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In the United States, as in many other countries, “affordable housing” is generally understood to refer to housing for which a household pays no more than 30 percent of its annual income. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, “Families who pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing are considered cost burdened and may have difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation, and medical care.” Recently, there has been a movement to encompass other costs within the definition of affordable housing, as reflected in the MIT/CRE Housing Affordability Initiative’s Housing Affordability Index, which takes other factors into account when determining area affordability, such as adequate access to jobs, school quality, and environmental amenities associated with a residence’s location. Especially in the context of the economic recession, the issue of housing affordability is emerging globally as a pressing subject in both developed and developing countries.
New York Lab Team members ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles] discussed gentrification and the local effects of globalization processes during their time at the Lab. Access to affordable housing emerged as a salient and critical issue in the Lower East Side and New York as a whole.
from 2011 to 2013, the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a mobile think tank for exploring urban life, traveled to New York, Berlin, and Mumbai to inspire innovative ideas for urban design and new ways of thinking about cities. To sum up the major themes and ideas that emerged during this two-year global journey, the Guggenheim Museum will present the exhibition Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab, on view from October 11, 2013, to January 5, 2014.
“The Guggenheim is proud of the extraordinary achievements of the BMW Guggenheim Lab and the multitude of ideas and conversations it has inspired,” stated Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation. “Thanks to the BMW Group’s support and collaboration, the Lab has allowed us to go far beyond our walls and into the heart of cities, stimulating a broad and ongoing dialogue about urban life. It has attracted tens of thousands of enthusiastic participants, on-site and online, and has been recognized by the United Nations as an exemplary project. With this special exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York, we celebrate the learnings of the Lab along with new insights from contributors around the world.”
Participatory City features 100 of the key trends published in the New York, Berlin, and Mumbai editions of 100 Urban Trends: A Glossary of Ideas from the BMW Guggenheim Lab, each illustrated by contributions from a global roster of architects, academics, designers, and artists, as well as Lab programs and projects. The exhibition will represent the trends in an exclusively digital installation through drawings, sketches, short videos, and renderings.
More information can be found here.
