Providing adequate affordable housing in the context of labor shortages, massive population displacements, and increasing construction costs requires inventive propositions to address an unsolvable problem. Building repetitive pattern houses and designing smaller units have proven to be a way forward in eras and contexts requiring urgent supply. Offsite construction and prefabrication were deployed during similar times of crisis to respond to exploding demand; Even while prefab systems proved an effective way of increasing output, the bare bones construction materials and methods linked to their affordability proved to be their downfall as prefabs became associated with shoddy construction.
Another idea linked to reducing costs has appeared from time to time with equally connoted results: providing adaptable systems that can be customized and even finished by their occupants. Unfinished, The DIY house, The Naked House, The Grow Home and even The Half House designed by Pritzker winner Alejandro Aravena identify home finishing as an important part of initial costs. Most of these proposals argued for a mechanical core, structural system, and climatic shell to provide basic and initial dwelling spaces. Elements left for personalized fit out would be completed by owners and as they became economically feasible or required. Some have gone so far as servicing unfinished bathroom and kitchen spaces with plumbing and electrical distribution capped at fixture fittings.
The upfront costs of these unfinished houses can be 40-50% less than a comparable finished product. While this can be an economic advantage and even help reduce borrowing budgets, it’s not clear how the long-term finishing will impact overall costs, or if finishing one’s own home is applicable in all contexts, or culturally tainted. Still strategies like The Naked House presented at the Venice Biennale in 2016 as part of a British team of designers proposes generic spaces that can be functionally determined and altered during the home’s lifespan. Reducing upfront material use certainly provides an interesting way of lowering construction costs, however piecework fit outs done one at time, can increase total costs of building providing a framework for higher profit margins and reduced responsibility for builders; a naked house is certainly less expensive than a completed house however it is also just that: unfinished.
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| Above left: Wikihouse (DIY); Above right: Half house (Aravena); Below center: Naked House |
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