J. Max Bond Center for Urban Futures

The J. Max Bond Center on Design for the Just City is heavily invested in research and design solutions that will help individuals gain more access to much needed housing, increase diversity and choice in housing options, and incorporate affordable housing within urban city centers.

In the midst of financial strain and immense housing needs, the affordable housing industry is being forced to re-evaluate its current practices and define new ways to provide housing and healthy communities for working-class individuals and families. The need for new directions and pathways is evident and ripe for innovative solutions. To this end, a housing seminar was offered in the spring of 2013 in the CCNY Spitzer School of Architecture by Julio Salcedo-Fernandez, in collaboration with JMBC Associate Director Esther Yang, to explore the components and challenges of subsidized multi-family housing developments and encourage students to take a position on how design can influence new and innovative directions for housing development and policy.

The conversations in this seminar echo national housing conversations that seeks pathways to connect housing to healthy and productive communities, accelerate the pace and scale of innovation, and to shed insights on a more productive housing delivery system. Historically, housing solutions have been derived through compartmentalized thinking, the seminar sought to broaden the conversation and engage students within integrated discussions involving multiple development perspectives and harness a new mode of design thinking and innovations to meet future housing objectives.