Movable Possessions: alternative housing through adaptable design

Poor communities around the world have developed architecture without architects. Subsidized low-income housing has been built as if to provide only a shortterm solution. Poverty and lack of affordable housing is not a short-term problem but an ongoing issue that demands creative adaptable solutions for a changing world. Adaptable architecture is essential for the redesign of affordable housing that is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable. In order to mend the broken bond between lower-incomes and the architectural quality of space, this design research strives to both defend and produce affordable architectural alternatives to housing through the use of adaptable design principles and strategies found within Barbados’ Vernacular Architecture, the Chattel house.