The art of inequality : architecture, housing, and real estate : a provisional report

In 2013, in the United States, the median-income white households net worth was thirteen times that of the median-income black household. In 2014, the worlds eighty-five richest individuals held as much wealth as the worlds poorest 3.5 billion. In 2015, 88,000 households applied for the chance to live in fifty-five below market-rate apartments, accessible through a poor door on New York Citys Upper West Side. What is inequality? Typically, inequality is defined by a combination of economic measures referring to income and wealth. Entire populations, in the language of statistics, are measured and managed according to their place on the inequality spectrum: patronage for the 1%, morality for the ambiguous middle class, and austerity for the rest. This economic inequality is, however, inseparable from social disparities of other kindsparticularly in the provision of housing. More than just a building type or a market sector, housing is a primary architectural actwhere architecture is understood as that which makes real estate real. It begins when a line is drawn that separates inside from outside, and ultimately, one house from another. The relation that results under the rule of real estate development isby its very structureunequal. This is the art of inequality. Its geographies are local and global. Its histories are distant and present. Its design is ongoing. Its future is anything but certain. Pt. 1.Concepts / Jacob Moore and Susanne Schindler Defining Inequality Narrating Inequality Designing Inequality Pt. 2. Architecture / Reinhold Martin Real Estate Agency Pt. 3. Tools Contracts / Manuel Shvartzberg Carrió Textbooks / Erik Carver Schools / Pollyanna Rhee Renderings / Sonya Ursell Terms / Cezar Nicolescu.