At Home with the Collective: A Report from the Future of Housing by Alexander Eisenschmidt makes the case that the global housing crisis is structural, not incidental — and that its resolution requires a fundamental reorientation from individual ownership toward collective habitation.
About This Book
The housing shortage is not a local anomaly; it is a systemic failure of market-driven models that have consistently subordinated community needs to private accumulation. Eisenschmidt's book reframes the problem by insisting on a shift in scale — from the house to housing, from the individual to the collective. Organised across four chapters, it moves through alternative urban housing typologies, communal construction concepts, and historical precedents that carry direct relevance to contemporary practice. With examples drawn from five continents, the book treats the collective not as a nostalgic ideal but as a viable, generative mechanism for community-building, solidarity, and city-making. Essential reading for architects, urban designers, and housing policy researchers working at the intersection of dwelling and social equity.
Key Features
- 272 pages of essays, urban housing typologies, and historical case studies spanning five continents
- Published by Birkhäuser Verlag, ISBN 9783035629392
What You'll Discover
- Why market-driven homeownership models are structurally incapable of resolving the housing shortage — and what collective alternatives look like in practice
- A typological survey of alternative urban housing forms, from communal construction models to shared-living configurations across diverse cultural contexts
- How historical housing movements and precedents from multiple continents can inform contemporary responses to the housing struggle
- The reframing of “collective” as an active, city-building force — one that links residential design to solidarity, community formation, and urban regeneration
About the Author
Alexander Eisenschmidt is the editor and author of this volume. [Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 272
- Dimensions: 18 x 24.5 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783035629392
- Publisher: Birkhäuser Verlag
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and urban designers engaged with housing typology, academics and students researching collective dwelling and social housing history, and policy practitioners seeking design-led perspectives on the housing crisis.