Using Design to Battle Gentrification

You don’t have to look very deep into the news before coming across a headline lamenting the lack of affordable housing in Canadian cities. In fact, according to The Conversation, “Canada’s housing market is among the most unaffordable, with one of the highest house-price-to-income ratios among OECD member states.” (Ali & Zhu, 2024) This housing crisis disproportionately affects marginalized populations such as Indigenous and Black people, people with disabilities, and young, lower-income people. (Choi & Ramaj, 2023)

Though there are multiple drivers behind the rising housing costs - rising demand and population growth, ballooning construction costs, turning long-term housing into short-term rental units, interest rates, outdated government policies, etc - one phenomenon underpins many other factors: Gentrification.

In this essay, I will demonstrate how gentrification makes housing unaffordable for vulnerable populations. I will also describe how architecture and interior design can contribute to the justice of marginalized populations by advocating for alternatives to gentrification, such as community-centric development models, sustainable design, and adaptive reuse projects.

What is Gentrification?

Gentrification is "the material and symbolic transformation of working-class neighborhoods into zones dominated by upper-middle-class residents and consumers." (Rose, 2024) The term derives from the aristocratic class (above the common folk, below the nobility) in Medieval England, which consisted of wealthy landowners but did not have aristocratic titles (such as Earl or Duke). (Maschaykh, 2016, p. 12) The gentry class is often compared to today’s upper-middle class or professional class, with higher education, significant disposable income, and some social influence.  

The term “gentrification” was coined in 1964 by British sociologist Ruth Glass in a report created for the Centre for Urban Studies titled London: Aspects of Change. (Glass et al., 1964)

One by one, many of the working class quarters of London have been invaded by the middle classes - upper and lower. Shabby, modest mews and cottages - two rooms up and two down - have been taken over, when their leases have expired, and have become elegant, expensive residences. Larger Victorian houses, down-graded in an earlier or recent period - which were used as lodging houses or were otherwise in multiple occupations - have been upgraded once again. Nowadays, many of these houses are being sub-divided into costly flats or “houselets” (in terms of the new real estate snob jargon). The current social status and value of such dwellings are frequently in inverse relation to their size, and in any case, enormously inflated by comparison with previous levels in their neighbourhoods. Once this process of ‘gentrification’ starts in a district, it goes on rapidly until all or most of the original working-class occupiers are displaced, and the whole social character of the district is changed. (Ibid., p. xviii)

This passage from the 1960s sounds eerily similar to what could be written about multiple previously affordable neighbourhoods today. From Cabbagetown in Toronto and Vancouver’s East End in Canada to North Philadelphia and the South Bronx in the United States and previously affordable working-class neighbourhoods turned into high-end real estate all over the world, there is no sign of the process of gentrification slowing down any time soon.

It seems like the lack of available, affordable housing is stretching outwards into the suburbs and beyond. (Lung-Amam, 2024)  The COVID-19 pandemic initially led to an exodus from cities to the suburbs and rural areas as remote work became more and more widespread; however, post-pandemic, many returned to the city, causing a resurgence in urban housing demands, skyrocketing property values and rents once again. (Hogue, 2020) During the pandemic, there was also a suppression of immigration levels, which took some pressure off; however, by 2022, Canada lifted most all restrictions and made immigration even more attractive, which led to an enormous shortfall in housing stock (as building had slowed during the pandemic). (Hogue, 2024) This shortfall with increased demand also contributes to rising housing costs. All of this puts more pressure on underdeveloped neighbourhoods.

The Paradox(es) of Gentrification

So, why does gentrification happen? Why is it that people with means all of a sudden decide to move into a poor neighbourhood? What would drive a developer even to want to take a risk on building a luxury condo building in the middle of a neighbourhood filled with people who can’t afford to buy a unit? Why would upper-middle-class (mostly white) professionals want to live in a neighbourhood filled with a culture that doesn’t represent them? And, then, what happens when the neighbourhood is completely gentrified?

The impetus behind gentrification can be explained through a couple of existing economic theories. Number one is the rent gap theory by Neil Smith which focuses on the economic benefits of investing in an underdeveloped neighbourhood. This is understood as a production-side theory (economics) and focuses on answering the questions around what the developers want to achieve. Number two is David Ley’s consumption-side theory which focuses more on the drivers behind the type of people moving into these neighbourhoods, especially the early less affluent ones such as artists. 

The Rent Gap Theory

The 1970s were, by and large, a time of incredible migration of young professionals back into the inner city. After decades of the suburban white flight (the term for the period during the 50s and 60s when Americans with European ancestry left the city for suburban and exurban areas due to increased fears of inner-city violence and the promise of backyards and single-family bungalows), young middle-class people with higher education and a disdain for commuting were looking to be closer to the action. In 1979 in an article in the Journal of the American Planning Association, Neil Smith wrote:

The so-called urban renaissance has been stimulated more by economic than cultural forces. In rehabilitating an inner city structure, one consumer preference tends to stand out above the others - the preference for profit or, more accurately, a sound financial investment. Whether or not gentrifiers articulate this preference, it is fundamental, for few would even consider rehabilitation if a financial loss were to be expected. (p. 540)

For Smith, the answer to why gentrification was happening on such a large scale was simple: land values had dropped due to the white flight, making inner city properties cheap and attractive to buy. According to Smith, these properties declined in stages over the years. When newly constructed, the value was high and increasing:

When a neighborhood is newly built the price of housing reflects the value of the structure and improvements put in place plus the enhanced ground rent captured by the previous landowner. During the first cycle of use, the ground rent is likely to increase as urban development continues outward, and the house value will only very slowly begin to decline if at all. (Ibid., p. 543)

But this shiny, new property doesn’t stay shiny and new for long. Wear and tear, more advanced surrounding structures, designs going out of style, and structural soundness are just some of how a building can start to lose value. As the building starts to lose value, the next stage of value decline sets in: 

At this point, after a first or subsequent cycle of use, there is a tendency for the neighborhood to convert to rental tenancy unless repairs are made. And since landlords use buildings for different purposes than owner occupiers, a different pattern of maintenance will ensue. (Ibid., p. 544)

When the tenants are no longer invested in the upkeep of the building, wear and tear increases. Because landlords are looking to get the most money (rent) without spending much capital (repairs), under-maintenance occurs. The physical deterioration is amplified, and new tenants, who may be higher-yielding (and demanding upgrades and repairs), are turned off. It’s a vicious cycle.

According to Smith, having lower-income renters in the neighbourhood (often people of colour, immigrants, people with disabilities, elderly, etc.) will mean lower investment overall in the surrounding amenities and businesses. As the whole area experiences underinvestment and under-maintenance, property values decline even more as the neighbourhood experiences blockbusting:

With blockbusting, this decline is intensified. Real estate agents exploit racist sentiments in white neighborhoods that are experiencing declining sale prices; they buy houses relatively cheaply, and then resell at a considerable markup to black families, many of whom are desperate to own their first home. (Ibid.)

The next phase is redlining, when “active disinvestments” take place - banks stop giving out mortgages for properties in the building (and area), there is official disinvestment in schools, businesses, and infrastructure in the area, and the properties in the area become completely unsellable. Those who get mortgages are charged exorbitant interest rates and can’t get insurance, and when push comes to shove, the final stage of devaluation can occur: abandonment.

When landlords can no longer collect enough house rent to cover the necessary costs (utilities and taxes), buildings are abandoned…Much abandoned housing is structurally sound and this seems paradoxical. But then buildings are abandoned not because they are unuseable, but because they cannot be used profitably. (Ibid., p. 545)

We saw this for individual homeowners at a large scale during the housing market crisis in the mid-00s. Once this cycle is complete and the neighbourhood has been flushed of most of the people who could potentially reinvest or rehabilitate, the property is ready for a “fire sale.” Ambitious developers can swoop in and regain the value lost in the previous cycle. This is where the rent gap comes into play:

The rent gap is the disparity between the potential ground rent level and the actual ground rent capitalized under the present land use (see Figure 2)....Only when this gap emerges can redevelopment be expected. If the present use succeeded in capitalizing all or most of the ground rent, little economic benefit could be derived from redevelopment. As filtering and neighborhood decline proceed, the rent gap widens. Gentrification occurs when the gap is wide enough that developers can purchase shells cheaply, can pay the builders’ costs and profit for rehabilitation, can pay interest on mortgage and construction loans, and can then sell the end product for a sale price that leaves a satisfactory return to the developer. (Ibid.)

For Smith, gentrification happens because there is an economic opportunity for it to happen. Disinvesting in lower-income communities allows opportunists to swoop in and make money. Developers are in the business of developing properties that will make them money. If they can save money by paying rock-bottom prices on the property, it greatly makes these poor neighbourhoods filled with abandoned buildings.

However, while Smith’s theory is sound when it comes to describing the impetus for a developer to buy and flip a building, he didn’t supply as much of an answer for why an upper-middle-class professional would want to buy a unit in a building in a neighbourhood that had been blighted for so long. This is where David Ley’s theories come into play.

The Hipster Theory

David Ley didn’t call his theory on why gentrification occurs the “hipster theory,” but he may as well have. In a nutshell, his theory states that not all working-class or low-income neighbourhoods are ripe for gentrification. Instead, a certain kind of neighbourhood attracts the invasion of upper-middle-class interest. 

In an historic context where cultural capital has enjoyed high symbolic value, an economic valorisation of the aesthetic disposition has frequently led to an increase in property prices; one study showed a six- to ten-fold inflation of prices in deeply devalued sections of inner Chicago in a decade following the settlement of artists and their followers (Cole, 1990). (Ley, 2003, p. 2540)

So, in other words, artists and “creative types” (aka hipsters) are often the harbingers of gentrification. This has been casually observed for a while, but Ley’s research validates it. As Ley states, however, though we tend to blame the artists for gentrification, they are also the victims, saying that “the result (of them attracting the professionals into a neighbourhood) is the displacement of artists to cheaper districts” (Ibid.). These early harbingers are not the middle-class, well-paid creative agency types:

In North America, the life of the artist is an invitation to voluntary poverty and here is the first manifestation of a calculus that is incomprehensible to economism. Surveys abound highlighting the minimal economic capital of the artist. A 1993 analysis of Canada’s cultural producers found artists in the lowest niches; painters and sculptors reported a mean annual net income from cultural activity of under $8000, dancers, musicians and writers, $15 000 or less (Statistics Canada, 1995). (Ibid., p. 2533)

However, this group of creatives aim to live centrally, so seeking out central neighbourhoods that are still affordable makes sense. On top of affordability, these areas need to be socially tolerant and culturally rich, attracting these denizens to minority communities. Being part of multicultural communities or different cultures can also be creatively enriching:

Every artist is an anthropologist, unveiling culture. It helps to get some distance on that culture in an environment that does not share all of its presuppositions, an old area, socially diverse, including poverty groups. (Ibid., p. 2534)

Not every disinvested neighbourhood attracts gentrification, nor is it necessarily the “cheapest” or “most disinvested” neighbourhood. There are plenty of “cheap” but not-so-cheerful neighbourhoods well-situated in major cities that developers won’t touch. No matter how cool a renovated, updated, or new a building is, the neighbourhood needs to provide basic amenities and safety. This is why creative types moving into underdeveloped or disinvested neighbourhoods can be a boon. They attract other artists and creatives as they move in, bringing in small, local businesses (such as independent coffee shops, art galleries, and retailers). This brings people into the neighbourhood recreationally who can experience the unique culture of the area and dispel the “boogeyman” myths. With the cultural capital brought in by the hipsters, economic capital also trickles in:

The population that follows artists does not enter the field haphazardly, but in a succession that is shaped by their proximity to the aesthetic disposition and cultural competency of the artist. The aesthetic appropriation of place, with its valuation of the commonplace and off-centre, appeals to other professionals, particularly those who are also higher in cultural capital than in economic capital and share something of the artist’s antipathy towards commerce and convention. (Ibid., p. 2540)

Ultimately, however, the mix of cultural and economic capital completes the gentrification process's negative effects. Once the cultural capital has done its trick, attracting enough attention and interest into a neighbourhood, the developers know it's a safe bet to move in:

It is not a matter of whether economic or cultural arguments prevail, but rather how they work together to produce gentrification as an outcome. 

Indeed, it has been argued that relations between cultural and economic capital in the gentrification field must be seen not only together but must also be placed in historical context. (Ibid., p. 2542)

Over the years, however, there has been a debate as to whether gentrification can be approached in a way that both revitalizes a neighbourhood and provides benefits for (rather than displaces) the people who’ve lived there before the influx of money. Is there a way to improve the neighbourhood for all?

The Effects of Gentrification

[Figure 3. Anti-Gentrification Protestor]

So far this paper implies that gentrification is all bad,  and it is, especially in the context of seeking justice for marginalized populations, and particularly for the working-class and low-income people disproportionately represented by Indigenous communities, Black and racialized communities, immigrant populations, seniors, and people with disabilities, both physical and mental who rely on affordable housing. However, the transition does bring notable improvements to derelict neighbourhoods for the existing residents (as long as they aren’t displaced) and without the capital improvements, the cycle described in Neil Smith’s rent gap theory may continue undeterred, driving out residents either way. This paper will cover alternative approaches in the next section, but it is still worth exploring the positive and negative effects of gentrification as they have been documented.

[Figure 4. Findings from 2004 paper “The evidence on the impact of gentrification” by Rowland Atkinson]

In the 2010 study, The Evidence on the Impact of Gentrification: New Lessons for the Urban Renaissance, Rowland Atkinson explored gentrification's positive and negative consequences on neighbourhoods by reviewing existing Western literature on the subject. The study revealed both opportunities and challenges for urban communities post-gentrification. The table featured in Figure 4 (from the study paper) provides an overview.

One of the primary positive outcomes highlighted in Atkinson’s study is the economic revitalization of previously neglected urban areas. As already explored, gentrification leads to increased property values, which can stimulate local economies by attracting investment in infrastructure, bringing businesses to the area, and invoking the need for public amenities. As more affluent individuals move into a neighbourhood, cafes, shops, and cultural venues often follow, creating job opportunities and further enhancing the area’s appeal. Atkinson notes that gentrification can also improve general housing quality through renovation and the revitalization of dilapidated buildings, benefiting the broader urban environment by reducing urban decay, which reduces crime. (Atkinson, 2004)

Continuing on the positive side of gentrification, the process tends to contribute to the broader urban renaissance by fostering a sense of neighbourhood pride and helping to restore vibrancy, reducing the stigma the neighbourhood likely picked up over the years of neglect and disinvestment. As the neighbourhood gains in popularity, this revitalization can create opportunities for social integration, as gentrified areas often become more diverse. (Ibid.)

However, Atkinson’s study also emphasizes the significant negative impacts of gentrification, many of which this paper has already hinted at. The biggest negative impact is, of course, the displacement of low-income residents. As property values rise, so do rents, forcing existing, low-income residents out of their homes and into less desirable, more affordable areas, often on the city's periphery. This means they won’t reap the benefits of the positive changes brought to their neighbourhood for long. Ultimately, while gentrification can improve the physical environment, it often leads to losing social capital, as longstanding communities are fragmented and displaced. (Ibid.)

Gentrification can also exacerbate inequality within cities. The review paper observes that gentrification's benefits are often distributed unequally, with wealthier newcomers reaping most of the rewards of improved infrastructure and amenities. At the same time, lower-income residents face economic exclusion and social isolation - even those who can stay in the area. The changing demographics in gentrified neighbourhoods usually lead to tensions between new and old residents as cultural and social divisions become more pronounced. As the socioeconomic gap widens, gentrification can perpetuate class segregation, undermining the broader goals of urban renewal and inclusivity. (Ibid.)

Surprisingly, though the common wisdom is that one of the positive effects of gentrification is crime reduction, another more recent study found that crime isn’t reduced as much as “shifted around”:

Gentrification doesn’t erase drug crime and gun violence. Instead, research from West Virginia University economist Zachary Porreca shows that when one urban block becomes upwardly mobile, organized criminal activity surges outward to surrounding blocks, escalating the violence in the process. (Porreca, 2023)

Ultimately, gentrification is great for the gentrifiers (especially the developers making bank on the rent gap) and not so great for those being gentrified. However, as Sally Harrison and Andrew Jacobs write in their 2017 paper advocating for architects and designers to approach development in a way that helps neighbourhoods resist gentrification:

That cities will change is indisputable: urban evolution mostly signifies healthy growth, but it is also true that in a contemporary context neighborhood change increasingly operates on an extraterritorial plane, happening quickly, opportunistically and unilaterally. (Harrison & Jacobs, 2017, p. 240)

There is a role for architects and designers in working to maximize the benefits of revitalization and investing in previously disinvested neighbourhoods while designing to avoid the negative effects of gentrification.

The Role of Architecture and Design in Gentrification

“Design can be a tool to fight the violence of displacement and the loss of identity in communities.”  - Teddy Cruz

Architects, designers, and urban planners have played significant roles in shaping spaces, neighbourhoods, and cities and have long recognized their roles in the design of both accelerating and mitigating the negative impacts of gentrification. 

The 20th Century (Modernist) Architectural Approach

Even before the term gentrification was coined, many architects in the early 20th century recognized the increasing unaffordability of secure housing and focused their efforts on designing neighbourhoods and housing for low-income residents.

[Figure 5. Floorplans, Sections, and images of Unité d’Habitation Marseille]

Post World War II, Le Corbusier designed Unité d’Habitation in 1952 in Marseille, France, as a housing project series of affordable, communal living spaces for the people displaced by the war. His concept was to create a “vertical garden city”mixed-use building where the roughly 1,600 residents could live, “shop, eat, exercise and gather together.”  (Kroll, 2023)  The units were uniquely designed with lots of airflow and light (very resonant with Le Corbusier’s modernist ideals) and colourful patios. The building had an incredible rooftop with gardens, a gym, a pool, and children’s play areas, as well as wide corridors between units, encouraging socializing and is still iconic and inhabited today (though by middle-class professionals rather than low-income residents). 

Finnish mid-century starchitect Alvar Aalto was also occupied with the idea that design could help solve housing issues. Again, after the Second World War, Aalto built affordable and functional houses for the workers of the Finnish pulp industry:

On the outskirts of the small city of Kotka, a 90-minute drive from Helsinki, the development was built in the late 1930s with some additional structures added after the Second World War. The project consists of 29 buildings, including terraced houses and detached homes, set in a lush landscape of rocky hills and verdant coniferous forests. For Aalto, who was in his mid-thirties at the time, a mass housing project of this scale was the perfect opportunity to show how his architectural philosophy could transform the lives of ordinary people by providing quality homes en masse. (Wennerström, 2023)

Many of the modernists and their offshoots put energy into creating affordable housing. The Brutalists were focused on social housing (such as Robin Hood Gardens in London), Walter Gropius (of the Bauhaus) designed multiple prototypes, including the Torten Housing Estate in Dessau, Frank Lloyd Wright had a vision in the 1920s for a modern, inclusive community called Broadacre City. (Kinchin, 2024) In Canada in the 1960s, Moshie Safdie’s Habitat67 sought to provide affordable homes with light, fresh air, and outdoor and indoor spaces. His modular design is iconic and, unfortunately, no longer affordable as individual units reportedly sell for $1.4 million Canadian dollars now. (Slone, 2023)

[Figure 6. Habitat67 in Montreal, Quebec]

Though these projects preceded (or coincided with) the naming of the phenomenon, gentrification as a process wasn’t new. In those days, the solution was to build enormous housing complexes and areas like Unité d’Habitation, Torten Housing Estate, Broadacre City, and Habitat67 with the vision that these enclaves of low-income residents would become utopian self-sustaining communities. Unfortunately, this vision was naive, and the buildings either grew into luxury estates (Unité and Habitat, for example) for the upwardly mobile or fell into awful disrepair, becoming symbols of failure.

One of the biggest symbolic failures was Pruitt-Igoe Housing, designed by Minoru Yamaski in St. Louis, Missouri. Initially hailed as a modernist solution to post-war housing shortages, Pruitt-Igoe was constructed between 1954 and 1956 as a series of high-rise apartment buildings to house low-income residents. Designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, who later designed the World Trade Center, the project promised a clean, efficient living space with amenities like elevators and centralized heating. The vision was progress and modernity, reflecting the era’s faith in large-scale urban renewal. (Balters, 2011)

However, Pruitt-Igoe’s design and execution failed to meet the needs of its residents. The buildings were poorly maintained, plagued by crime, and disconnected from the surrounding community. Social and economic factors such as poverty, racial segregation, and limited access to resources compounded these issues. By the 1970s, the complex had become notorious for violence and neglect. In 1972, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) decided to demolish the complex, marking the project's ultimate failure. (Ibid.)

A 2011 documentary titled The Pruit-Igoe Myth explores the mythology around this project's failure and how these stories worked to discredit poor communities, modern architecture, and public housing efforts. At the end of the day, the failure of this complex was complex and likely driven by systemic issues (economic hardship, racial segregation, disinvestment in the complex/community, mismanagement, etc) and not as a failure of the residents, the architecture or public housing itself. (Freidrichs, 2011)

However, the 20th-century modernist era of public housing and urban development failed to prevent or mitigate gentrification and sometimes even hastened the spread of it. So, what went awry? How could a group of such smart, powerful, influential architects and designers get it so wrong? The answer lies in the more contemporary design approaches to solving this issue.

How Contemporary Designers Avoid Gentrification in Their Approaches

While the previous generations of architects and designers looked to solve the issue of gentrification with large, multi-use complexes that were, sometimes, isolated from the surrounding city (or even removed from it), today’s architects and designers take a much more inclusive and nuanced approach. While design firms are still usually profit-driven, requiring large projects by developers and clients with deep pockets, their approach to these projects doesn’t have to be passive. As Harrison and Jacobs write:

The city, framed as œuvre, as Lefebvre says, “is closer to a work of art than to a simple material product.” 26 In these terms, neighborhoods, especially those built through sustained grassroots efforts, may possess the underlying complexity to withstand exogenous forces if given representation. If designers expand their role beyond the consultant-client product/service-delivery model, they can act both as partners in a shared civic endeavor and as agents capable of representing and advancing the oeuvre. [emphasis mine] Redressing the banal heartlessness of gentrification can be viewed as a design challenge writ large, where principles of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design can be brought to bear: context, spatial layering, growth, porosity, pattern, public-private interface, materiality, luminosity. (Harrison & Jacobs, 2017)

This type of active partnership that can influence and steer projects in a more inclusive and generous direction can be sold to the client in many ways. A project that works with the local community in actively ensuring residents benefit from the project (and works to reduce the negative effects of gentrification) can help a developer by:

1. Getting community support and buy-in - It may require some trust-building and time. Still, by engaging the community early in the design and planning stages, the developer gains the support of local residents. This can help avoid opposition, protests, or delays during approval.

2. Lowering development costs and maximizing potential profits - Sure, some of the initial planning and community-based engagements may take time and require some give and take, but costs associated with delays due to red tape, lobbying, vandalism, and bad press could really add up, and, ultimately, getting community buy-in and support and stabilizing the project can only improve the potential profitability of the project. You never know, you could even get great suggestions from the locals on ways to cut costs.

3. Creating long-term sustainability of the current and future projects - Ensuring that local residents benefit from the project, such as through affordable housing, local hiring initiatives, or preserving cultural identity, helps create a more sustainable and stable neighbourhood, which is good for the project and can create opportunities for future lucrative projects in the area. 

4. Accessing potential government incentives - Governments often offer incentives for projects that align with public policy goals, such as affordable housing, community development, or job creation. By committing to these goals, the client may access tax incentives, grants, or favourable financing terms that can improve the financial viability of the project.

5. Growing a positive reputation for their own brand - This type of active engagement is likely to invite praise in the press and beyond, which can improve their brand perception and attract investors or tenants who value corporate responsibility. Free positive PR is worth a lot.

6. Increasing market demand and appeal - A development that creates economic opportunities for local residents or offers affordable options can be marketed as socially responsible and inclusive, and can attract socially conscious renters or buyers, a growing concern for many young buyers.

Appealing to the developer’s own goals - reducing development delays and red tape, staying on budget and on time, creating long-term sustainability, bringing leads for future projects, lowering costs overall, getting subsidies, growing brand, and increasing market demand and appeal - is an easier sell than “it’s the right thing to do.” There are plenty of horror stories that can be shared where locals banded together to kill projects, which is the ultimate nightmare completely. 

After a design firm has convinced its client to engage the local community around the project actively, it’s important to learn from contemporary designers on the follow-through. Through research, I’ve identified several approaches to design that increase community engagement and lower the potentially negative effects of gentrification.

#1. Focus on the importance of place 

For us, place is the canvas and architecture is the medium. And place is shaped by the forces of nature and public life, in particular, to local form. I like to say that we do work that is in the place, of the place, for the place and, sometimes, necessarily, out of place. But here place is defined as a tangible representation of that intangible society that lives within it. I like to call this placeness. To make an architecture of placeness, it's necessary for us to embrace everything, even the bad things of a place to get below the surface, to the underbelly, so that we can understand these things and incorporate them into who we are and what an architecture of the place, in the place, for the place can be. (Blackwell, 2024)

Arkansas architect Marlon Blackwell's commitment to creating environments that resonate with the community is evident in how his firm integrates the surrounding physical and social contexts into the design of a building. For Blackwell, the built environment is more than just a functional space; it must reflect and respect the identity and needs of its users while contributing to the community's overall well-being.

For the design of Marygrove Early Education Center (Marygrove EEC) in Detroit, Michigan in 2021, he received feedback from the local community early in the planning process that they “didn’t want just another monochromatic building” on the Marygrove Campus, which was already covered with grey/beige stone and brick buildings. To the locals, the existing old gothic buildings didn’t feel representative of the local African American community. Blackwell was a bit nervous about the idea of a polychromatic exterior. As he said in a talk at Harvard on his book Radical Practice, “It’s one thing to be (colourful) on the inside; it’s another thing to be outside.” (Ibid.) 

One of the client representatives suggested that he consider the patchwork of quilts in his ideations, which inspired him to think about the quilts of Gee’s Bend in Alabama. The tradition of quilting by the African-American community in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, goes back to the nineteenth century and is quite acclaimed across the USA. (Wardlaw, 2013) The quilts inspired the multi-colour terracotta cladding on the building, which became a standout feature of the multi-award-winning building (Figure 7.).

[Figure 7. Marygrove Early Education Center on the Detroit, Michigan Marygrove Campus]

By focusing on the importance of place, Blackwell came up with a design that built local pride for the community.

#2. Engage in co-creation + participatory design 

Architecture was used as a colonialist tool for a long time, something that was imposed on people by governments. For decades, architects simply replicated imported Southern architectural models and solutions in the North. But we see that architecture can be used as a tool for cultural empowerment by listening to people and giving form to their priorities and their understanding of places and programs….Co-design is about breaking down the hierarchy between the architect, client, and user. (Sheppard, 2022)

From 2016-19, Toronto-based architecture and design firm, Lateral Office, led by Lola Sheppard, engaged in a fully immersive co-design process with the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation, the local Dene Elders Council, and the broader Indigenous community to design the future Arctic Indigenous Wellness Centre in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. 

Elders are knowledge holders and important to the development of this project. We co-designed the project using a series of programming and model-building workshops with the elders. A council of elders represents the total of seven Indigenous cultures of Canada to the AIWF, so the concerns of all the groups are represented. This council is not an official body or any sort of a political parliament. (Sheppard, 2022)

Though the project continues to be stuck in limbo due to government funding issues, it won several awards, including the Global Silver Holcim Foundation Award in 2021 for its inclusive approach to design.

[Figure 8. Section of the Holcim Awards submission by Lateral Office on the AIWC project]

There are multiple firms worldwide that are pioneering a co-creation approach for all projects. Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman call for a rethinking of public space, affordable housing, and urban policy and advocate a bottom-up approach to design, engaging with scrappy community activists. (Cruz, 2024) In Canada and the US, many Indigenous architects such as David Fortin, Brian Porter, Matthew Hickey, Harriet Burdett-Moulton, Patrick Stewart, Wanda Della Costa, Alfred Waugh, Tiffany Shaw-Collinge, Ouri Scot, Kelly Edzerza-Bapty, and others have long advocated a co-creation approach to architecture and design, and it’s been a core part of their practice for years. In the UK, the firm POoR Collective, which includes Shawn Adams, Larry Botchway, Ben Spry, and Matt Harvey, are so entrenched in this idea that they spend time and energy promoting the practice to other firms worldwide. 

For and by a community is a great differentiator for a project and an even better way to ensure local buy-in for a project.

#3. Deploy a strategy of ‘pepper-potting’

Pepper potting is a form of tenure-blind urban development where governments place a small and monitored percentage of affordable housing into neighbourhoods that consist of predominantly open-market dwellings. Since the aim is to integrate these affordable housing units or houses as effortlessly as possible into the middle-class neighbourhoods, the focus lies on an architectural language that is indistinguishable from that of the surrounding buildings (Roberts 2007: 187).

Though the deployment of mixed-use and mixed-income housing and neighbourhoods has had mixed results over the years (either driving up prices in the neighbourhood in a way that pushes out the lower-income residents or leading to “white flight”), pepper-potting uses a slightly different approach that could be called “reverse gentrification” in a way.

The main difference between pepper-potting and other mixed-income projects is that the low-income or mixed-income developments are brought into existing well-to-do areas rather than built-in upstart or already poor areas. These projects, of course, can be subject to what is called the NIMBY (not-in-my-back-yard) resistance from existing residents, so the previously mentioned strategies of focusing on the place and engaging in co-creation (or at the very least, radical transparency) are key to the success of these projects. Architects will often engage early in the local community and share concepts for input and feedback. It’s also important to note that many of these projects are small, subtle, and designed to fit the existing architecture.

[Figure 9. SkwachÀys Lodge in East Vancouver]

In Vancouver, where the affordability of housing has been an issue for a long time, the Community Housing Incentive Program (CHIP)  is used as a way to incentivize developers to add affordable housing to their proposed projects. (City of Vancouver, 2024) Additionally, various projects in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) mix residential, commercial, and community spaces with a significant portion dedicated to affordable housing, including the innovative SkwachÀys Lodge, an Indigenous artist residential building and studios that primarily offer affordable housing to Indigenous artists, but is also a very high-end boutique hotel with Indigenous art-themed rooms that rent for $375/night on average. (Maschaykh, 2016)

#4. Retrofit rather than new-build

With an estimated shortfall of 3.1 million affordable homes in Canada by 2030 (CHRC, 2023) and a general inability to achieve this whether because of lack of investment, construction delays, higher costs of building, fast-growing population, and various other reasons, (Government of Canada, 2017) we need to get creative with the way we ramp up development.

The truth is, there are a lot of unused and underutilized buildings in Canada that are structurally sound, but not currently fit for residential use. Between the oodles of abandoned malls and other empty structures in the suburbs and the mostly empty office buildings (thanks to COVID-19) alone, a wave of retrofitting projects could help close the gap in the shortfall.

Retrofitting, as opposed to new construction, is crucial in reducing gentrification by preserving existing affordable housing and urban character while upgrading infrastructure and sustainability.

Of course, it would have probably already been done if it was as easy as turning the excess office space into affordable housing units overnight. According to Gensler, who has been looking into the potential of these conversions, only about 25% of current office buildings “make the cut” for potential conversion. (Dunne, 2023) However, harkening back to the mid-century movement of artist loft conversions in old New York Industrial buildings created a new aesthetic of living/working spaces. There is potential. 

[Figure 10. The original SOHO lofts weren’t built for living, either, but artists made them work, and they defined a whole new aesthetic]

In Calgary, where the office vacancy rate is a whopping 30%, the city “has committed $153 million to help building owners turn offices into residential through its downtown development incentive program.” (Ibid.) Calgary estimates that they can create thousands of new apartments by eliminating “six million square feet of office space.” (Ibid.) Because government funds are necessary to make these projects profitable, requiring an affordable housing quota for each conversion would be prudent.

Architects and designers could really benefit from a trend of retrofitting and converting as these projects require a lot of creative thinking. 

#5. Break out of the “generic box” 

"You can work within the budget and all the limitations and still produce something that has dignity,” says [Daniel Libeskind]. (Volner, 2024)

The most important thing an architect or designer can do to fight gentrification is to use their design skills to make low-income housing or local projects special. Looking back at the previous generations of architects designing affordable housing, such as Yamasaki’s Pruitt-Igoe complex, one of the legacies left behind by those buildings is the aesthetic of austerity and institutionalism. Even with reduced budgets, community projects and low-income housing don't need to look low-cost and cheap. 

 (D)esigners and builders are intent on showing how much can be done with the means now available and what might be possible with more and better tools in the future. Architects are expanding the visual language of LIHTC-sponsored housing. (Ibid.)

[Figure 11. Atrium at Sumner by Daniel Libeskind]

The Atrium at Sumner project in Brooklyn, New York, saved money by building on underutilized land, which is a huge savings since land in the area is at a premium. In other projects, architects have saved money by using local labour and materials, involving local community volunteers in gardening projects, reusing/repurposing materials, and choosing to spend on what counts (to save on what doesn’t). 

In Los Angeles, architectural firm Lorcan O’Herlihy stuck with a simple boxy design and materials to keep the costs down for the Sun King Supportive Housing complex but created a bright-red exterior to help the complex stand out and look funky and modern. (Ibid.) The result is that the low-income housing doesn’t look like low-income housing and blends in nicely with the surrounding modern neighbourhood.

[Figure 12. Funky red exterior paint for the Sun King Supportive Housing complex in LA]

#6. Think Beyond the Building

Designers need to think beyond the building and consider our projects' long-term effects on an area.

A good example of the unintentional negative impacts of a great project is the High Line elevated park in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan, New York. Formerly an abandoned raised railroad track that was a blight on the neighbourhood, discouraging significant investment or redevelopment during that period. However, with the design of the public park, which now attracts tens of millions of people each year, came the investment.

[Figure 13. High Line snapshoot from Dezeen]

It’s now seen as the “poster child” for gentrification and a cautionary tale for future green and/or adaptive reuse inner city projects. Elizabeth Diller, whose firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, was one of the designers behind the High Line, is on record as recognizing her role in the rapid gentrification of the area and reflecting on what should have been done instead:

Looking back on that period, there could have been legislation to make sure there was more equity in the way that these properties developed: making sure that inclusionary zoning is part of the overall mix and that you can get different income levels as part of a city fabric; that you don't evict artists all of a sudden because they can't pay the rent. (Dezeen, 2017)

This is all a sad outcome of a project that aimed to slow gentrification by building a public resource. Today, Robert Hammond and Joshua David, the founders of the Friends of the High Line, work with similar projects all over North America to advocate for legislation and zoning to protect low-income neighbourhoods.   (Jacobs, 2017)

This lesson underscores the importance of designers acting as partners and taking more active roles in planning in general. We need to think about the consequences of our success.

Learning from our mistakes

While 20th-century modernist architects like Le Corbusier, Aalto, and Safdie envisioned large-scale housing solutions for low-income communities, the outcomes were often flawed due to misaligned expectations, systemic issues, and a lack of attention to social context. 

Modern architects have learned from these mistakes, developing more inclusive, community-centred design strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of gentrification. By incorporating participatory design, emphasizing the importance of place, and using innovative strategies like retrofitting and pepper-potting, contemporary architects are fostering urban environments that prioritize sustainability, affordability, and the needs of existing residents. 

These approaches not only help reduce displacement but also promote long-term community stability, ensuring that urban development benefits all members of society.

Grassroots Alternatives to Gentrification

“Gentrification is sold to us as a false choice urbanism – a choice between growth, or decline and decay. And this mantra that there is no alternative has become hegemonic,” - Lorretta Lees. (Murray, 2021)

Beyond our ability to influence our clients and projects, we can also work to support grassroots efforts already in progress. As I did the research, I kept coming across the question as to the alternatives for development…Is there only commercial development vs. neighbourhood deterioration, blockbusting and abandonment? Nope…that’s a false dichotomy.

There are all sorts of community-led alternatives in progress, many in our back yard.

Refurbishing and repairing existing structures

[Figure 14. Davie Street community garden in Vancouver, BC]

Instead of major structural changes all at once, some communities regularly make little changes and upgrades. A paper by Peter Aeshbacher and Michael Rios titled Claiming Public Space: The Case for Proactive, Democratic Design, documents the incremental and “DIY” upgrades to various American city neighbourhoods, from Los Angeles to Miami, where locals have built gardens in empty lots and taken over locally abandoned buildings to fix up and turn into community resources. (2008)

Community Land Trusts + Other Community-Based Organizations

Locals have come together to raise funds to buy up land and buildings in their neighbourhoods to renovate and retrofit, keeping the external developers out. One of these land trusts in Canada is documented in a short video on YouTube called, Could this be a Solution to Gentrification? The video features the Kensington Market Land Trust in Toronto, which has successfully been buying up key buildings and plots of land in the neighbourhood to keep developers out. The group is pretty inspirational, and the video features a very moving speech by Chiya Tam, the former executive director of the Kensington Market Community Land Trust:

Kensington Market is changing, and it's going to keep on changing. We're not here to freeze it in time. But that change right now is disproportionately being changed by people with massive amounts of money and property. I believe, and a lot of us believe, that Kensington Market is interesting and weird because it's a place where new generations of businesses and artists have come to try out their ideas. It's affordable enough for them to do so: the renters, businesses, artists and other folks who don't have the means to own property. That's why we started a community land trust. It's because we believe those people deserve to shape this neighbourhood, too. (About Here, 2023)

There are other forms of community-organized ownership collectives, such as cooperatives, community housing associations, civic associations and local business revitalization associations, which have a big say on who can and cannot move into a neighbourhood. 

In Philadelphia, similar organizations keep the Centro de Oro (Hispanic) neighbourhoods safe from predatory developers while also investing in the local culture and communities so that the neighbourhoods advance and thrive. 

Architects Against Housing Alienation

[Figure 15. Screenshots and images from AAHA.ca]

There is also Architects Against Housing Alienation,  a Canadian collective of architects, designers, and housing advocates committed to addressing the housing crisis through innovative and equitable design solutions. The group, spearheaded by prominent figures such as David Fortin, Matthew Soules, and Adrian Blackwell, emphasizes the role of architecture in creating inclusive, community-oriented housing that prioritizes the needs of marginalized and underrepresented populations.

AAHA actively collaborates with community organizations, policymakers, and academics to inspire systemic change and foster meaningful dialogue about equitable housing futures.

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Though these alternatives to gentrification are community-based and will often hire architects and designers from within their communities, there is much to learn from how these organizations advance their communities while keeping them affordable for local residents. It’s inspiring to see how the improvements made in these case studies really benefit everyone, not just a few.

How Architecture and Design Can Reverse Gentrification

Gentrification is not inevitable. It’s not the “natural cost of progress.” It’s the result of a series of decisions that are meant to maximize the outcomes for one particular group, often at the expense of everyone else. We can use design and approaches to revitalization that consider the needs of everyone and we can make decisions that benefit all. As Tom Angotti says:

Change occurs all the time and in every neighborhood: People move in and out, buildings fall into disrepair and undergo renovation, and businesses come and go. Gentrification is not improvement of housing, public space, and the physical improvement of the environment. That can and does happen without gentrification (Agnotti, 2012)

Development doesn't need to mean displacement. By focusing on community involvement, adaptive reuse, advocacy, and designs prioritizing cultural heritage and affordability, we can create neighbourhoods where long-time residents aren’t pushed out but instead thrive alongside new developments. We can use our creativity and influence to build cities that are sustainable, inclusive, and equitable—places where everyone has a stake in shaping the future and is empowered to do so.

To truly contribute to the justice of marginalized populations, we need to shift our mindset from purely profit-driven growth to people-driven design, where urban spaces can become vibrant, diverse hubs and progress truly benefits all.

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This post is an adaptation of a report and presentation researched for DIDH400 - Social Justice for The Built Environment at Yorkville University (4th year Bachelor of Interior Design course).

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Figures

Figure 1. Doug Chayka - https://images3.theispot.com/1024x1024/a4029a1049.jpg?v=210305080600

Figure 2. Screenshot of Figure 2 from Neil Smith's paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01944367908977002

Figure 3. Protest sign - https://cekan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/molly.jpg

Figure 4. From: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rowland-Atkinson/publication/24080800/figure/tbl2/AS:394552503488520@1471080055386/Summary-of-Neighbourhood-Impacts-of-Gentrification_W640.jpg 

Figure 5. Plans for Unite d'habitation: http://architecture-history.org/architects/architects/LE%20CORBUSIER/PIC/CR002.jpg

Figure 6. Habitat67: https://sharpmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Habitat67FEAT.jpg

Figure 7. Marygrove EEC: https://www.marlonblackwell.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/TH052422_Blackwell_MaryGrove_summer-22_0553-edit_web_computer.jpg

Figure 8. AIWC Collaboration clip from: https://d1f6o4licw9har.cloudfront.net/flip/A21/Indigenous-Wellness-in-Canada/2/index.html

Figure 9. SkwachÀys Lodge: https://mlyrymjj8hwz.i.optimole.com/cb:4e6q~50238/w:911/h:512/q:mauto/f:best/ig:avif/https://goodness-exchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/SkwachaEys-Lodge-Cropped.jpg

Figure 10. Original SOHO lofts: https://urbanomnibus.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/06/SAA1.jpg

Figure 11. Atrium at Sumner: https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2018/04/sumner-houses-senior-building-studio-libeskind-architecture-brooklyn-new-york-city-usa_dezeen_2364_col_0-1704x1103.jpg

Figure 12. Funky red Sun King Supportive Housing: https://images2.dwell.com/photos/6063391372700811264/7254371066403004416/original.jpg?auto=format&q=35&w=1920

Figure 13. https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2017/07/liz-diller-high-line_dezeen_2364_col_2-1704x1136.jpg

Figure 14. Davie Street garden: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/2010_Davie_Street_community_garden_Vancouver_BC_Canada_5045979145.jpg/1200px-2010_Davie_Street_community_garden_Vancouver_BC_Canada_5045979145.jpg

Figure 15. AAHA.ca images: https://aaha.ca/en

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