14. The Role of Housing in Urban Planning: A Tool to Achieve Quality of Life and Generate Community? The Case of Madrid

Housing is the main element of the city. Besides being the most abundant, it is essential for the development of civic life. It addresses one of the basic needs of human beings: shelter. It is also the space where life projects unfold. In short, housing is a fundamental element in the quality of life and well-being. Since the beginning, one of the challenges of urban planning has been the design of policies aimed at ensuring access to housing. Although needs have changed, the objectives have never been fully met: that housing is sufficient, affordable, and well located and meets the necessary physical characteristics to be habitable. In the current context, old challenges are joined by new ones that involve adapting the city and territory to make them more resilient and more sustainable and to guarantee quality of life and eco-social justice. And housing must be part of these new orientations. The article reviews the conditions that public policies and urban planning in the Madrid region can and should establish to address old challenges and new ones, attempting to transcend the immediate: housing as a generator of quality of life, well-being, citizenship, and community.