Affording Tightness

Affording Tightness is a speculative essay that sits within the field of architecture, urbanism and broader questions of economics, planning and city making. It responds to broader questions of equity and inclusiveness in urban environments, specifically Lefebvre’s concept of “the right to the city.” Within the field of architecture it builds upon the work of Lacaton & Vassal, exploring a loose-relationship between building and function, and Alejandro Aravena exploring concepts of incremental growth at the building and city scale, as strategies of designed affordability. The project builds upon earlier work exploring the concept of the ‘super tight,’ investigating architectural and economic models of density, and qualitative assessments of how the built environment adapts to cultural, social and other pressures when intensely inhabited. The essay was a scholarly response to an open call for submission exploring issues of affordability in urbanism and the built environment. It introduces the original concept of the ‘Tight City’ to describe the small, intense, robust and hyper-condensed architectural spaces that emerge as a by-product of extreme levels of urban densification – specifically in Asian cities. It argues that urban affordability is best achieved through the adoption of ‘tight’ design strategies that embrace density in various forms, which are illustrated through a series of exemplar urban and architectural projects. It contributes to research into urban affordability by including considerations of climate change and environmental ‘affordability’ as inseparable from those of social sustainability. The article was selected through a competitive call and was published in Monu Magazine issue #32 Affordable Urbanism. Monu Magazine is a bi-annual publication that is recognised internationally as a significant forum for architects, urbanists and theorists that are working on urban topics.