Daniel Schwartz

By 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 60 years or over, an increase that is already visible in high-income countries. People’s physical and social environments, such as our homes, neighborhoods and communities, play a fundamental role in ensuring that we can spend our old age in good health. Where We Grow Older starts off in Barcelona, where the city administration has seen it as its duty to provide housing where people can grow old in well-designed, supportive environments, so that they can maintain physically and socially active lives. We then visit Baltimore, where a group of architects and artists are working together with caretakers to co-design elderly housing with their perspective in mind.

Torre David, a 45-story office tower in Caracas, was almost complete when it was abandoned following the death of its developer and collapse of the Venezuelan economy. Today, it is the improvised home of more than 750 families, living in an extra-legal occupation that some call a vertical slum.

What does it mean to live in the city without a place you can call your own? What role can architects have in addressing homelessness? And how can cities become better homes for all? The documentary film What It Takes to Make a Home follows a conversation between architects Michael Maltzan (Los Angeles) and Alexander Hagner (Vienna), who have been grappling with these questions over many years and through various projects. While the cities and the political and economic contexts in which Maltzan and Hagner work differ, both search for long-term strategies for housing instead of reacting with ad hoc solutions. Focussing on some causes and conditions of homelessness, the film questions the role architects can play toward overcoming the stigmatization of people experiencing it, in order to build more inclusive cities.

What are the consequences for the city now that more and more people are choosing to live alone? How should we plan our cities and what is the importance of public meeting places? More than Houses: a depressing or liberating vision?

By 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 60 years or over, an increase that is already visible in high-income countries. People’s physical and social environments, such as our homes, neighborhoods and communities, play a fundamental role in ensuring that we can spend our old age in good health. Where We Grow Older starts off in Barcelona, where the city administration has seen it as its duty to provide housing where people can grow old in well-designed, supportive environments, so that they can maintain physically and socially active lives. We then visit Baltimore, where a group of architects and artists are working together with caretakers to co-design elderly housing with their perspective in mind.

Torre David, a 45-story office tower in Caracas, was almost complete when it was abandoned following the death of its developer and collapse of the Venezuelan economy. Today, it is the improvised home of more than 750 families, living in an extra-legal occupation that some call a vertical slum.

What does it mean to live in the city without a place you can call your own? What role can architects have in addressing homelessness? And how can cities become better homes for all? The documentary film What It Takes to Make a Home follows a conversation between architects Michael Maltzan (Los Angeles) and Alexander Hagner (Vienna), who have been grappling with these questions over many years and through various projects. While the cities and the political and economic contexts in which Maltzan and Hagner work differ, both search for long-term strategies for housing instead of reacting with ad hoc solutions. Focussing on some causes and conditions of homelessness, the film questions the role architects can play toward overcoming the stigmatization of people experiencing it, in order to build more inclusive cities.

What are the consequences for the city now that more and more people are choosing to live alone? How should we plan our cities and what is the importance of public meeting places? More than Houses: a depressing or liberating vision?