Lit Review

This volume is a comprehensive collection of urgent, concise essays on the myriad aspects of America’s affordable housing crisis. Bold headings, unsparing prose, and clear charts from leaders in architecture, urban planning, and social policy present innovative solutions for creating equitable, sustainable housing. Through diverse perspectives and an appendix of noteworthy projects, the book highlights successful models and challenges traditional approaches, providing a road map for addressing the affordable housing crisis, with a focus on ecological concerns and social justice.

Picon and Ratti show readers the innovations in sensing technologies and digital mapping that are expanding how we document urban life. The authors explore how new ways of collecting data, along with novel surveying and mapping techniques, allow urban planners, politicians, and invested citizens to better understand how cities function. They also look at the benefits and consequences of increased monitoring.

As American suburbs become more urbanized and gentrified, uneven costs and benefits of redevelopment present challenges to the marginalized communities that call these municipalities home. With the Washington, D.C., area as a case study, the book shows how activist groups and political leaders are fighting for their communities to stay in place and benefit from the new investments in their neighborhoods.

This compelling collection of essays examines how landscapes, land use policies, and land access shape racial and social inequalities of place, while also showcasing grassroots resistance efforts that challenge these injustices. The book offers a nuanced understanding of how racially segregated landscapes become sites of both oppression and resilience, and discusses the place-making and community building practices that arise in response.