Paris Affordable Housing Challenge

The Buildner Global Housing Availability Challenge series in partnership with ARCHHIVE BOOKS' "What is Affordable Hosuing?" turns its attention on Paris for the next competition in the series. Paris, like so many other international cities around the world, is struggling with a huge affordable housing problem. Paris ranks in the top 10 most expensive cities to live in, meaning housing prices are naturally higher than other regions in France.



One factor that drives up house prices is the massive demand for rental properties, and the growing trend of short-term lets to tourists. Landlords are favoring these short-term rentals in which they can earn twice as much per month as opposed to renting to long-term residents. Reduced supply and a consistently high demand means that finding an affordable place to live is nearly impossible in the city of lights.



The Paris Affordable Housing Challenge is tasking participants with designing a sustainable solution to Paris’ affordable housing problem. There is no specific location defined for this architecture competition, as such designs should be versatile enough that they can be adapted and rolled out across multiple locations in order to increase the capacity of the city’s housing stock. Participants should consider designs that are flexible enough to accommodate different sizes for various inhabitants (families, single professionals, couples, etc) and their varying requirements.

As there are no specific requirements, participants are encouraged to be as creative as possible in the solutions they design, challenging typical ideas of housing, design, and the community at large, while at the same time maintaining a practical element that could potentially see these designs realised.

Competition Programme:

Design a pilot-phase concept for affordable housing within Paris, which can be easily rolled out to increase capacity of housing stock, and is minimal in its use of land and materials. 

No minimum size or amount of residential units per block is defined. The proposals should be flexible enough to adopt to different sizes for various inhabitant capacity requirements. 

Designs for the Paris Affordable Housing Challenge should be able to adapt to various locations across the city. The designs should also be adaptable, allowing adjustments to be made in order to suit different residential capacity requirements.


Missed the registration deadline?

Enter the next Buildner Affordable Housing Challenge (https://beebreeders.com/housing-crisis)