SO-IL Cores, Courts & Corridors

In this book, renowned architectural office SO–IL presents its ideas on housing through the design of a number of buildings, both built and unbuilt. They start each section of this book with a question: How might housing promote the well-being of inhabitants, cultivate community and strengthen resilience? How can it encourage people to live close to one another, stimulate local economies and promote fair labor practices? And not least, how can housing lessen negative environmental impact?
Cores, Courts & Corridors takes us from experimental projects that aim at increasing urban density or at creating stronger social ties to projects that serve marginalized communities in ex-urban settings like North-Omaha, Nebraska, and Syracuse, NY. Also included are two European projects, one sited on the banks of the Seine River in Paris and another in Amsterdam. This book is not a conventional monograph, manifesto or grand theoretical text, but rather an open-ended exploration of how housing might better promote the well-being of inhabitants, local economies and the environment.