OpenHeritage Glossary
#OHglossary Identifying and clarifying keywords in OpenHeritage
Changes at "affordable spaces"
Body
-
-
„Space“ is described by the Cambridge Dictionary as “an empty area that is available
to be used” (Cambridge University Press 2020a). Within the OpenHeritage context
“spaces” is understood as one room or a number of rooms that are connected, either
as parts of one building or a cluster of buildings, or as open-air area. The spaces must
be suitable for the intended use by a user or user group and/or for more general
needs of the target group (e.g. customers in case of economic use).
“Affordable” is described by the Cambridge Dictionary as “not expensive” (Cambridge
University Press 2020b), which suggests questions about the economic performance
of the user(s). The financial effort to get access to the space (e. g. rent price) is a
barrier, that has to fit to the economic situation of the user(s) and must not endanger
them in order to be recognised as affordable.
Affordable often relates, in the context of spaces, to vulnerable users and groups with
smaller economic opportunities, compared to the overall standard, which is pointed
out for example for artists (University of California 1993, 46) or for people in social
transfer systems (University of Texas 2014, 274), elderly people (Housing Solutions
Platform 2019, 28), minorities or refugees.
Examples for affordables spaces are studios for arts and culture, social housing
apartments or spaces for certain businesses, like workshops or parking lots for a food
truck for people who are not able to finance a restaurant (University of Texas 2014,
233).
In conclusion, the term “affordable spaces” comes with three conditions: The term
"affordable space" is linked to three conditions: a space must be available, it must
meet the needs of the intended use, and the financial cost of access must correspond
to the economic possibilities of the users.
literature:
Cambridge University Press 2020a
Cambridge University Press. 2020. Meaning of space in English. Accessed February
25, 2020.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/de/worterbuch/englisch/affordable
Cambridge University Press 2020b
Cambridge University Press. 2020. Meaning of affordable in English. Accessed
February 25, 2020.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/affordable
University of California. 1993. Cooperative housing compendium: resources for
collaborative living. Edited by Lottie Cohen, Lois Arkin. Davis CA: Center for
Cooperatives, University of California.
Housing Solutions Platform. 2019. “Collectief Goed: Affordable Housing, Participation
and Empowerment” in 50 Out-of-the-Box Housing Solutions. Brussels: Hosuing
Solutions Plattform.
University of Texas. 2014. Homeownership and America&gid://decidim-openheritage/Decidim::Hashtag/28/39;s Financial Underclass: Flawed
Premises, Broken Promises, New Prescriptions. Edited by Mechele Dickerson. Austin
TX: School of Law, University of Texas.
MIT Press. 2017. Food Trucks, Cultural Identity, and Social Justice: from loncheras to
lobsta love. Edited by Julian Agyeman, Caitlin Matthews, Hannah Sobel. Cambridge
MA: MIT Press.
-
+
“Affordable spaces” relates to the demand of the operators and users to have access to a space that fits to their needs in physical perspective, but also corresponds to their economic power. Within the OpenHeritage context many of the analysed sites are within difficult context, e.g. marginalized or areas or areas with several problematic properties. Affordable spaces are relevant for the usage, due to the additional effort caused by the heritage aspects.
Relevance
The revitalization and operation of heritage sites in most cases comes along with additional effort, compared to new or younger existing buildings and sites. Reasons could be the character as special-purpose properties, possible restrictions made by the monument protection authority or the need to preserve and to present the history of the project or site. Due to its special character the ideas and usage concepts have to reflect on this situation, which leads to the question of the affordability for operators and users. The question of affordability is especially relevant in order to analyze existing projects (WP 2, Observatory cases) and the ideas for establishing long-term successful usage concepts for the CHLs in WP4 (Cooperative Heritage Labs) and the development in WP5 (Toolbox development, e.g. D 5.4, D 5.6).
Key discussions around the term
Affordability in (urban) planning relates in most publications on “ (…) relationships between housing, non-housing expenditures and income poverty”. The debate has become broadened after the Global Financial Crisis 2009 as “ (…) revival of discussions about housing affordability as a consequence of house price and rent increases and urban restructuring”. (Haffner and Hulse 2019).
In result the growing influence of the financial sector on the economy and especially the real estate sector, summarized as Financialization (Mertens 2014, 55; Plan Limited 2017) and (with smaller impact) migration and urbanization tendencies (Heeg 2013) have led to growing capital investments in housing. Combined with financial deregulation and addressing individual responsibility, more investments in real estate have occurred, which result in rising expenditures for housing between 2000 and 2011 from 20,3% to 23% of total household expenditures in the EU (Heeg 2013, 10). The debates and therefore the definition of affordability is almost comparable for all spaces, regardless of housing and non-housing purposes. Therefore the question for affordability is crucial also for the projects related with OpenHeritage, because the preservation and presentation of the heritage aspects is an additional financial expenditure.
Affordable often relates to vulnerable users and groups with smaller economic opportunities, compared to the overall standard, which is pointed out for example for artists (University of California 1993, 46) or for people in social transfer systems (University of Texas 2014, 274), elderly people (Housing Solutions Platform 2019, 28), minorities or refugees. Examples for affordables spaces for these groups are studios for arts and culture, social housing apartments or spaces for certain businesses, like workshops and also parking lots for a food truck for people who are not able to finance a restaurant (University of Texas 2014, 233).
The relation between financialization and ownership has been summarized by Maryel Battin: “The importance of loal owners can not be overstated. Each has a stake in the community and ownership is not just an investment for them” (Delvac et al. 1995,36) In conclusion, the term “affordable spaces” comes with three conditions: The term "affordable" is linked to three conditions: a space must be available, it must meet the needs of the intended use, and the financial cost of access must correspond to the economic possibilities of the users. Second, the question of ownership needs to be addressed, in order to secure affordability and responsibility. The ownership among people of the local community seems to offer a good perspective to combine affordability and responsibility.
Reference list
William F. Delvac, Susan M. Escherich, Bridget Hartman. 1995. “Affordable Housing Through Historic Preservation: A Case Study Guide to Combining the Tax Credits”. Diane Pub Co.
Marietta E. A. Haffner & Kath Hulse. 2019. “A fresh look at contemporary perspectives on urban housing affordability” International Journal of Urban Sciences. DOI: 10.1080/12265934.2019.1687320
Heeg 2013 Susanne Heeg. 2013. Wohnen als Anlageform: Vom Gebrauchsgut zur Ware. Emanzipation 3, no. 2: 5-20.
Housing Solutions Platform. 2019. “Collectief Goed: Affordable Housing, Participation and Empowerment” in 50 Out-of-the-Box Housing Solutions. Brussels: Housing Solutions Plattform.
Daniel Mertens. 2014. “Varianten der Finanzialisierung: Was treibt und was bremst die private Verschuldung in Deutschland?” MPIfG Jahrbuch 2015-2016. Köln: Max-Planck- Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, 2015, 55-60. https://www.mpifg.de/aktuelles/forschung/themen/mertens_finanzialisierung.asp
Plan Limited. 2017. “Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing”. Accessed May 12, 2020. https://www.girlsrightsplatform.org/node/1110 University of California. 1993. Cooperative housing compendium: resources for collaborative living. Edited by Lottie Cohen, Lois Arkin. Davis CA: Center for Cooperatives, University of California. Tosics 2020
Ivan Tosics. 2020. “The housing paradox: more financing - less affordability?” Last modified March 03, 2020. https://urbact.eu/housing-more-financing-less-affordability University of Texas. 2014. Homeownership and America&gid://decidim-openheritage/Decidim::Hashtag/28/39;s Financial Underclass: Flawed Premises, Broken Promises, New Prescriptions. Edited by Mechele Dickerson. Austin TX: School of Law, University of Texas.
