The Question of Housing in the Scope of NEB Goes South

Southern European regions face common climatic and social threats. If they strengthen their ability to cope, they can develop together social and nature-based solutions, sustainable while still inclusive and aesthetically qualified. This challenged six southern architecture schools to create NEBgS. Under the umbrella of education, a series of six co-design thematic events took place in 2021. Starting with an introduction to the NEB goes South initiative, this paper describes the co-design event organized by the Porto School-FAUP, which was dedicated to discussing the "Question of Housing" (QoH). Considering that cities and urban territories are a priority issue, the event started with an inspiration talk by Lacol architects who discussed their work around cooperative housing. Then, more than 40 professors, researchers and students from different countries gathered in 5 parallel sessions to discuss their ideas and experience on specific topics, which ranged from affordable housing, reconciliation with the environment, resilient modes of inhabitation, emerging design paradigms, and modes of education and practice. This paper concludes by summarizing the outcomes of the event. By arguing that QoH is a key topic for our common future, it demands, as before, an answer that goes further the individual action and depends on our cooperation in the construction of holistic and contextual solutions for an inclusive and sustainable tomorrow.