Low cost. The poor man's dream, an architect's nemesis, deemed a necessary blight by high society, a developer's responsibility by requirement, universally needed, universally ugly; low cost housing is the single most challenging proposition to emerge from the industry of building. The problem is not through a lack of can do. It is not an issue of technology, nor does it pose a conundrum to construction, execution or issues of legality. The issue here is that low cost takes money with no returns. No profit margin. No break-even. Nothing. It is for this reason that low cost development has been honed to ensure that the absolute minimum is spent on its construction. The economics of low cost construction in the Third World is a matrix so tight, there have been virtually no breakthroughs with creative solutions in the last decade; or perhaps ever. Every square foot is hard ruled through parameters so strict, one could nail the exact number of walls, doors and windows to the degree of ventilation required by law. It is architecture's ultimate challenge: a low cost repetitive module of spatial elegance and grace.
I propose a competition for low cost housing, one that will bring the world's finest together in a challenge none will have ever faced. The solution would have to be gracious, illuminating, spacious and hip. The solution would have to be cheap. Capital C. And the prize would be worth more than any have ever competed for or ever won: the opportunity to bring design into the lives of the other ninety-seven percent of the world whom architects rarely ever build for.