The SAPHIR program: housing, health, and residential narratives

Résumé En

The renewal of the issue of health and well-being in housing after the Covid 19 confinement accelerates the debates between the actors in the field of housing (architects, developers, social landlords) on the 'new needs' (Bajos, 2021; Fijalkow 2021). In France, between 2020 and 2022, three official reports question the notion of housing quality (Badia Le Mas, 2018, Idheal 2021, Leclerc Girometti 2022). The recomposition of the housing field between public and private actors as well as the emergence of associations (Fijalkow, 2019) leads users to assert themselves as clients concerned with their health. We are witnessing a transformation of the relationship between the use of private and communal space as well as the relationship with national policies, particularly in terms of energy saving (thermal renovations, search for sobriety) (Grant, 2020). To analyse the relationship between health, well-being and housing quality, the SAPHIR program proposes to investigate the residential history of buildings, dwellings and households. If well-being in housing depends on the capacity of the inhabitants to use their dwellings to develop their social life, the inhabitants' narrative about their housing seems to us to be an important factor. Individual interviews, surveys of housing occupancy patterns and focus groups are conducted in twelve types of social housing buildings and five private buildings. The first results from the social housing stock of Paris Habitat (Barres Rome and Londres, Paris 13e) and from the condominiums ("Olympiades" and "Home" towers) show how new requirements for "healthy" housing are emerging as well as new social inequalities in housing. Bajos, N., Jusot, F. Pailhé, A, et al. When lockdown policies amplify social inequalities in COVID-19 infections: evidence from a cross-sectional population-based survey in France. BMC Public Health, 2021, vol. 21, no 1, p. 1-10. Fijalkow, Y. (2019). Governing comfort in France: from hygienism to sustainable housing XXth– XXIst century. Housing Studies, 34(6), 1021-1036. Grant, J. L. (2020). Pandemic Challenges to Planning Prescriptions: How Covid-19 is Changing the Ways We Think about Planning.Planning Theory & Practice 21:5, 659-667, Scott, M. (2020). Covid-19, place-making and health. Planning Theory & Practice, 21(3), 343– 348.