America's future depends on the death of the single-family home
The US is in the throes of an affordable housing crisis, spurred by high demand and low supply. California, the exemplar of the housing crisis, recently passed more than a dozen laws to push new construction in suburban areas. Founded in 2006 and led by Professor Dana Cuff, cityLAB is a think tank in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture committed to bringing design and research together to forge experimental proposals for architecture in the 21st century metropolis. Its projects engage four broad initiatives: the postsuburban city, rethinking green, urban sensing, and new infrastructures. Through cityLAB, faculty, students, designers, and policy makers collaborate on numerous problems at a range of scales, beginning in Los Angeles but extending beyond the region.
"It's a messy process that's going to take time as people try to figure out how to do it efficiently so that the housing that's built there is, in fact, affordable," Cuff said. "The amazing thing about the secondary units is the land is free. It's already there, you don't buy that. And that's the biggest expense in housing today, the land."
"One hallmark of the American Dream — the single-family home — is dying as we know it.
And it's for good reason: The US needs more affordable housing.
One way California is pushing new construction in the suburbs is by making it easier for homeowners to build an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), or "granny flat," in their backyard.
Experts, like Dana Cuff, the founding director of CityLAB and a professor of architecture and urban design and planning at UCLA, said ADUs can help create the type of "postsuburban city" America needs.
The modern household no longer comprises the breadwinning dad, the stay-at-home mom, and 2.5 kids, Cuff previously told Business Insider. Instead, college graduates are moving back in, and homeowners need cash flow from renters and space for nannies, caretakers, and aging parents.
"There's just an infinite number of ways our housing should be made more flexible for our complete lives," she said, and building additional units on single-family lots "get the ball rolling."
Cuff's research suggests that ADUs are feasible for 5% to 10% of the 500,000 single-family lots in Los Angeles, enough to make a dent in Mayor Eric Garcetti's goal for 100,000 new housing units by 2021.
But while ADUs may be a solution for boosting housing supply in the long term, it's not a quick fix, she says.— Tanza Loudenback , Dec. 4, 2017
This post is an excerpt, read the full article at the Business Insider website.