Backyard Housing Boom: New Markets for Affordable Housing and the Role of Digital Technology

摘要

In September of 2016, the California legislature passed Assembly Bill 2299 (California State Assembly 2016) in coordination with Senate Bill 1069 (California State Senate 2016). Effective January of 2017, the legislation was co-authored by cityLAB-UCLA (D. Cuff and J. Blumenfeld) after a decade of urban research. It significantly eases restrictions on building secondary units, potentially opening up more than eight million single family lots for Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) construction (US Census Bureau 2016). The full potentia of this new law to create much-needed new housing in the state will depend upon local governments' responses (Brinig and Garnett 2013: Antoninetti 2008) as well as the efforts of ADU service providers adapting to the demands and legal constraints of the market (Chappie et al. 2011). If the protagonists of ADU development and construction are successful, one can anticipate a housing boom similar to that which occurred after World War II, a boom that was spurred by advances in manufacturing and construction. Recent technological advances focus less on physical building technologies and more on digital architectural systems including data management, building information, and online tools. These digital platforms hold the potential to give architecture and its affordability stronger roles in housing production by creating efficiencies in production while accommodating the idiosyncratic nature of contemporary consumer preferences and infill sites.