The aim of the project is to improve the visual and conceptual understanding of the link between the public space and the built structures. Simply said, we hope to offer a multi-dimensional reading of an urban reality that often is only depicted as a facade  picture or -in the best case- a two dimensional figure ground drawing. We will refer to the details of the architectural type as much as to the urban structure on the city scale. What we are however primarily interested in is the intermediate scale: the building, its direct surroundings and the urban block. The UrbanHousingHandbook as major outcome of the project is meant to offer an exciting tool as much for the analysis of the existing urban fabric as for the conception of new architectural and urban projects.

The project is run by the Paris-based architects and urban designers Eric Firley and Caroline Stahl. They have received grants and sponsorship from the English Arts Council, Eurohypo, Grosvenor Estates, Savills and Stanhope Plc.

The UrbanHousingHandbook will be published by John Wiley & Sons in autumn 2008.