Amogh N P
✦ In loving memory of Amogh N P — Architect · Designer · Visionary ✦
B.Arch Curriculum · Semester 7 · Theory

Housing

India's housing problem is not a shortage of buildings — it is a shortage of affordable, adequate, secure-tenure shelter for the poor. This course teaches housing as John Turner taught it: as a verb, not a noun — what housing DOES for people (its location, security, fit and the control they have over it) matters more than what it physically is. Five units build the full picture: how to read housing typology and calculate future need; the agencies and policies that deliver it (HUDCO, the housing boards, and PMAY); the socio-economic core of affordability, income categories and slum rehabilitation; the standards that protect — or exclude — the poor; and the design process from layout to allocation, with the great Indian case studies of Aranya and Belapur.

5Units
6Outcomes
2Credits
FreeForever
Start with Unit I All student courses
Unit III · Who can afford a home

Socio-Economic Aspects

Housing is a social and economic act before it is an architectural one. This unit covers the social factors that shape housing design — family structure, community, the privacy gradient, gender and culture; the economics of AFFORDABILITY and its norms (a house should cost no more than about four to five times annual income; housing costs should not exceed roughly 30–40% of monthly income); the PMAY income categories EWS, LIG, MIG-I and MIG-II and their carpet-area limits; and the hardest question in Indian housing — slum rehabilitation and resettlement, the choice between in-situ redevelopment and peripheral relocation, and the cross-subsidy model of the Mumbai SRA.

AffordabilityEWS / LIG / MIGSlum rehabMumbai SRAAffordability tool
Open the lesson

The syllabus

Five units, from counting need to designing the dwelling.

Transcribed from the official B.Arch syllabus. All 5 units are live as full interactive lessons, each with original diagrams, a self-assessment quiz and a studio task.

1

Unit 1 — Introduction to Housing

Live

Housing typology (detached, semi-detached, row, walk-up, high-rise, cluster; tenure and formality); housing demand vs supply and the gap between need and effective demand; the calculation of future housing need (new household formation, existing backlog, replacement of obsolete and kutcha stock, upgradation of congestion and the homeless); and housing resources and options from turnkey units to site-and-services.

CO1CO2
2

Unit 2 — Housing Agencies & Policies

Live

The Indian housing institutions — HUDCO (1970), the State Housing Boards (TNHB, MHADA), housing co-operatives, the National Housing Bank (1988) and housing finance; the policy timeline from the National Housing Policy 1988 through the NUHHP 2007 to PMAY (Urban, 2015) and its four verticals, and the 2024 PMAY-U 2.0 revision; with a glance at Singapore's HDB and UK council housing.

CO1
3

Unit 3 — Socio-Economic Aspects

Live

Social factors in housing design (family structure, community, privacy gradients, gender, culture); affordability and its norms (the price-to-income multiple and the EMI/income ceiling); the PMAY income categories EWS, LIG, MIG-I, MIG-II and their carpet-area limits; economic factors and housing concepts; and slum rehabilitation and resettlement — in-situ versus relocation and the Mumbai SRA cross-subsidy model.

CO2
4

Unit 4 — Housing Standards

Live

The types of housing standards (space, density, infrastructure, performance); the methodology of formulating standards (normative versus performance-based); the relevance — and the danger — of standards (high minimum standards can price the poor out of legality, the Turner/Mumtaz critique); and the Indian reference norms, NBC 2016 Part 3 minimum room sizes and the URDPFI density and social-infrastructure guidelines.

CO3
5

Unit 5 — Housing Design Process

Live

The stages of a housing project (need assessment, site selection, programming, layout, dwelling design, infrastructure, construction, allocation and management); layout design including utilities and common facilities and the road hierarchy; housing as a response to environment, technology and community; site-and-services and incremental housing (Aranya, Indore); and case studies of public, private and co-operative housing with their advantages and disadvantages.

CO4CO5CO6

Course outcomes

What you should be able to do after completing all five units (CO1–CO6, from the syllabus).

1
Understand

Understand the schemes and policies in housing in India and the institutions that deliver them.

2
Understand

Understand the socio-economic aspects of people and the need for housing.

3
Understand

Gain knowledge of housing standards and how they are formulated.

4
Apply

Apply knowledge of the housing design process to a housing layout and dwelling.

5
Apply

Distinguish government, private and co-operative housing and their advantages.

6
Create

Arrive at design ideas for a large-scale housing project.

Topics follow the published B.Arch theory syllabus (L2 · T0 · S0; 100 marks). Every diagram is original Studio Matrx work; the policy and standard figures are referenced and DATED to their generation. We flag the myths — the shortage is not just a numbers gap, high standards can exclude the poor, slum clearance is not a solution, low-rise high-density beats public high-rise, and PMAY is four verticals not one scheme (and we correct the mis-cited ‘Mumtaz & Patwekly’ to Wakely & Mumtaz). Cross-links the Urban Design course and the apartment-living guides.

Housing is a verb, not a noun.

Typology and need, agencies and policy, affordability and slums, standards and the design process. Read the five units, study the diagrams, then test yourself.

Open Unit I Back to Students

Studio Matrx is a tribute to Amogh N P. The curriculum is free, forever.