NSL – Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft ETH Zürich
  • Projects
      • Projects of the Chairs
        • Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey | Infrastructure Management
        • Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete | History and Theory of Urban Design
        • Prof. Dr. Kay W. Axhausen | Traffic and Transport Planning
        • Prof. Dr. Francesco Corman | Transport Systems
        • Prof. Teresa Galí-Izard | Chair of Being Alive
        • Prof. Dr. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey | Planning of Landscape and Urban Systems (PLUS)
        • Prof. Dr. Eva Heinen | Transportation and Mobility Planning
        • Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann | Spatial Development and Urban Policy
        • Prof. Hubert Klumpner | Architecture and Urban Design
        • Dr. Anastasios Kouvelas | Traffic Engineering and Control
        • Prof. Dr. Christian Schmid | Sociology
        • Prof. Milica Topalovic | Architecture and Territorial Planning
        • Dr. Jennifer Duyne Barenstein | ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE
        • NSL-Archiv
      • Former Chairs
      • NSL Colloquia – The NSL Colloquia are a bi-annual presentation of exceptional work under a rotating theme determined by the inviting professor.
      • NSL Projects
          • E-Bike City
          • Future Cities Lab Global
          • Urban Potential and Strategies in Metropolitan Territories
 – The Zurich Metropolitan Region as an Example (NFP65)
          • Large-scale Virtualization and Modeling Lab (LVML)
      • NSL Forum
        • NSL Forum & Cycling Research Board
        • NSL Forum: Pandemie? Mitten im Klimawandel. Was bedeutet das für die räumliche Entwicklung der Schweiz? Ein Dialog.
    Close
  • Teaching
    • Teaching
      • Bachelor and Master Degree Programmes, Department ARCH
      • Bachelor and Master Degree Programmes, Department BAUG
      • MSc in Spatial Development and Infrastructure Systems
      • MAS/CAS in Regenerative Materials
      • CAS in Regenerative Systems: Sustainability to Regeneration
      • MAS/CAS Spatial Development
      • MAS Urban and Territorial Design
      • MAS in Housing
      • Doctoral Programme in Landscape and Urban Studies
      • The teaching component of the NSL seeks to impart the knowledge and skills needed to develop the standard strengths of spatial planning and their interaction as well as the ability to develop strategies for the solution of spatial problems. These are central prerequisites for a responsible and successful exercise of planning functions in the service of the public commonwealth and of private companies. Especially important in fufilling these prerequisites is the quality of university-level education: graduate and post-graduate work as well as professional development in spatial, urban and landscape planning. The ETH Zurich has offered programmes such as continuing education courses and post-graduate programmes (NDS, now MAS) since 1965. The NSL (Network City and Landscape) is responsible for these courses and programmes.
    Close
  • Publications
    • Cover NL 65NSL Newsletter – The NSL brings the experts at ETH Zurich together and also maintains a dialogue with other groups that deal with or are interested in issues relating to cities and landscapes.
    • A map describing the different phases of India’s neoliberal highway programme. Source: The author.Publications of NSL Chairs – A complete list of publications can be reached via the following link, which also includes advanced search capabilities:
      • ETH Zürich Research Collection
    • disP – The Planning Review – The interdisciplinary scientific journal covers the topics of spatial development, urban planning, landscape and environmental planning, landscape architecture, traffic planning, and regional and environmental economics, as well as special issues on specific themes.
      • Instructions for Authors
      • Types of Articles
      • Publisher
      • Book Review Guidelines
      • Editorial Staff
      • Latest Issue
      • facebook
    • DELUS Cover Issue 1DELUS – Journal for Landscape and Urban Studies – DELUS is an annual publication by the Institute of Landscape and Urban Studies at ETH Zürich.
    Close
  • News
  • Contact
      • en
        • de
        • fr
        • it
      • Search

    • Close
      • en
        • de
        • fr
        • it

Ethiopia’s Social Housing Program – Low-Cost at a High Price

Exploring the political-economic mechanisms underlying the production of affordable housing has been a recurring research theme at the chair of Prof. Marc Angélil. While also addressing the more familiar settings of the United States and central Europe, the main focus has been on rapidly growing urban territories of the southern hemisphere, investigating contexts such as Brazil, Egypt, India, or Ethiopia. Focusing on Ethiopia, this article briefly depicts the ambitious ‘Integrated Housing Development Program’, which has triggered a variety of unforeseen challenges within the spatial, social and economic structures of Addis Ababa.

The recently finished dissertation Development Cooperation at all Costs – How Global Actors and Concepts Influence Rural and Urban Transformation: Case Studies from Ethiopia addresses the spatial outcomes of three different international cooperation schemes within and around Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, home to approximately 4 million inhabitants. One of the case studies investigates the largest social housing program launched in Ethiopia to date, which was developed in collaboration with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) – now German International Cooperation (GIZ). Relying on two key conceptual pillars, namely individual home-ownership through mortgages and standardized housing blocks, the ‘Integrated Housing Development Program’ aspired to alleviate an accumulated housing backlog of 233’000 units and provide adequate housing possibilities for low-income citizens.

Although falling short of initial targets – from the planned 150’000 to 200’000 units only approximately 80’000 were constructed in Addis Ababa between 2004 and 2010 – the program has built housing quantities unseen in the country’s history. However, the program has also revealed substantial challenges on spatial and socio-economic levels: strongly linked to both the installed mortgage scheme and the applied design approach, the program has failed to provide wide-spread affordable housing to the targeted low-income groups; has generated spatial and social segregation; has fostered dependency on imported materials; lacks design features and spaces that reflect local lifestyles and daily needs; and has accelerated the peripheral expansion of the city.

Flexible, Versatile, and Inclusive Concepts for Design Processes and Funding Schemes

Therefore, when searching for viable and adequate alternatives for affordable housing in Ethiopia and Addis Ababa – and for other contexts with similar issues for that matter – a key task is to develop more flexible, versatile, and inclusive concepts for design processes and funding schemes, as well as for the directly related technological applications and organizational approaches. Within the context of international cooperation this additionally means to depart from usual off-the-shelf solutions, and to propose contextually based frames of references for affordable housing. Within the recently started research project Cooperative Production of Low-Cost Housing – Socio-Technological Innovation for the Provision of Housing for Low-Income Populations, both the chair’s and the author’s current research efforts are directly linked to the above-stated aspirations.

For further information on the different research contexts see: United States, Brazil, Egypt, India, Ethiopia.

Sascha Delz holds a Doctor of Sciences and a Master degree in Architecture from ETH Zurich. He has worked as design instructor and researcher at the Department of Architecture of ETH Zurich, and the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore. Having finished his PhD in 2015, he is currently a postdoc researcher at the Institute for Urban Design. 

Share this...
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin
  • Whatsapp
  • Email
This article has been published in the following newsletter edition:

31 | September 2016: Bezahlbar wohnen

  • Ethiopia’s Social Housing Program – Low-Cost at a High Price
  • Bezahlbarer Wohnraum fordert soziale Gerechtigkeit
  • Gemeinnütziger Wohnungsbau als Chance zur Innenentwicklung? Zukunftsperspektiven des nicht gewinnorientierten Siedlungsbestandes in der Schweiz
  • Gutes Wohnen fürs kleine Portemonnaie: Deutliche Worte und Lösungsansätze an der No cost Housing Conference
  • Bryan T. Adey, the Professor for Infrastructure Management at the ETH Zürich, Joins the NSL
Kurzmeldungen
  • Japanische Gärten hören
  • MATSIm book
  • Stadtlabor Pavilleon – Zürcher Stadtentwicklung mitgestalten
  • Forschungsbericht: Agglomeration von der Landschaft her denken
  • Empower Shack News
  • FCL Pilots New Sustainable Town Plan in Batam, Indonesia
Publikationen
  • Impacts of non-aeronautical development at airports on public transport
  • Die Stadt der Moderne. Strategien zu Erhaltung und Planung
  • Urbane Qualitäten. Ein Handbuch am Beispiel der Metropolitanregion Zürich

Chairs

Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey
Prof. Dr. Kay W. Axhausen
Prof. Dr. Tom Avermaete
Prof. Maria Conen
Prof. Dr. Francesco Corman
Dr. Jennifer Duyne Barenstein
Prof. Teresa Galí-Izard
Prof. Dr. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey
Prof. Dr. Guillaume Habert
Prof. Dr. Eva Heinen
Prof. Damian Jerjen
Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann
Prof. Hubert Klumpner
Dr. Anastasios Kouvelas
Prof. Freek Persyn
Prof. Dr. Christian Schmid
Prof. Milica Topalovic
Prof. Martina Voser

Contact

Address
ETH Zürich
NSL – Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft
Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5
HIL H 44.2
8093 Zürich

NSL Director
Director: Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann
Deputy Director: Prof. Milica Topalovic

NSL Coordination
Claudia Gebert
Telephone: +41 (0)44 633 36 33

 

Register for the NSL Newsletter

disP Publication Office

Editor-in-Chief
Dr. sc. techn. Martina Koll-Schretzenmayr, Spatial planner ETH/NDS,
Telephone +41 (0)44 633 29 47

Mailing address
ETH Zürich
Redaktion disP
NSL – Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft
Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5
HIL H 33.3
8093 Zürich
Fax +41 (0)44 633 12 15
E-Mail

 

NSL Archive (gta)

Research and Bequest Archive for
Swiss Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning

Consultation Requests

Mailing address
ETH Zürich
NSL Archive (gta)
Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5
HIL C 65.2
CH-8093 Zurich

 

 
Privacy Policy