Marking World Architecture Day, Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) President John Brown has called on the profession to turn its attention to housing, describing it as the most urgent and most human question facing the Commonwealth.
In a message to members, Brown said the day is a moment to reflect on the role architects play in shaping the places where people live. Across the Commonwealth, he noted, cities are growing faster than formal housing can be delivered.
A Gap Between Policy and Practice
Brown pointed out that most urban growth is no longer absorbed by the formal housing market. It is accommodated through informal settlements, incremental household-led construction and small-scale rental arrangements, which sit largely outside formal policy and finance systems. Climate risks are adding to the pressure, with flooding, heat stress and extreme weather hitting hardest the settlements that formal systems reach least.
Despite housing’s central role in economic development, social wellbeing and climate action, it remains underrepresented in international policy and financing frameworks. The CAA, as a partner in the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Coalition (CSCC), is working to understand why, and what can be done about it.
Findings from the CSCC Housing Study
In May, the CSCC completed a housing study led by CAA Past President Peter Oborn. Brown said the study found that the challenge is not simply that too little is being built. Rather, it is a misalignment between the formal systems around which policy is designed and the incremental, adaptive pathways through which most housing is actually produced.
Land access, housing finance, regulation, institutional coordination and technical capacity all sit at the heart of that misalignment.
Building on Adaptation
Brown stressed that housing systems are defined not only by constraint, but by adaptation: by households, communities, public programs and emerging partnerships that continue to deliver homes, often against the odds.
The CAA’s role, he said, is to strengthen the systems around that adaptation by:
fostering cross-sectoral collaboration;
building a shared Commonwealth knowledge base;
mobilising professional and academic networks; and
elevating housing within urban and climate agendas, so that it receives the policy attention and financing it deserves.
A Call to Recommit
“Architecture has always been more than building,” Brown said, urging members to recommit to the systems, partnerships and people that make good housing possible for everyone, everywhere.
He confirmed the CAA’s commitment to enabling architects to better serve their communities, and said he looks forward to working with members toward that goal.