Housing Courses

Why is Housing Important?

As world populations grow larger and climate conditions change the spaces where we currently live, the concept of housing will also change. Affordable housing is a large part of many world leaders' platforms, and encouraging things like homeownership and sustainable cities is top on the list. Housing is a reflection of the current state of the economy. When the economy thrives, more people have access to housing. As the economy fails, housing costs rise as wages fall, leading both local governments and federal governments to find solutions. The affordability of housing isn't just a political issue. It's a philosophical debate on the issue of human rights - what constitutes a right and how to preserve a certain standard of living for all populations. As such, housing is a barometer for a variety of societal concerns.

Learn About Housing

There's so much to understand about housing, from environmental concerns to the changing landscape of civil society. Whether you're in government and looking at how to protect low-income families from rising housing costs or you're in architecture and building the next generation of sustainable housing, there's something to learn. Your understanding of how housing affects specific populations like senior citizens could help your local cities build better housing and guide housing providers towards a more sustainable future. With classes from edX and partners, you'll be able to learn aspects of housing right from your own home.

Housing Courses and Certifications

edX offers a range of courses designed in partnership with leaders and innovators in the field. You can learn about the history of European housing through a design-oriented architecture course from EPFL, for example. It will show you how urban housing has changed through the generations, paving the way for an understanding of the makeup of both private and public housing today. Delft offers a course, Rethink the City, designed to address housing issues in the Global South. It provides overviews of the changing landscape of low-income housing and new perspectives on how public housing residents might experience more equitable living conditions. It includes a glimpse of what fair housing means in a modern context. SDGAcademy offers a course on Sustainable Cities, designed to introduce the concept of housing programs that account for environmental changes and resource use. It includes information on the changes in United States cities, like New York and Washington D.C., due to climate change as well as how to move forward.

Building Deep Understanding of Housing

Housing is a civil issue. As housing agencies across the world tackle the problem of equitable space, we'll consider more carefully the long term effects of housing discrimination, environmental change, and urban space. Public housing programs are changing, and the single-family home is fading as the primary source of housing. These courses prepare you to assess housing for the future.