I was reading the cover story of Afforable Housing Finance“Seniors Tsunami” and coincidentially Professional Builder (which deals primarily with ground up tract homes) had an article “Multi-Generational Joins the Product Mix”.
It somewhat mirrors the forked path I stared at in my master’s thesis where I was debating between larger buidling products (apartment complexes) and small scale upgrades (such as the single family homes with in-law units in the second article). My personal interests lie with the latter, I think its a more interesting architectural design problem to develop a new housing typology. But honestly, the example of my girlfriend’s grandma, who lives on her own in Hangzhou, pushes me towards the realization that higher density is what we need.
High density is the drum I seem to be hammering all the time, but I think that our suburbanized cityscape is just an unsustainable way to design our metropolises.