To restore the architecture, to recycle the city. Social housing in preexisting buildings and strategic enclaves of the historic city

Abstract

This article reflects on the aims which social housing should now have reaching beyond the current hygiene, functional and planning offer. Quality standards in architecture form part of the dignity required of social design; the continued presence of low-income sectors of society in historic town-centres and their heritage architectures should also be an acquired right. A brief introduction is given to the extinction of the suburban dream and the return to town- centres as a residential option and includes an account of the property speculation which has surrounded these historic architectures in Spain since the nineteen-eighties converting such habitations for social housing into an issue that public agencies must address. Andalusia has pioneered a specific line of social housing in historic town-centres that is exposed through a number of projects carried out by the author herself. Such initiatives have the potential to integrate heritage protection, prevent the gentrification of town-centres by ensuring social diversity and avoid the depopulation of smaller towns and their limitation as tourist centres.