How to design housing for the unpredictable

Improving the spatial flexibility of buildings seem to have been overlooked in the toolkit for increasing the sustainability of our built environment, argues professor Karin Krokfors.

Text Karin Krokfors

The PLS frame system, based on columns and slabs, was developed as an alternative to the BES system in the 1970s. It would have allowed for more spatial flexibility. Image: Esko Kahri & Hannu Pyykönen: *Asuntoarkkitehtuuri ja suunnittelu*, 1994

CORRECTLY PHASED QUESTIONS are essential when we seek to influence the object or topic being examined or the development thereof. We are living amidst a number of coinciding environmental and social crises, and the urgency of solving them is unprecedented. In this situation, many meaningful questions may be sidelined or remain completely “off-radar”, particularly in cases where the impacts are indirect, appearing in the long term, or difficult to grasp.

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Published in 1 – 2026 - Housing Variations

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