Climate Crisis

Social Response through Sustainable Social Housing

Abstract

The concept of sustainable development implies seeking a balance between exploitation and protection of the Earth's resources in an attempt to preserve our basis for living. Sustainable development must satisfy people’s present needs without jeopardizing future generations’ chances of satisfying theirs. Among architects, the concept of sustainable architecture emerged from various social interests based on various interpretations of the problem and characterized by quite a number of different pathways, each pointing to sustainable solutions as responses to the climate crisis. Architects' diverse views on sustainable architecture have become a battleground for ‘the right attitudes’ - artistic schools of thought and cultural movements with competing logics of sustainability. In this respect, the role of the architect and the choice of sustainable logic become central to the design process of sustainable architecture - and also to the development of Danish social housing. Various incentives have helped influence sustainability in a Danish context, for instance in site conditions, sustainable technologies, infrastructure, facilities, financing and social ideals. Since the energy crisis of the 1970s, the development of sustainable social housing in Denmark has also been influenced by various pathways in this fluid system of changing logics, values and beliefs as social responses to the climate crisis.