Sustainable Transition of Housing and Construction

This book presents recent research into sustainable transition of housing and construction through contributions from researchers and knowledge providers that have worked with change processes within housing and construction. The contributors represent different research and development environments, each with their own tradition and with a number of different research projects behind them in the field. Their common ground is that they have researched and analyzed construction, dwellings and housing areas with a view to energy-, environment- and climate-oriented transition of the housing and construction sector, with a focus on either political, socio-cultural, technical or design challenges.
The contributions thus represent both technological, architectural, sociological and political aspects of the Danish housing and construction field. The aim of the book has not been to add another book to the many works on isolated technical-architectural constructions that pre-empt sustainable transition, but to investigate the totality of technical, social, political and cultural conditions that constitute the challenge of the transition. The overall focus of the book is thus an exploration of the complex systemic conditions that support or impede transition, analyzed in relation to the long, historic line of tentative development initiatives within all kinds of fields from ecological settlements to energy-optimized construction as well as in relation to current attempts to develop strategies and transition processes within construction and housing.
The book has come into existence on the basis of a number of seminars in which the idea of the book, the individual contributions and the structure and direction of the book have been discussed. The ambition has been to ensure relevance with regard to the current Danish development, but also to introduce more recent traditions and theory formations in relation to the studies of sustainable transition. The discussion of the contributions across environments has ensured a shared development of professional perspectives and allowed the writers to profit from each other’s analyses. On one hand, the aim has thus been to ensure coherence and a homogenous level throughout the book, and on the other hand, the aim has been to invite different professional traditions and practices – and so also different styles of writing and academic rhetoric.