Alternative domesticities: a typological reading of the Housing Research Unit at the University of Edinburgh

Purpose In the first instance, the article consolidates existing scholarship covering the Housing Research Unit (HRU) at the University of Edinburgh (HRU), developing a close reading of three housing projects designed by the unit from a typological perspective. A reflection on the potential contemporary utility of this investigation forms the latter portion of the article, articulating one answer to the question: “What role can history play in contemporary architecture practice?”. Design/methodology/approach The methodology of this research combines drawing from existing scholarship of the HRU, with new readings of the work generated through contemporary surveys. A photographic survey of the buildings in their contemporary state is central to this exercise, conducted in collaboration with the architectural photographer Fredrik Frendin. As a counterpoint to the photograph, the act of redrawing is utilised as a primary mode of research; the three selected projects are brought into a contemporary reading through the simple act of being clearly represented in a standardised format. The article thus straddles an architectural-historical and an architectural-disciplinary perspective, while maintaining an operative approach that seeks to understand the potential of these buildings beyond their historical relevance. Findings The primary finding of this research is the expanded and consolidated documentation of its subject, the HRU, through documentation that is projective and instrumentalised for contemporary practice. Additionally, this article develops strategies for an engagement with historical projects that centre on their employment of typology. This typological reading is set out as a point of confluence between the two perspectives of historian and practitioner: it becomes both a source of the project's architectural significance and meaning, but also the investigative lens through which to successfully read this meaning. Originality/value This article develops a typologically informed reinterpretation of existing scholarship of its subject, the HRU, informed and supported by a selection of newly produced drawings and a contemporary photographic survey.