Riobamba and Cuenca, two intermediate cities in Ecuador, have become part of global networks through transnational migration, incoming remittances, tourism, and global economic connections. Their landscape is changing in several significant ways, a reflection of the social and urban transformations occurring in contemporary Ecuadorian society. Exploring the discourses and actions of two contrasting population groups, rarely studied in tandem, within these cities—popular-settlement residents and professionals in the planning and construction sector—this study analyzes how each is involved in house designs and neighborhood consolidation. Ideas, ambitions, and power relations come into play at every stage of the production and use of urban space, and as a result individual decisions about both house designs and the urban layout influence the development of the urban fabric. Knowledge about intermediate cities is crucial in order to understand current trends in the predominantly urban societies of Latin America, and this study is an example of needed interdisciplinary scholarship that contributes to the fields of urban studies, urban anthropology, sociology, and architecture.

"The initial stages of this book were developed together with Tihamer Salij"--Colophon.

This book investigates the development of multi-unit housing typologies that were predominant in a particular city from the 1800s to present day. It emphasises the importance of understanding the direct connection between housing and dwelling in the context of a city, and the manner in which the city is an instructional indication of how a housing typology is embodied. The case studies presented offer an insight into why a certain housing type flourished in a specific city and the variety span across cities in the world where distinct housing types have prevailed. It also pursues how housing types developed, evolved, and helped define the city, looks into how dwellers inhabited their dwellings, and analyses how the housing typologies correlates in a contemporary context. The typologies studied are back-to-backs in Birmingham; tenements in London; Haussmann Apartment in Paris; tenements in New York; tong lau in Hong Kong; perimeter block, linear block, and block-edge in Berlin; perimeter block and solitaire in Amsterdam; space-enclosing structure in Beijing; micro house in Tokyo, and high-rise in Toronto.

The field of urban economics is built on an analysis of housing prices, land rents, housing consumption, spatial form, and other aspects of urban residential structure. Drawing on the journal publications and teaching notes of Professor John Yinger of Syracuse University, Housing and Commuting: The Theory of Urban Residential Structure presents a simple model of urban residential structure and shows how the model's results change when key assumptions are made more realistic. This book provides a wide-ranging introduction to research on urban residential structure. Topics covered range from theoretical analysis of urban structure with different transportation systems or multiple worksites to empirical work on the impact of local public services on house values and the impact of racial prejudice and discrimination on housing choices. Graduate students and scholars who want to learn about research in urban economics will find this book to be a good starting point.

Diversity and density in housing today Accomodation of diversity and the creation of urban density are a focus of world-wide building and planning activities today. This book combines the architectural and urban scales to demonstrate that it is a specific quality, urban intensity, which determines the success of housing. The authors provide a typology of housing according to the ways in which diversity and density are created. Comparisons with historical models and critical appraisals based on the authors’ unique standing give ample information on the pros and cons of major types of housing, their pitfalls and successful examples. Newly created sets of drawings, from floor plans to spectacular 3D aerial views of the buildings in their urban contexts, accompany each of the more than twenty case studies that are described and analyzed in detail. The approach taken here relates to many pressing issues in contemporary housing, including the avoidance of urban sprawl, the revival of city centers and the ongoing search for innovative housing types. A qualitative approach to diversity and density in housing A concept that unites architectural and urban design A wide range of original drawings of benchmark case studies

A collection of housing designs built over the last hundred years, illustrating innovative approaches. Fourth in the Key series, with newly drawn plans suitable for study in architecture schools, this volume will appeal to students of urban design and planning as well as architecture. Key developments covered include early apartment blocks, the projects of European modernism, high-rise and large-scale schemes, and postmodernism. Exterior and interior photographs show materials, massing, and context. 150 color photographs, 500 line drawings.