Title: Urban cottages - rural homes? Challenges towards a more sustainable residental culture and the role of architecture
Abstract: The growth in the number, size and standard of second homes in Norway as well as in other European countries has negative environmental impacts and has thus become an issue within the sustainability debate. The article argues that the growth in second homes must be seen as part of changes within residential cultures in our time and that understandings of these changes are essential in order to reach a more sustainable development within the residential sector. It aims to provide a better basis for further explorations into the field of connections between understandings of home, architecture and environmental issues. The article draws on an outline of theoretical approaches to residential cultures and of second homes research, as well as on architectural analysis of two contemporary projects, one second home and one urban housing project. The discussions show that the relationship between diverse home arenas is complex and that there probably is a need to reconsider the theory that second homes represent an escape from urban everyday life. Concepts like rural and urban are blurred, privacy and withdrawal may be just as essential in urban residential settings as in second homes and community life seems just as relevant in vacation home settings as in urban neighborhoods. The role of architecture within the overall discussion of how to reach a more sustainable residential culture is thus a matter characterized by several contradictions that need to be further explored.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-04-03
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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