New Temporary Public Housing Typology in the Basque Country: A Legislative and Design Response to the New Requirements of the 21st Century Society

Abstract

The Administration of the Basque Country has been responsible for public housing since 1981. Since then, more than 104,000 protected housing units have been built for 2,200,000 inhabitants, 34,000 of which have been directly promoted by the Basque Government. To better adapt its policies to the requirements of a new contemporary society, the Housing Department of the Basque Government has developed a new Habitability Decree in 2022. This Decree aims to update housing to the new ways of living in Basque society and to incorporate new social requirements regarding housing, such as universal accessibility, gender perspective, productive housing, and remote work, while trying to open new ways to improve flexibility of the housing stock. This article analyses some of the key aspects of the new Decree and one of the newly regulated typologies for temporary housing aimed at young and older populations. In addition to the critical selection of the most relevant aspects of the Decree, this article aims at contextualising its requirements in the European context and the broader reference framework of the housing crisis in the Basque Country. To that end, the most notable novelties of the Decree are presented alongside the analysis of 13 temporary housing projects developed by the Housing Department before the approval of the Decree, placing special emphasis on the issue of over-occupation. The analysis makes it possible to typologically characterise the temporary accommodation built to date and to compare the new minimum living space requirements per person with other international regulations. As a conclusion, a discussion is offered about the usefulness of the Decree for adapting new housing in the Basque country to the 21st century, and for preventing the issue of overcrowding.