Katharina Kral

Housing as a Verb draws inspiration from John F. C. Turner's influential work, which reframed housing as an ongoing, adaptive process rather than a fixed commodity shaped by human actions and experiences and by the dynamic interaction between people and their environment.

The exhibition examines 312 residential buildings across New York City, offering two perspectives: a typological analysis that deliberately isolates buildings from their context and a functional, performative analysis emphasizing visual relationships, spatial versatility, and materiality in dense urban settings. These complementary studies aim to unpack the challenges and opportunities of a holistic retrofitting approach that foregrounds livability alongside sustainability. The exhibition features ongoing research from Cornell AAP's Housing Innovation Lab led by Department of Architecture Lecturer Katharina Kral and selected work from the Fall 2023 elective seminar, The Better Life, supported by A&E Real Estate Holdings.