{"id":14327,"date":"2025-12-03T13:25:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T13:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e-zeppelin.ro\/en\/?p=14327"},"modified":"2025-12-03T13:25:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T13:25:47","slug":"zeppelin-176-my-own-house-summary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e-zeppelin.ro\/en\/zeppelin-176-my-own-house-summary\/","title":{"rendered":"Zeppelin #176: \u201eMy own house\u201d. Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The single-family house remains the most desired and prevalent form of dwelling. It dominates the suburbs shaped on the American model, as well as the vast informal settlements of South America, Asia, and Africa. Yet, as an architectural and urban ideal consciously embraced by professionals, its reputation has steadily declined. Our collective imagination still clings to the classical house with a garden — the kind found in pre-war villages and towns. But today, the detached home has become one of the engines driving an urban explosion whose scale far exceeds even that of the great metropolises of early modernity.<\/p>\n

From an ecological and sustainability standpoint, its impact is disastrous. Low density leads to excessive consumption of natural land (directly or through road networks), pollution from inefficient transport systems and car dependency, sprawling utility networks, and poor ratios between envelope and volume. No matter how many “eco” devices (insulation, renewable energy systems, etc.) you pack into such a structure, it remains inherently anti-ecological. I know several architectural offices that, on ethical grounds, now refuse to design single-family houses altogether. In places of extreme density — the city-state of Singapore, for instance — such dwellings are outright banned, and not in the name of communism, but within an ultra-capitalist framework.<\/p>\n

Beyond these issues, postwar individual housing has also come to embody social disintegration: a life oscillating between home, work, and commercial, leisure, or healthcare services accessible only by car — a life deprived of access to culture, to social interaction, to everything that defines urbanity. (…)<\/p>\n

Edito: The Minimal Library<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Text: Cătălina Frâncu
\nPhoto: Marius Vasile (library of Mircea Alifanti)<\/p>\n

Dossier: Single-Family Homes<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Coordinators: Cătălina Frâncu, Ştefan Ghenciulescu<\/p>\n

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\"01_site<\/a><\/p>\n

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Abruptarhitectura: THREE HOUSES ON THE CITY LIMITS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Single-family dwellings in Bragadiru, Mogoșoaia, and Voluntari<\/strong><\/p>\n

Text: Cristina Constantin, Cosmin Pavel
\nPhoto: Vlad Pătru, Cristina Constantin, Cosmin Pavel<\/p>\n

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\"Bragadiru\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Behind each project outside Bucharest lays the attempt to formulate an answer to broader architectural questions—such as identity, relationship with the suburb, (self) constraint, or architectural principles.<\/p>\n