Democratic Architecture: Practical Solutions to Today's Housing Crisis

With the lack of affordable housing and burgeoning homeless population reaching critical heights, this volume takes a look at the situation and offers practical solutions to the problem. MacDonald's proposals for democratic architecture are based on four points: that every human being has a right to an affordable home; that people should be able to manipulate their residential environments, from expanding and dividing spaces to changing facades easily and inexpensively; that in deciding where and how to construct a building every effort should be made to prevent damage to the environment; and lastly, that the design expresses the multiplicity of society, not some ideal of perfection or political ideology. Written in a straightforward style, this work is intended for urban planners, housing officials, students of sociology and American studies - as well as architecture and design professionals.