Architecture essays

The just city - a philosophical lens on the right to housing in the modern city

Principal author

Teodora Iulia Constantinescu

Profession

Arhitect Urbanist

Project description

Space is one of the most basic resources of population. The most striking feature of the 20th century, one of the very distinctive demographic developments that went along with population growth, was the increase of the proportion of persons living in urban areas. Modern economic systems need large cities to make optimal use of productive capacity in capital investment and workforce. Urbanization is one of the strategies of mankind to cope with the permanent tension between available resources and population growth and helps to make a more rational use of scarce land. In the wake of industrialization, urbanization has been more or less a spontaneous process with one main by-product: housing. This paper discusses the need and right to housing in the modern city from a philosophical perspective, building on one main concept – the just city.

Text description of the author

Teodora Constantinescu is an architect and urban designer with a Master’s degree from the Katholieke Universitei Leuven (BE). A member of the Architect’s and Urbanist’s Chamber of Romania since 2012, she is a researcher within the Spatial Capacity Building research group at Hasselt University (BE) as of 2014. She explores themes such as spatial capacity building, spaces of urban migration, social innovation, urban games and spaces of multicultural micro economies.

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