The publication addresses the question of how we can meet the long-term and sustainable demand for suitable housing while, at the same time, fulfilling our ecological responsibility to make the most efficient possible use of the valuable resource of existing built space.

The concept of constellation housing is based on the idea of making the traditionally rigid relationships between the spaces within a housing unit, as well as the boundaries between individual apartments, more flexible and permeable. This enables a freer and more adaptable use of space as a resource. Within a building, individual rooms can be assigned independently of their proximity to the core of a dwelling or residential unit, in order to cater to a wide range of lifestyles and corresponding forms of living together, from nuclear families to shared housing arrangements for older people, while continuously adapting to changing spatial requirements over the course of life.

Together with students of the design studio, the principle of constellation housing was tested and further developed over the course of two semesters. The publication brings together results from the design studios with interviews and graphic analyses addressing forms of life, forms of living, and forms of construction.

The first section, How Life Unfolds, examines the mechanisms that produce imbalances in the distribution and use of residential space. It establishes a description of the current situation through a series of graphics and case studies, providing the basis for the proposition that housing must become more flexible in order to enable a more sustainable and efficient use of space.

The second section introduces the principle of constellation housing and presents the Constellations Type as an architectural and building typology, illustrated through examples situated in a range of urban contexts.