education. Even cash is a form of debt, albeit normalized to the point that we no longer think of it as such. State of Debt and the Price of Architecture is a series that attempts to consider the particular situation of architecture student debt within a larger cultural and historical framework: to show just how strange (and untenable) the normal actually is.