Housing and Urban Policy Studies

1 total work

High-rise Housing in Europe

by Richard Turkington, Ronald van Kempen, and F. Wassenberg

Published 1 January 2004

Whilst every country has its own house-building traditions, there is only one truly European housing type. In the generation after the Second World War, countries throughout Europe built high-rise housing in the public sector as the 'modern' response to acute housing shortage. North and south, east and west, similar dreams were shared in different political cultures, high-rise was as an expression of the new Europe. A generation later, products which shared similar starting points have reached very different positions. This book attempts to tell the story of high-rise housing in 15 European countries, from first thoughts to current realities and finally to future prospects. What is clear is that, irrespective of its status and quality, high-rise housing is here to stay. No country is in a position to ignore this legacy of the post-war and mass housing period. We have to be equipped to assess the contribution of high-rise housing and to determine its future - this book is a major contribution to developing this perspective.