The book focuses on ways to reinvent public housing in New York City through a series of design projects from Yale School of Architecture that integrate form and provide social programs for the residents.
The students investigated the relationship between housing, equity, health, and community. The students developed comprehensive frameworks for the Washington Houses, three connected superblocks equivalent to seven New York City blocks. The concepts focused on restitching the project into the city street grid and sought ways to add new built fabric that would allow the Modernist towers- in-the park project to connect with public streets. Some found ways to keep the superblock with interventions to support the community at different scales and family structures. Urban farms and community facilities as well as recreation spaces were included in order to have a range of interventions for care, health, and equity that could reorient public housing.