Incremental Housing: A Short History of an Idea

Access to adequate housing is one of the critical challenges arising from the rapid urbanization that will take place in the coming decades. The shared vision for the NUA highlights the importance of establishing “cities and human settlements that fulfill their social function, to progressively achieve the full realization of the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, without discrimination” (Habitat III Secretariat, 2017, p. 5). Furthermore, the NUA stresses the importance of cities and human settlements that are “participatory, promote civic engagement, engender a sense of belonging and ownership among all their inhabitants” (Habitat III Secretariat, 2017, p. 5).

In the context of the debate on strategies to accomplish sustainable development goals, incremental housing has been proposed by housing scholars as a contribution to the development of adequate housing that can enable citizens’ participation and enhance a sense of belonging and ownership (Wakely & Riley, 2011; Lindert, Smets, & Bredenoord, 2014). Slowly but steadily, incremental housing has also penetrated the jargon of architects and urban designers since the 1970s. However, there is not yet a clear definition of what incremental housing is, what it does, and who does it. In this context, this chapter aims to shed some light on this concept and discuss how it can implicate the role of the architect, architecture, and the city in the 21st century.

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