Universal housing: The Architectural Review 1530, April 2026

Despite a near global consensus that housing was a universal right following the Second World War, governmental effort has largely dwindled. This issue collects examples that propose different financial models and ways of living together, despite a political landscape that resists universal housing, from the conversion of a car park into short-term housing in Paris to a home for survivors of domestic violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yet, as Charlotte Banks reminds us, ‘without a culture uplifting the right to dwell, rent controls have all the effectiveness of a daub of paint over black mould’. The struggle for universal housing continues.