Sustainable Dwelling

This book examines the social and spatial dimensions of dwelling from the perspective of sustainability. This publication avoids the traditional energy and technological dimensions of sustainability to position the notion of sustainable dwelling at the crossroads of spatial polyvalence and residents’ empowerment. In the field of housing, this publication identifies the recurrent properties of ‘sustainable space’ and the variety of the socio-cultural practices that can embody them. Its purpose is to comprehend how the concept of sustainability is reflected in housing spaces as well as to analyse how inhabitants put those spaces to the test. This publication collects the contributions of several authors gathered for a two-day workshop on collective housing from a spatial or social perspective in May 2017. This publication is also a follow-up to various case studies conducted in Nantes and Zurich by a team of teacher-researchers (architects and socio-anthropologists) from UCLouvain/UCLille. Their research activities were funded by the Christian Leleux Grant, which promotes research on sustainability in the fields of architecture and urban design.