The Compact City: Densification and Housing (In)Justice
This session addresses the role of densification and compact urban development in responding to housing shortages, climate goals, and land-use pressures. Although densification is promoted as a sustainable planning strategy, it may intensify land speculation, raise housing costs, and reshape neighbourhood demographics. The session investigates how densification policies including vertical expansion, and brownfield regeneration, can advance affordability, inclusion, and climate resilience across diverse urbanization levels.
Key Questions:
How does densification influence housing affordability and social mix?
What safeguards can prevent speculative development and displacement?
How can rural and medium-sized cities approach compact growth differently from metropolitan areas?
What regulatory and financial instruments promote equitable densification?
This webinar is the first of a three-part event series examining how key pillars of the green transition in the housing sector, nature-based solutions, urban densification, and energy retrofitting/decarbonisation, intersect with housing inequalities across Europe. While these strategies are central to achieving climate neutrality and environmental resilience, they also reshape housing markets, neighbourhood dynamics, and access to urban spaces and resources. If not carefully designed, they risk reinforcing displacement, energy poverty, land speculation, and socio-spatial exclusion.